Zulily Review 2024
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New Markdowns| Up To 75% Off Women's Apparel
Up To 80% Off New Kids' Apparel & Shoes
Take 70% Off Selected Clearance Items
Autumn Faves - Up To 55% Off
Enjoy 40% Off Top Sellers
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If you’ve never shopped Zulily — a flash sale website and app — go take a look … You’ll notice right away all the limited-time deals for up to 75% off well-known brands like Nike and Coach. Plus they have tons of other home decor, toy, and furniture items for well off the retail price. So how can prices possibly be this low? Is Zulily legit, or is there some sort of catch?
The truth is, Zulily isn’t your online typical shopping experience, so you should know what to expect when you place an order. But as far as legitimacy, they’re definitely no fly-by-night operation. In fact, their parent company owns some of the biggest names in the home shopping market.
Let’s dig into how Zulily can sell stuff so cheap, some common consumer complaints against them (yep, they have a few), and how to successfully shop the site without frustration.
Zulily uses a low (price) and slow (shipping) approach.
So how is Zulily so cheap? The main reason you’ll pay lower prices is because you agree to be OK with a much slower than normal delivery timeline. Zulily basically says this on their website: “The secret to our deals is in our shipping. We wait and bundle items from multiple orders, using fewer boxes. Then, we pass the savings on to you. Sometimes, it takes a little longer, but our customers say it’s worth the wait.”
Here’s how it works. Let’s say there’s a limited deal for Skechers shoes. You’ll have to place an order in a specific time window. The faster you move, the better chance you’ll have to find your size and color preference. With some deals, inventory will move fast, so don’t delay! Once the sale ends, Zulily compiles all the orders and then sends it to Skechers. Skechers then ships the bulk order to Zulily, who ships it out to everyone who bought the deal.
Because Zulily doesn’t have to keep a large amount of inventory on hand, they can keep costs low.
Zulily started selling kids’ clothes in 2009 — and then blew up in popularity.
With their headquarters in Seattle, Washington, Zulily originally launched in 2009 selling just kids’ clothing. Their founders Darrell Cavens and Mark Vadon took the company public in 2013. In 2015 they got acquired by the Qurate Retail Group for $2.4 billion. Not familiar with Qurate? They also own the popular home shopping brands QVC and HSN.
Today, Zulily works with 15,000 brands, including popular lifestyle ones, designer names, and many smaller, boutique sellers. They also claim to have over 5 million active customers who buy from their site. For comparison’s sake, the company who owns Rue La La and Gilt has about 1 million active customers.
Lots of people swear by Zulily, but some policies annoy customers.
Zulily has an A+ rating by the Better Business Bureau and got their accreditation in 2010. Though they had 62 consumer complaints in the last year, the company responded to all of them to try to find a resolution.
On the other hand, they have pretty lackluster reviews on TrustPilot, with an average rating of 2.1 out of 5 stars. The most common complaints are about:
- The company’s return policy: Honestly, it’s not great, especially because you don’t get refunds, only store credit. You also have to pay shipping costs on most returns.
- Shipping times: Let’s put it this way; if you need a gift for someone this weekend — or even next weekend — Zulily probably won’t come through.
- Product quality: Zulily doesn’t actually make their products, but they work with 15,000 brands, including many smaller, boutique sellers. If you order from a never-heard-of brand and can’t try things on, there’s going to be some level of risk involved.