About Us

Frequently Asked Questions

What are different STELLAService seals?

Online retailers can be awarded either the ELITE seal or the EXCELLENT seal. The ELITE rated stores are very rare and represent only those few internet retailers with outstanding customer service across each phase of the online buying process. You can trust that your experience as a customer is of the upmost importance to these "customer-obsessed" companies. The stores awarded the EXCELLENT seal generally provide a high level of customer service throughout the shopping experience. Businesses with an EXCELLENT rating can be trusted to be there for you in the case of a problem although there may be one or two areas of the service proposition that could be slightly improved.

Which companies get to display the STELLAService seal?

Our rating process is rigorous. So much so, that more than 50% of the companies we rate are NOT eligible to display the STELLAService seal. Only those online stores that make the customer experience a top priority across key service metrics and features are awarded the STELLAService seal. Stores that have been rated NOT APPROVED were found to generally offer a level of service that you may not be satisfied with.

How is your seal different from other Web seals?

The STELLAService seal is the only independent trustmark that recognizes online businesses for the quality of their customer service. Other Web seals may suggest a company’s adherence to basic business practices or validate a site’s privacy or security policies, but only the STELLAService seal identifies the best in online service.

How do I know if an online store has been awarded your seal?

Look for the STELLAService seal on the store’s home page, product pages, customer service pages or checkout. You can also search the STELLAService site to learn which online retailers have been awarded the seal. Additionally, you can keep an eye out for top-rated stores when visiting certain comparison shopping sites like TheFind.com. Shopping comparison engines are now leveraging the STELLAService seal to provide more transparency to users around seller service quality, and as a result they're providing a more complete experience for online shoppers.

Why did you choose the name STELLAService?

We believe e-commerce can no longer be conceptualized as a retail business, but as a service business. Since our job is to help identify the best, or the stars, of the e-commerce community, we wanted our company’s name to be something like STARService. Thinking that name might be a little boring, we decided on the much smoother STELLAService—STELLA means STAR in Italian.

How does STELLAService evaluate online retailers?

Our evaluation process applies consistent, thorough and objective standards to each online store we rate. We look at more than 300 unique customer service metrics and features for each online retailer, and we engage each business over multiple time periods and across multiple geographical locations to generate measurements of service performance that have high reliability and construct validity. Our trained customer service analysts stress-test each store through random sampling, which removes any potential biases in our data and allows us to obtain the information that most accurately represents each company’s policies, practices and performance.

How do you define online customer service?

We define online customer service as the sum of all interactions between shoppers and online retailers that contribute to the overall customer experience. We assess the performance of both “service” and “system” components for each site we rate, with service components emphasizing the human elements of a company's interaction with customers and system components stressing the technological elements. All service-oriented attributes fall into one of three main areas:

Usability and online tools
Shipping, delivery and returns
Customer support

How do you evaluate each store’s online tools?

This part of our evaluation is focused mostly on the technological, or “system” components that make up the online customer experience. We examine hundreds of service-oriented Web site features and tools in order to measure the overall ease-of-use, convenience, logic and effectiveness of the online shopping experience. From navigation to social tools to product detail and display features, we assess the helpfulness and effectiveness of nearly every element on the site.

How do you evaluate each store’s shipping, delivery and returns?

This part of the evaluation measures the actual experience of ordering, receiving and returning an item purchased online. Specifically, we assess each store’s stated policies and compare them to our actual experiences of purchasing and returning products from that site. For each store, we order products to numerous locations (on different days and at different times) and subsequently return those items through each retailer’s standard returns process. This process allows us to evaluate, among other things, the following attributes:

Shipping policy
Shipping options and speeds
Product tracking and status updates
Package contents and packing slip information
Return policy
Return process and correspondence
Refund speed, methods and alerts

How do you evaluate each store’s customer support?

This part of the evaluation measures the quality and effectiveness of the various human touch points of the online customer experience. Our numerous engagements with each online retailer take place across different days, time periods, communication channels (phone, email, live chat) and phases of the online shopping experience (browse, decide, check-out and post-sale). Across each communication channel and shopping phase (when applicable), we evaluate, among other things, the following attributes:

Availability and responsiveness
Issue resolution
Product knowledge
Operational knowledge
Personalization
Professionalism

How do you score each online retailer’s service performance?

The scoring of each online retailer is done through a weighted calculation, which assigns more significance to certain service-oriented metrics and features than others. Our weightings are based on internal research as well as the findings of nationwide shopper panelists which help us shine light on the areas of the online customer experience that are generally most important to shoppers.

In order to account for the different types of shopping experiences in different product categories, our weightings vary by industry category as well (i.e. apparel, electronics, jewelry, etc.). Certain services or features are more highly demanded by online shoppers in certain categories, so our scoring reflects that.

Are user ratings and reviews included in the scoring calculations?

No. While we solicit ratings and customer service data from users, we do not include those assessments in the calculation of our scores.

We do, however, leverage user ratings and data for determining if and when we should re-rate an online store during the course of a year. Since we cannot evaluate each online store every week or even every month, we rely partially on the ongoing feedback from shoppers to determine if a company’s service offering has materially changed since the last time it was put through the STELLAService evaluation.

How often does STELLAService evaluate each store?

Each store we cover is evaluated and rated at least once per year. However, companies can be rated more frequently based on the commenting activity and customer service data provided by online shoppers on a given store’s profile on our site. A company’s service proposition can change throughout the year, so in order to account for that the timing of those changes, we look to you as shoppers to tell us (and the merchants) if the service performance of the company has recently gone up or down. If enough people suggest a company’s performance has drastically improved or declined since the last STELLAService evaluation, we will enter that store back into the queue to be evaluated regardless of how long it has been since our last evaluation.

How does STELLAService determine which retailers to rate?

While we wish we could cover every online store in the US, we’re not quite there yet (although we are evaluating thousands of stores now). Since the largest online stores get the most shoppers, they will always be on our list to be evaluated. We will take queues from you – the shoppers – as well as stores themselves to determine which other online retailers to evaluate. To be entered into the ratings queue, online stores must be nominated by a critical mass of shoppers to be evaluated by STELLAService. If the store you want to nominate already has a profile on our site, you can nominate them on that page by clicking the big YES button at the top of the profile page. If the store does not yet have a profile on our site, you can send us a note and we’ll get them a profile ASAP.

Which types of online businesses do you rate?

Currently, we evaluate online retailers in the following customer categories:

Apparel/Accessory Printing
Clothing, Shoes & Accessories
Luggage
Auto Parts
Books & Physical Media
Computer & Electronics
Flowers
Gifts
Food
Household Items/Drug
Hardware & Home Improvement
Baby Care
Beauty
Housewares/Home Furnishings
Plants & Garden
Jewelry
Watches
Mass Merchant
Business Printing
Office Supplies
Art & Photography
Crafts & Party Supplies
Music & Instruments
Pet Supplies
Sporting Goods & Outdoor Gear
Fitness Equipment
Toys/Hobbies

Do online stores pay you to rate them?

No. Online stores are evaluated either by receiving enough nominations from online shoppers or by automatically being in our ratings queue due to their large size or significant base of visitors. In either case, we do not accept payment from companies to rate them, and we purchase products using our own funds.

Can online retailers “game” your process by finding out exactly when you’re going to evaluate them?

No. We keep the timing of each evaluation confidential. If a company is scheduled to be rated by STELLAService, we do not communicate the specific timing of that upcoming evaluation beyond a range of 1-4 months. The only way for online stores to ensure they perform well in our evaluations is by providing top-rate service all day, every day.