In a comprehensive report of over 75,000 opinions about the state of online shopping, Barnes & Noble was ranked the best eCommerce site in the US.
The study, one of the largest ever carried out about the eCommerce sector, was conducted by Aspectiva, which analyzes UGC from across the web to generate insights for retailers & shoppers.
The online bookstore came top in a list of over 40 eCommerce sites. Aspectiva’s analysis found that Barnes & Noble shoppers rated highly their “fast service”, “prices” and “easiness” when using their website. Their coupons, however, were flagged as lacking being both difficult to use online and too short in duration.
Using Artificial Intelligence, Aspectiva were able to collect and analyze opinions from across the internet. The AI technology allows them to distinguish the aspects about each retailer that consumers loved and hated the most.
Gap.com came second in the list, home improvement site Wayfair third and clothing company L.L. Bean coming fourth. Costco rounded out the top five with “good prices” and “excellent customer service” the aspects that were highlighted highly. Amazon came seventh in the list with “order issues” and “poor packaging” being negatively cited. Apple came ninth with “high prices” and complaints about the iPhone being common causes of complaint. [Full list below]
At the other end of the scale 1-800-Flowers, sports apparel retailer Fanatics, and sneaker store Footlocker were ranked as the lowest scoring online retailers with customer service as a regular source of complaint across all three.
Breaking down the list of retailers by specific aspects, Wayfair was ranked highest for “value”, Walmart best for “deals”, Macy’s top for “products” and Abercrombie & Fitch highest for “quality”.
When analyzing the opinions of all 42 eCommerce sites, Aspectiva examined which positive and negative aspects were mentioned most often. Retailers will be interested to note that shoppers rated “prices”, positive “service / customer service” and great “deals” most frequently when giving a positive review about a retailer.
When leaving a negative review about an eCommerce site, consumers mentioned bad “service / customer service” regularly with Rakuten, Urban Outfitters and Dell ranking amongst the lowest for their service. “Prices” is another common complaint and here both Apple and Nordstrom are ranked low. Finally, “damaged or missing items” were mentioned regularly by shoppers with Newegg and Overstock.com placed low down for this specific aspect.
Ezra Daya, CEO & co-founder of Aspectiva, commented on the findings: ‘’Although the increase in online shopping presents a huge opportunity for retailers, so too the expectations of shoppers has dramatically increased. Consumers today are demanding an intuitive end-to-end online experience. With consumers more willing than ever to air their opinions online, UGC is becoming more influential and a more important part of the research phase in the eCommerce experience.’’
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Notes to editors:
For more information contact:
Rafi Mendelsohn, Head of Marketing,
+1 (917) 795-0502, rafim@aspectiva.com
Based on AI technology together with Natural-Language-Processing (NLP) and Machine Learning, Aspectiva analyzes the massive volumes of consumer reviews and opinions from across the web, on any product, to generate insights and help online shoppers make wise purchasing decisions. Working with retailers, Aspectiva leverages UGC to address any shoppers’ need, increasing product engagement, boosting conversion rates and significantly improving “Add to Cart” clicks.
Aspectiva’s team brings over 15 years of experience in developing cutting-edge Text Analytics systems in the industry and academy-owning patents and publications. www.aspectiva.com
Study findings:
In total 76,253 online opinions were collected from across the web. For each retailer, at least 40 reviews were collected. An average of 1,816 reviews was collected for each eCommerce site. The full list of 42 retailers can be found here:
Rank |
Website |
Rank |
Website |
Rank |
Website |
||
1 |
Barnes & Noble |
15 |
Staples |
29 |
Walgreens |
||
2 |
Gap.com |
16 |
Kohls |
30 |
Best Buy |
||
3 |
Wayfair |
17 |
JCPenney |
31 |
Gilt |
||
4 |
L.L. Bean |
18 |
Macys |
32 |
Office Max |
||
5 |
Costco |
19 |
Walmart.com |
33 |
Shutterfly |
||
6 |
Target |
20 |
Office Depot |
34 |
Dell |
||
7 |
Amazon |
21 |
Game Stop |
35 |
Sears |
||
8 |
Abercrombie & Fitch |
22 |
Vista Print |
36 |
HSN |
||
9 |
Apple |
23 |
Toys “R” Us |
37 |
Sony |
||
10 |
Home Depot |
24 |
Overstock.com |
38 |
Urban Outfitters |
||
11 |
Newegg |
25 |
Cabelas |
39 |
Rakuten |
||
12 |
Victoria Secret |
26 |
Williams- Sonoma |
40 |
FootLocker |
||
13 |
Lowes |
27 |
Musicians Friend |
41 |
Fanatics |
||
14 |
Nordstrom |
28 |
HP |
42 |
1-800-Flowers |