Online Store Clash: Who is the true Winner? Amazon, Walmart, Costco or Wish

Consumers normally give reviews and ratings to products and services. This time, I am going to give my review to stores that sells products and provide services to consumers online instead. I will call this article a Online Store Clash. A practical ways to improve your skill as a smart shopper is to know where to shop. Even yourself can perform this exercise to find which of these stores deserves your business.

In order to give a fair rating to each contestants, I have picked six random products based on what customers would buy. One product each category; bedroom ware, seasonal, automotive, cosmetic, electronic and hygiene. You can pick your own product and category for yourself based on your preference. So I ran search on each website using these items as a subject to see what result would I get, what selections would they offer, any related products they would suggestion and its relevance to the word being searched.

Products like;

• Mattress
• Ski goggles
• Oil filter
• Flat iron
• Hoverboard
• Nail Clipper

Judge the book by its cover

To be able to fairly judged who has the most vote in User-friendliness category, the site must show the most appealing looks including color theme, layout, links, Call-to-Action and ease when finding things within the site.

Affordability and Quality wins consumers heart

Who doesn’t love deals? Get more out of your buck. Is it not that the main rule when smart shopping? Finding the highest quality you can get at the lowest price is how everyone see it when it comes to smart buying.

Free Shipping for customers Loyalty

All shoppers would love it when they do not have to pay extra just get their items from the store, right to their front doors, how convenient is that? I have to admin, this is my biggest weakness when it comes to online shopping. The fact that, you would feel like a winner when you found the best quality for your dollar and have will all be delivered to you for no extra cost would be a grand slam. Every consumers deserves a break.

Going back to our criteria, also we have to look at the time will it take, from the moment when order has been placed, to the day it arrive to your front steps is also a contributing factor as well.

Serving Customers

We will assess how these companies care about their customers by providing service when we needed them most, even before and after purchase. We will also evaluate what kind of system they have prepared for any types of situations to help out resolving issues and concerns and how fast they can provide action and appropriate response.

These includes;

• Live chat
• By phone
• Bot chat
• FAQ
• Contact by email

Product Trial Period and Return Policy

It is only fair to know about the product well and test its functionalities before deciding to own it. In reality, we are all aware that manufacturers sometimes uses exaggeration to help boost their product marketing. Well, in this part we can easily find out what it is really. Even brand new out of the box doesn’t mean it can be guaranteed that it will work, anything can happen during in assembly line, product handling, packaging down to shipping. So it is very important that trial period should always be offered. Also knowing that product we bought will give us convenience like how will it fit in our hand ergonomically, texture, aesthetic and quality of materials used is also the key.

Transparency and Product Review

Last by not the least. As part of due diligence, consumer have the right to know what they are getting into. As a smart shopper, we should be able to do our own product research before deciding to buy. By doing this, we can eliminate some future issues in relation to quality, performance and durability of the items we are buying. And for our stores to make sure the reviews are genuine and updated.

Store Evaluation based on Actual Experience

My own Rating

Conclusion

We found out why Amazon is the first place to go when it comes to online shopping. Walmart is where you will find the best deals if you are up for saving. Costco if you are looking to stock up supplies for you pantry before the end of the world and Wish is you wish to gamble on quality in the name of frugality.

Solution based on most relevant factor.

For Amazon, as long as they can keep their effective system in shipping to be consistent, they will stay on top unless other factors like prices, quality and customer service declines. And for warehouse deal that becoming a pain for customers who wanting discounts, they really should find a way to improve that. Perhaps, increase staffing, avoid over-working of employees and increase compensation for warehouse staffs that are keeping the system running with a positive attitude. If not, better stay away from reselling returned items which causing more load in customer service department dealing with product returns.

For Walmart, try adding more selection on alternative brands in other categories and not just in selected few brands and products that will bring higher profit margin to the company. By doing this, will give customers more options on product that their buying according to their needs. Is it not part of their mission statement.

For Costco, I understand that membership is the main goal, and having to select only the quality products for members is essential but I believe that they can also try harder by adding more products line to offer for its members.

For Wish, there are customers that want to take chance to get the most affordable price and hoping to get a decent quality in a product.

If you find this content useful in improving your buying experience, feel free to use my method to your own experiment to find out what suits you to improve your smart buying journey.