Upfront Summary: Is Zulily worth it?
Zuilily is a legit American e-commerce company. Its target audience is young mothers interested in brand-name goods for their children. It provides a platform for users to shop for their favorite brands and boutique labels. However, the company has numerous negative reviews across various review sites, most of which cited poor quality, incorrect sizing, and getting different garments from what they ordered, among others.
Zulily is a global online retailer that sells products for the whole family, including apparel, footwear, toys, and home décor. By offering limited quantities through its three-day sales events and curating a shopping experience that spans over 15,000 brands, Zulily engages millions of people daily. But can this company be trusted? Are they reliable? Keep reading to find out.
Table of Contents
- Zulily Company Information
- What Is Zulily?
- Is Zulily legal and safe, or is it a scam?
- Is Zulily reliable and trustworthy?
- Zulily Shipping Information
- Does Zulily have good customer service?
- Canceling orders with Zulily
- Does Zulilly have discounts or promo codes?
- Does Zulilly have a return policy?
- Zulily Payment Methods
- Pros and Cons of Zulily
- Careers with Zulily
- Best Alternatives to Zulily
- FAQs
Zulily Company Information
| Official Website: | Zulily.com |
| Founded: | 2009 |
| Owner: | Mark Vadon and Darrell Cavens |
| Location: | Seattle, Washington, United States |
| Contact: | 1 (877) 779-5615, service@zulily.com |
| Social Media: | Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest |
What Is Zulily?
Zulily is an online clothing retailer of shoes, toys, and home products. What sets Zulily apart from other e-commerce sites is that they offer sales from product companies for a short time. So when you order a product, the processing isn’t complete until after the sale is over. This allows Zulily to purchase bulk orders of these items to send to customers. This model allows buyers to acquire newer styles for less and is entirely legit.
One of the exciting aspects of Zulily is that they hold minimal amounts of inventory. Most of what they sell is sale items from product companies that are bulk orders. When these items are received, they are sent out right away to everyone who has purchased them. This model is technically a “flash-sale” website, meaning the sales last a short amount of time on a variety of products. Once the sale is over, the product is no longer available on the website.
Is Zulily legal and safe, or is it a scam?
Zulily is legal and safe. They are not a scam by any means. Their business acts as a middleman that finds great sales and compiles them all in one place to help people get the best deals. They operate in North America and 80 other countries around the world. Their website is safe to use, though their privacy policy notes that your information can be shared with outside parties.
They are consistently looking for new vendors to sell products that add to a lineup for stores and companies such as Under Armour, Kitchen-aid, Tom’s shoes, Apple, Macy’s, and many more. In addition, the fact that they work with many popular brands provides another level of legitimacy.
Is Zulily reliable and trustworthy?
There are concerns about the company based on its numerous negative reviews across various sites. It has a poor rating of 2.3/5 stars on TrustPilot from 1,466 reviews and an equally poor 2.63/5 stars rating on SiteJabber from 4,463 reviews. The company has numerous complaints on Consumer Affairs and manages to get a 3.9/5 star rating on the website.
There are many complaints regarding the return policy on products that have been damaged or do not fit. While the return fee for damaged goods is directly refundable, items that don’t fit are not. This is laid out plainly in the Terms and Conditions. However, no one reads this information, so they are surprised when they have to pay to send things back and only receive store credit.
Also, because this company purchases bulk orders from product companies, there are a lot of issues with shipping times. Many people have seen their orders take more than a month to arrive at their homes because of shipping delays from the product company or turnaround issues with Zulily. This creates a lot of problems when it comes to reliability and trust when ordering with Zulily.
Zulily Shipping Information
This is perhaps one of the most heavily contentious parts of this company: What people say tends to differ from what the company says compared to customer reviews.
Average Shipping Time
Zulily says average shipping times are 5-7 days for items shipped from their warehouse in the US and 9-14 days for those shipped from an international location. In contrast, some reviews have noted it took up to a month to receive their orders.
Cost of Shipping
The cost of shipping domestically starts from $5.95 and could be depending on the items and location. Prices vary if they are going to South America, Europe, or other parts of the world. Shipping details can be found on their website.
How to Track Your Order
Tracking orders is accessible through the “My Orders” page on their website. It will give all the details you need regarding where your order is in the process.
What Countries does Zulily Ship
Zulily says it can reach 80 countries around the world. The complete list of countries can be found on their website.
Does Zulily have good customer service?
Customer service is another area where there are a lot of poor reviews for the company. Many people had concerns about customer service because they had terrible experiences with representatives or the follow-through. Many people have said their customer service experience was lacking because the representatives couldn’t do much for them.
Another issue found in the reviews for Zulily’s customer service was how often people needed to call in to try and fix their orders. People feel they are always starting at the beginning with each new representative. Either the customer service representatives don’t take notes on your calls, or they can’t keep track of every customer interaction. Either way, if you need to contact customer service, you may want to keep track of everything and who you talked to when you called.
Canceling orders with Zulily
If you want to cancel your order within 30 minutes of ordering a product, you can take care of it through the “My Orders” page. However, if you decide after that small window of time, you will need to call customer service.
Does Zulilly have discounts or promo codes?
From time to time, you can find discount codes for shipping or products that they might have in inventory. However, they are a discount company, so most of the time, there are no further discounts or promos available.
Does Zulilly have a return policy?
Yes, they do. Once you receive a return-eligible item, you have 30 days to submit a return request and ship your item to them, and no matter how many items are in the return, the fee is $4.95. Refunds for returns are generally issued as store credit that’s applied directly to your zulily.com account. However, if you return items purchased using your Zulily credit card, they will issue a refund to that account, minus applicable shipping & handling fee(s).
Zulily Payment Methods
They accept various payment types such as Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, Venmo, Apple Pay, gift cards, and store credit. They also accept specialty credit cards that work with their parent companies.
Pros and Cons of Zulily
Here is a quick pros and cons list to help you decide whether or not you want to purchase products through Zulily.
Pros:
- A large variety of products
- Easy-to-navigate website and app
- Wide variety of payment options
Cons:
- Customer service issues
- Issues with product quality
- Delayed delivery
Careers with Zulily
If you are looking for work with Zulily, here are a few details about this company, the jobs available, and the work culture.
Is Zulily a good company to work for?
Zulily has a variety of jobs located around the United States. Most of which are warehouse and order fulfillment. At the same time, there are some positions in their corporate headquarters in Seattle, Washington. A review of career satisfaction from websites like Glassdoor and Indeed shows that most people have an average experience working for this company with a range of benefits and payscale.
Is it easy to get a job with Zulily?
Positions in warehouse and fulfillment appear to turnover often. As a result, these are likely the more accessible positions available. In comparison, jobs in the corporate headquarters are more challenging and primarily based on experience.
Best Alternatives to Zulily
Like any e-commerce business, there are always alternatives to shopping with varying products, services, and experiences. When choosing one, the other options are always helpful in understanding the best places to pick. Here is a list of alternatives to Zulily:
- GoldBox
- Hautelook
- Overstock
- Poshmark
- Wish
- OfferUp
- Wayfair Daily
- Belk.com
Additional FAQs
While a lot of information is found above, there are always other questions to ask when understanding and choosing e-commerce websites. So here are a few more questions to consider.
Is Zulily a good place to buy from?
Yes. It gives various options for clothes, shoes, home interests, toys, and games for children. In addition, their wide selection of goods makes it a great place to buy from and pick up things you are interested in finding.
How can Zulily sell so cheap?
Their business model lends to selling products for less because they only feature products on sale through product companies. Then they purchase them in bulk for a more significant discount. These practices lend to being able to sell products for much less than retail prices.
Why do they have so many bad reviews?
Most reviews revolve around price and customer service. While many products are discounted, other products are still not on sale. As a result, there can be a lot of expectations for these types of e-commerce businesses.
Customer service seems to be an issue with many reviews. Suppose you have a problem with an order or damaged items, you will have to work with their customer service. Be aware that this can lead to issues with orders and fulfillment.