Being quick to respond to email helped L.L. Bean Inc. sew up the top spot in StellaService Inc.’s latest Stella Benchmarks report, which evaluates how well online retailers serve their customers.
The Stella Benchmarks report studied 115 retailers across a variety of industries during the second quarter, ranking them in five categories including phone, email, shipping, returns and chat. The report highlights the top 25 retailers in each category.
StellaService gave L.L. Bean, No. 34 in the Internet Retailer 2015 Top 500 Guide, high marks across all but one category (shipping), ranking the retailer in the top 25 in chat (14), phone (6) and returns (4). It was email, however, where L.L. Bean took the top spot. StellaService said that was where the apparel manufacturer really outdid the competition.
“L.L. Bean’s response time for email was less than an hour,” StellaService wrote in its report. “For context, just 18% of companies in the Apparel/Accessories category replied to StellaService analysts in less than 4 hours.”
On average, the top 25 retailers in the StellaService study responded to customer phone calls with a live agent in 48 seconds, emails in 4.2 hours and chats in 35 seconds.
While L.L. Bean took top honors overall, Liberty Ventures Group’s Bodybuilding.com took home the top spot in both shipping and phone service, the only retailer to take the top spot in two categories. StellaService employees were able to get through to a BodyBuilding.com live representative in 14 seconds on the phone, while the retailer earned high marks in shipping for getting packages to customers within a day and a half. Liberty Ventures Group is No. 26 in the 2015 Top 500.
The StellaService top 25 retailers for the second quarter and their ranking in the Top 500 Guide, are:
- L.L. Bean, No. 34
- Mr. Porter, No. 101 (owned by Net-A-Porter)
- Shopbop, No. 1 (owned by Amazon.com)
- David Yurman, not ranked
- Net-A-Porter, No. 101
- iHerb, No. 223
- Burberry, No. 360
- Zappos, No. 1 (owned by Amazon.com)
- Kate Spade, No. 178
- Barneys, No. 183
- Sierra Trading Post, No. 120 (owned by TJX Cos.)
- Ralph Lauren, No. 59
- RevZilla, No. 302
- Nordstrom, No. 19
- J. Crew, No. 52
- Brooks Brothers, No. 170
- Bass Pro Shops, No. 110
- Blue Nile, No. 85
- Vitamin Shoppe, No. 214
- Cabela’s, No. 63
- Lands’ End, No. 38
- Coach, No. 82
- 1-800-Flowers, No. 56
- Wayfair, No. 33
- Apple, No. 2