Our Objectives
We set out to mystery shop four ecommerce brands — from small boutiques to global giants — to see how each handled the full purchase and post-purchase customer journey. We placed real orders and completed returns as first-time customers, tracking every interaction along the way.
Some brands impressed us. Others fell short. And nearly all surfaced hidden friction in the post-purchase experience.
We’re not naming names. This experiment wasn’t about spotlighting specific brands. Instead, we’re surfacing patterns, identifying red flags, and pin-pointing where CX leaders need to take action.
The Brands We Shopped
A Big Box Retailer
Price Point: $
An Emerging Athletic Apparel Brand
Price Point: $$
A Global Established Athletic Apparel Brand
Price Point: $$$
A Luxury Apparel Brand
Price Point: $$$$
We evaluated each brand across three high-impact stages of the ecommerce customer journey:
CX Phase
What We Measured
Purchase
Checkout UX, marketing opt-ins, payment friction, and packaging clarity
Support
Channel access, response speed, tone, personalization, and escalation pathways
Returns
Policy clarity, ease of initiation, refund handling, and tone consistency
Clear patterns and unexpected friction points emerged, which shaped the overall customer experience.
What We Learned by Tier
Each retailer revealed a unique blend of strengths and friction, and offered lessons that can apply to all ecommerce brands.
Retailer
What Worked
What Didn’t
Key Takeaway
Emerging Athletic Apparel Brand
Consistent, human tone and approachable brand personality across emails and chat.
Interactions were all bot-driven, but responses were clear, helpful, and led us to the self-service return portal. We didn’t connect with a human, but our questions were answered and the process worked smoothly.
A bot-first approach can work beautifully when it’s built with care. This brand delivered clear, friendly support and offered a human handoff if needed, setting a strong example of how automation can enable trust and efficiency.
Global Established Athletic Apparel Brand
Responsive support across multiple channels, with fast, live-agent replies via email and Instagram that reflected the brand’s warm, premium tone.
The Instagram rep provided helpful self-service links, as did the auto-response before we heard from a human via email.
Although the brand offered guest checkout, the return emails suggested that customers needed to log in to track return status, creating friction for those without an account. The brand also failed to respond on Facebook, leaving a customer message unanswered for weeks (and counting).
Even best-in-class brands need to audit how their multichannel presence holds up in practice. When responses are delayed or channels go dark, customers lose confidence, quietly eroding trust.
Big Box Retailer
Operational scale showed up in flexible, fast return workflows and clear communications.
The lack of consent around marketing emails and forced account creation compromised trust.
Efficiency at scale can’t override customer choice. Even the smoothest journey loses credibility when respect for consent is missing.
Luxury Apparel Brand
Website, confirmation emails, and packaging all reflected a polished, high-end brand experience.
Checkout failed using a corporate card, a hurdle no other tier encountered. Post-purchase, support tone was cold, replies were impersonal, and escalation paths were unclear.
Premium retailers set high expectations by design. When the brand doesn’t deliver consistently across the entire journey, it undermines the entire experience.
Beyond the Scorecard: Where the Experience Shined (or Slipped)
Emerging Athletic Apparel Brand
Led with warmth and delivered on follow-through.
This brand’s early tone was bright and engaging. Order confirmations were on-brand and upbeat, and a clever bot provided quick self-serve answers.
We didn’t need to escalate to a human. The bot resolved our questions efficiently, with a smooth handoff path available if needed.
It’s a reminder that thoughtful automation, when aligned with brand voice and built for real resolution, can deliver both efficiency and trust.
Global Established Athletic Apparel Brand
Responsive across multiple channels, but the experience was mixed.
The brand replied quickly via email and Instagram, offering warm, helpful answers. However, our Facebook message went unanswered — even weeks later.
Even best-in-class brands need to audit how their multichannel presence holds up in practice — because inconsistent visibility and response can quietly erode trust.
Big Box Retailer
Operational scale showed up in flexible, fast return workflows and clear communications.
Clear confirmation emails, a straightforward returns process, and polite, responsive support made for a smooth journey.
But frictionless service doesn’t excuse a lack of trust.
Customers were forced to create an account and auto-enrolled in marketing emails in order to place an order. The retail giant offered no option for guest checkout, and no option to create an account but opt out of marketing emails.
Scale is no excuse for skipping consent.
Luxury Apparel Brand
Polished on the surface, but support broke the spell.
From sleek website design to premium packaging, the experience felt elevated at first glance. But the cracks started to show early.
Our initial attempt to check out failed when the brand declined our corporate credit card — something no other retail tier flagged. Support couldn’t identify the issue, and ultimately told us our only option was to “contact our bank” rather than investigating further.
That hands-off approach continued post-purchase. Support was hard to reach, the tone felt cold, and refund communications were terse and impersonal.
Luxury CX sets high expectations — and every touchpoint needs to meet them.
Tracking Trust Across the CX Journey
Customer trust is built across the entire journey. Every click, reply, and policy impacts perception, long before (and after!) checkout.
The more vulnerable the moment, the more trust is on the line.
Here we break down how each brand performed across critical moments in the support experience.
From access to escalation, we tracked where brands built confidence, and where they quietly lost it.
CX Signals by Brand: Best Practices and Missed Steps
Support Element
Best-in-Class
Missed Opportunity
Clarity of Support Options
Global Established Athletic Apparel Brand
- Support options were clearly listed on the help page and homepage
- Live chat interface showed availability and hours upfront
None
- None of the brands demonstrated a critical failure in making support options visible
- While some offered more channels than others, all had at least one contact method clearly on their website, along with multiple social media options
Speed to First Response
Big Box Retailer
- Live Instagram support was available well outside typical business hours
- Agent was responsive, helpful, and personable, exceeding expectations for a brand of this scale
Global Established Athletic Apparel Brand
- Live agent responded within minutes during chat hours
- Fast, helpful interaction that reflected the brand’s high standard of service
Big Box Retailer
- The virtual (not live) chatbot took 11 minutes to respond
Global Established Athletic Apparel Brand
- This brand never responded to our Facebook message, highlighting a gap in multichannel consistency
Personalization
Emerging Athletic Apparel Brand
- Warm, conversational tone that matched marketing voice
- Addressed customer by name and reflected brand personality
Luxury Apparel Brand
- Tone was cold and generic, with one reply referring to the customer as “the buyer”
- No reference to the customer’s name or prior context, even when details were provided
- Responses felt templated and failed to reflect the brand’s premium positioning
Tone Consistency Across Channels
Emerging Athletic Apparel Brand
- Support tone matched the upbeat, conversational tone seen in marketing and transactional emails
- Voice felt consistent across website, email, bot, and support
Luxury Apparel Brand
- Support tone was cold and generic, misaligned with the brand’s elevated voice across other channels
- Replies lacked personalization, warmth, or continuity with earlier customer interactions
Proactive Support
Global Established Athletic Apparel Brand
- Live agent offered helpful next steps without being prompted
- Provided links to related resources, showing initiative and care
Most Others
- Support interactions were reactive, not proactive
- Answers were limited to the direct question, with no follow-up, added context, or guidance
Clear Path to a Human
All
- All brands provided a chat experience that included access to a live agent — either directly or through a bot handoff
None
- Every brand ensured that customers could escalate to a human during support hours
- Paths varied slightly, but the option to connect with a human was present and functional for all
Journey Friction
Not all trust-breakers show up in support, or even after the purchase.
Some of the most damaging moments were buried in fine print, hidden behind logins, or scattered across third-party platforms.
We tracked key points of friction that added effort, confusion, or hesitation at pivotal moments throughout the end-to-end customer journey.
Stage
Emerging Athletic Apparel Brand
Global Established Athletic Apparel Brand
Big Box Retailer
Luxury Apparel Brand
Purchase
Checkout Experience
No thank-you screen or clear cue that checkout was successful
Best in Class
Inflexible Account Requirements
No guest checkout option
Forced Marketing Opt-In
Automatically enrolled in marketing emails during checkout
Payment Friction
Cart experience lacked visual continuity and clear confirmation cues
Checkout also failed using a corporate credit card — a hurdle no other tier in the study presented
Support
Best in Class
Inconsistent Responsiveness
While this brand responded quickly via live chat, it never replied to a Facebook Messenger inquiry
Delayed Response
The virtual agent took 11 minutes to respond
Impersonal Support Tone
Support tone felt rigid and impersonal, with no acknowledgment of customer details
Returns
Best in Class
Inconsistent Product Naming
The same item was listed under multiple names across order, shipping, and return emails
Best in Class
Policy Language Gaps
Return policy wording felt vague and non-committal; details like return window or refund expectations were hard to find
Moment of Delight: Where CX Shined
Emerging Athletic Apparel Brand
This brand sent prompt, clear return emails anchored in a sustainability narrative. They didn’t require any additional paperwork and the UPS “Happy Returns” integration made drop-off simple and intuitive.
The refund confirmation included exact timing and amounts, reinforcing transparency and trust. And the refund hit as soon as we dropped our shirt off at the Happy Returns Bar.
Why It Stood Out:
Compared to other retailers that offered more vague return confirmations, this brand delivered a proactive, confidence-building post-purchase experience.
At-a-Glance CX Scorecard
We tracked six core experience signals across each retailer’s journey. The brands that performed best removed friction at every step.
Retailer
Checkout Experience
Support Speed
Tone Consistency
Personalization
Returns Process
Escalation to Human
Emerging Athletic Apparel Brand
Global Established Athletic Apparel Brand
Big Box Retailer
Luxury Apparel Brand
Key:
Major trust-breaker
Minor friction
Smooth experience
What These CX Patterns Really Tell Us
Our biggest learnings? Premium pricing (or a global footprint) doesn't guarantee a premium customer experience.
The most consistent friction appeared in the unglamorous moments: a failed checkout, a vague return policy, a bot that took too long to reply. These gaps erode trust quietly but quickly.
Which Brand Stood Out Most?
The Emerging Athletic Apparel Brand — the smallest brand in our research — delivered some of the strongest signals of trust and care.
From a smooth, bot-enabled return to immediate refund confirmation, this retailer proved that thoughtful automation, clear communication, and brand-aligned tone can rival (and sometimes surpass) the polish of much larger retailers.
Meanwhile, even established and luxury brands struggled to meet their own standards. Delayed replies, inconsistent tone, and unclear policies reminded us that CX excellence requires consistency and follow-through.
Final Word
CX excellence isn’t defined by the sleekest homepage or the fastest shipping label. It’s measured in the moments where customers feel vulnerable: checkout hiccups, missing packages, unanswered DMs. The companies that win the Ecommerce Battle of the Brands will be those that turn these high‑stakes moments into effortless, trust‑building experiences.