JCPenney

Full review
I prefer to go in and buy stuff at a brick and mortar store. However, being unusually tall, and with unusually large kids, I've found it necessary to visit online stores in a never ending search for good looking and great fitting clothing, decent value is next on the list. The end of my quest is more often than not to be found at the J.C. Penney online store.

The JC Penney web store, is built with color schemes similar to their paper catalogs. In many ways those who used wish books years ago (or ordered from Penney catalogs), will be comfortable with the format and layout of the JC Penney website today. Selection at the online store is greater than any JC Penney brick and mortar store I've ever visited. The big and tall section has many items and is not only first rate for quality, but has some of the best values you'll ever find for those with difficult to fit sizes.

Categories are neatly laid out along the left side in a tabbed format. Women's, Men's, Children's, Shoes, House, on and on. The web page fits neatly in about a single page, you don't have to scroll much. Just as you'd walk into a section of a real department store, you visit a similar section of the web store. This makes shopping at the JC Penney site feel comfortable to shoppers of the store, and it takes a ton less walking.

Along the bottom of the web storefront you can check other products, order a catalogue, buy gift certificates, or locate a store near you. You also have an easy site search feature in the lower right. Essentially everything is right there staring at you when entering this store, all it needs to know is what you're interested in. The store also lends itself to complimentary ordering from the catalogs. Often I've searched a catalog, pulled up a couple of items, and found them via product id search in the online store. This allows ordering from the online store anything from the catalogs.

Even better than a real JC Penney store, is an entire clearance section, also broken down into tabbed items as a mini version of the regular store. Thus you can shop only for bargains if that is your style.

Shopping at the JC Penney online store is very much like sitting down in a comfortable chair and visiting an old friend. You know it, and can navigate easily. There is comfort from the brand name.

The shopping bag is another wonderfully thought out aspect of the store. Instead of taking you to a cart or checkout screen, the store lets you add items to your cart without interrupting your current page. It allows you to buy a red or blue for example using only a couple of clicks, no back, no redoing a search, just add a blue, add a red.

Shipping is a bit expensive, however there are free shipping coupons for $25, $50 and $75 orders over the web, and usually a free shipping offer comes with their catalogs. My experience is free shipping is worth a bit more than a 10% discount on items.

I have ordered many items many times from this site. I have had to return things which didn't fit, and never had any problem returning any item to the local JC Penney store for a full credit (except for shipping). Once a package was lost and not delivered, it was replaced instantly and without grief. Customer service is great.

Monogramming is also provided on many items, usually it's a fixed $5. I have found they limit most monograms to about 20 letters. You can squeeze a bit more by using some abbreviations, as an example becomes and when monogrammed and can literally save you 4 letters (space AND space becomes just the symbol + with no spaces around it).

Major credit cards are accepted, including JC Penney's own card. Confirmation email, and tracking are easy. If an item needs to be transferred or delayed in any way you'll be informed BEFORE committing to the order, also you can estimate the delay by checking the term definitions in a pop up page. I have never had a delay of more than a few days. This is perhaps one of the best online stores on the web, everyone who doesn't want to shop or needs special sizes should consider it as a safe, comfortable possible source for products.

A final note, while most associate JC Penney with clothing, it also stocks many non-clothing items, it is worth looking around to get a feel for what the store offers.