Online shopping has been a part of most of our lives for years at this point, but even for those who prefer to do things the old-fashioned way and browse products in person, the COVID-19 pandemic made online shopping essential to get everything from groceries to exercise equipment. Not all online marketplaces are created equal, however—at least that's what a recent Axios Harris poll suggests. And that's where we turned to find out the least trusted online shopping site.
The Axios Harris Poll 100, based on an annual survey of 42,935 Americans, ranks the biggest brands in the U.S. using a two-step process. First, the survey determined the public's "top-of-mind awareness of companies that either excel or falter in society," deeming them the 100 "most visible" companies. These brands were then rated by a second group of Americans using seven key dimensions of reputation—affinity, ethics, growth, products/service, citizenship, vision, and culture. The companies were scored on a 100-point scale where the lower the number meant the poorer the reputation.
From the 100 brands ranked, which included everything from media companies to wireless carriers, Best Life singled out the online shopping sites on the list and ranked them from highest score to lowest, AKA the best reputation to worst.
Read on to discover the least trusted online shopping site in the U.S.
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5 | Chewy
ShutterstockReputation score (out of 100): 80.9
Chewy, an online retailer specializing in pet products, is a company that actually benefited from the COVID-19 pandemic, both due to the increase in online shopping, as well as the increase in pet adoption and related spending among animal owners, CNBC recently reported. However, the company's stock saw a dip due to second-quarter earnings failing to meet experts' expectations.
Chewy's reputation score still is considered "excellent" and was enough to put the company at No. 6 out of all 100 of the most visible companies.
4 | Amazon
Shutterstock/Jeramey LendeReputation score (out of 100): 80.0
While it dropped from No. 3 last year to No. 10 this year in the overall ranks, Amazon also received an "excellent" reputation score. And it turns out that the online retail giant isn't just king when it comes to home goods, tech gadgets, and entertainment products. In a recent Wells Fargo report titled “Amazon & the Retail Rainforest”, financial experts said that Amazon was also the biggest seller of clothes and shoes in the U.S., MarketWatch reports.
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3 | Wayfair
Casimiro PT / Shutterstock.comReputation score (out of 100): 75.8
While the online furniture retailer didn't earn a score quite high enough to be considered "excellent", a "very good" 75.8 isn't bad for a newcomer to the list of 100 most visible companies.
In fact, in a column for Bloomberg Opinion, Tara Lachapelle said: "Months-long manufacturing and shipping delays for furniture is turning Wayfair Inc.—with its large network of suppliers and smart logistics—into a big winner, even if the market hasn’t caught on yet."
2 | eBay
Kritsada Saketklaw / ShutterstockReputation score (out of 100): 72.1
The popular auction and e-commerce site may have received a "good" reputation score and jumped up 12 spots in the overall rankings from last year, but not all of eBay's customers are happy with their experience using the site.
"After making a purchase on eBay, I received an email that my package was delivered...which it wasn't," one verified reviewer wrote on ConsumerAffairs in July of this year. "Tried to track it, [but] I was prompted to sign in [and] my username and/or password wasn't accepted. I was suspended, [so] I changed my password, [and] then I was blocked."
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1 | Wish
Sharaf Maksumov / Shutterstock.comReputation score (out of 100): 60.7
Wish.com bills itself as "one of the largest e-commerce marketplaces in the world." And while that may be true, it's "poor" score of 60.7 and what seems like plenty of unhappy customers have earned it the top spot on our ranking of least trusted major online shopping sites.
"[I'm] tired of the games [with] this website. Products [are] represented wrong, [and there are] crazy delivery dates. I waited a month for something and it never came. I got reimbursed, but I waited a month for nothing," one upset customer wrote in a recent review on Trustpilot. "I don’t know who is handling the shipping, but it is crazy. Don’t order anything that doesn’t have that orange van attached to it."
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