The winning company caters to some particular members of the family.
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Gael F. Cooper • March 22, 2023
For many consumers, “online shopping” might be synonymous with “Amazon.” The enormous multinational retailer has come a long way from its 1995 beginnings as an online bookstore. It reported $149.2 billion in sales in the three months ending in December 2022.
But Amazon isn’t alone in the online-shopping marketplace, and there’s one company that beats out the Seattle-based behemoth when it comes to customer satisfaction.
The recently released American Customer Satisfaction Index covers six retail industries, from gas stations to drug stores, and examines how Americans feel about them. The study is based on interviews with more than 35,000 customers, chosen randomly and contacted via email. Benchmarks included everything from reliability of mobile app and variety of shipping options to ease of navigation.
Here’s a look at the top online retailers for customer satisfaction, leading up to the surprising company that beats out Amazon.
American Customer Satisfaction Index score: 79
Buy a sofa online, without ever sitting on it? It may not be for everyone, but Boston-based Wayfair has been selling furniture and home goods that way since 2002.
Still, the business world isn’t proving easy these days for Wayfair. The company landed at No. 10 on a recent list of 18 retailers at risk of bankruptcy.
American Customer Satisfaction Index score: 79
Escaping the stresses of home to wander the tidy, well-stocked aisles of Target is a beloved American cliche. During the height of the pandemic, an entire subtopic of memes popped up about shoppers missing the store.
But if you can’t make it to one of the discount chain’s more than 1,900 locations, target.com is open 24 hours a day, and the company is expanding its next-day delivery options.
American Customer Satisfaction Index score: 79
Famed department store Nordstrom actually began in 1901 as a Seattle shoe store. The company slowly grew into a full department store and went national, launching nordstrom.com in 1998.
The company now ships to 96 countries, and will ship “almost anything” on its site to anywhere in the U.S. (including Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico) for free. Returns are free, too.
American Customer Satisfaction Index score: 79
Macy’s vaunted history goes back to 1858, when it was founded as a dry-goods store in New York City. Fittingly, Macy’s Herald Square is now the largest department store in the U.S., with 1.25 million square feet of retail space spread across 12 floors of goodies.
Online shoppers in the contiguous U.S. get free shipping starting at $49, but members of Macy’s Star Rewards programs get it at either $25 or all the time, depending on their membership level. Shoppers can even get same-day delivery on some items for an additional fee.
American Customer Satisfaction Index score: 79
Kohl’s is a department-store chain now, it actually began life as a supermarket in 1946, with the first department store in the chain opening in 1962. There are now more than 1,100 stores, with at least one in every state except Hawaii.
Shoppers can earn the store’s prized Kohl’s Cash with online shopping just as they would in the store. Kohl’s Cash is a rewards program that essentially gives shoppers $10 to spend in Kohl’s on a future purchase for every $50 they spend.
American Customer Satisfaction Index score: 79
Costco is a membership-warehouse club, famous for selling everything in enormous quantities. (Try to buy just one pack of their indulgent Danish pastries, and the cashier will refuse to sell them to you unless you add a second one to your cart.)
One of the benefits of shopping online at Costco.com – someone will deliver those bulky toilet-paper towers or multi-milk carton packs straight to your door.
American Customer Satisfaction Index score: 80
Clothing and accessory store The Gap opened in 1969, when no one had to tell most Americans that the name referred to the infamous “generation gap.”
No one could have imagined the world of online shopping back in the Swinging Sixties, but now, Gap shoppers can buy everything from jeans and jackets to swimwear and school uniforms without leaving their couch.
American Customer Satisfaction Index score: 80
Etsy is perhaps best known as an online marketplace for crafts and handmade items. If you need personalized party favors for a baby shower, or an art-deco mailbox designed to match your home, this is your place online.
But the site also sells vintage items, from old concert T-shirts to ancient Roman coins.
American Customer Satisfaction Index score: 84
Amazon, the online behemoth that sells everything from pools to Proust, turned things around on this year’s American Consumer Satisfaction Index. The company’s score went up 8% after two years of declines.
It’s tough to beat out a company so powerful it managed to create its own annual equivalent of Black Friday, dubbing it Amazon Prime Day, but one company managed it. And we’re not kitten around. (That’s a hint about the top dog.)
American Customer Satisfaction Index score: 85
Topping the 2023 American Customer Satisfaction Index is Chewy, the online pet-food and pet-product website. Chewy didn’t just purr, it roared its way onto the list, making its first-ever appearance with an ACSI score of 85. That score places it atop not just the online-retailer segment, but the index as a whole.
Chewy offers customers 24/7 access to pet experts who can advise them on everything from the best grain-free foods to sensitive-skin issues. And the company earns praise for showing compassion to customers who lose a pet, sending cards, flowers and even portraits of the departed pet.
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