Americanas.com is owned by the popular retail chain Lojas Americanas. You have almost certainly been to one of the company’s stores before. As far as I can tell, there is one in just about every city in Brazil. I guess that isn’t surprising since the retail chain has been around since the 1920s.
Lojas Americanas started selling its products online in 1999. At the time, it was one of the few Brazilian companies (at least major companies) that had its entire catalog online. This made it extremely easy for people to shop for the items they wanted. Even if you couldn’t find the product that you want at your local store, you could purchase it online to take advantage of the same low prices and excellent customer services that you would get from the retail store.
I started shopping online before most of the people I know. I work in the tech industry, so I’m often the first person in my social circle to adopt new concepts. For me, it was a revelation. The Internet had been going through so many changes over the last decade. Suddenly, it had reached a point where I could buy just about anything I wanted online and the retailer would ship it directly to my house. I didn’t even have to print out a catalog. (That may sound silly to younger shoppers, but there really was a time when you had to print catalogs and send your orders through the mail. We didn’t have the level of security and payment flexibility that’s available now.)
If you haven’t bought anything from Americanas.com, then I hope this review will help you decide whether it is a good company for your needs. In my experience, it has exceeded my expectations.
Top Features of Americanas.com
There are a lot of features that make Americanas.com a useful e-commerce site for me. I’m going to break my experiences into several sections. I think this will make it easier for me to explain exactly what I like about the company. I think it will also make it easier for you to learn more about the features that interest you most.
It has a diverse catalog
Americanas.com is one of those websites that seems to have just about everything that you could want to buy. While a lot of companies try to focus on narrow genres, Americanas.com takes the opposite approach. I find this helpful in for many reasons.
First off, I think it’s just convenient. I would rather shop at one store than several. That’s true online as well as in real life.
Secondly, I think it’s more secure. With all the horror stories about hackers stealing information online, I would like to keep my online footprint as small as possible. By shopping at one website, I decrease the possibility that a criminal will steal my information. If you’re worried about protecting yourself from identity theft, then this is something that you should think about before you buy things from multiple websites.
Lastly, buying a lot of different things from one website means that I can take advantage of more savings opportunities. I have, for instance, never paid for shipping with Americanas.com. That’s because I always spend enough money that I can avoid shipping costs. That wouldn’t be true if it didn’t have such a large catalog. Luckily, I can always find enough things that I need to exceed the minimum amount for free shipping. Why would I pay for shipping when I can just add another item. It’s a win-win for me.
It has stores you can visit in the real world
I like shopping online, but some times you want to see a product in person before you decide whether you want to pay for it. Americanas.com has a huge advantage over its competitors because it operates kiosks throughout Brazil. If you want to see a product first, then just go to the store.
The option to visit a physical store also improves the customer service experience. In most cases, I think that phone and email based customer services work pretty well. There are times, though, when I want to speak to someone face to face. That makes Americanas.com an obvious choice for me.
It has a strong loyalty programs
Whether you’re buying one thing for yourself or a large order for your business, you should join the Americanas.com loyalty program to make sure you take advantage of every available discount. This is one of the reasons that I appreciate Americanas.com’s large catalog. The more you buy, the more money you save.
Even if you don’t shop online much, it still makes sense to join the loyalty program. It might take you a little longer to accumulate rewards, but they will eventually help you save money. The more you participate, of course, the more opportunities you have to save money on future purchases.
Americanas.com Prices
Let’s be honest. It’s the low prices that will attract you to Americanas.com. That’s why I started shopping through the site. It offers tons of discounts that will help you save money on practically everything in stock. AT times you can even find sales that will knock 80 percent off of an item’s retail price. That’s an incredible amount of savings that I haven’t been able to find at any other website.
The prices and discounts do vary depending on what you want to buy. In my experience, you can get the biggest savings on consumer electronics. Then again, that’s what I’m primarily interested in buying, so I might just be focused on that area more than others.
When you shop at Americanas.com, don’t forget to take advantage of extra discounts. You can earn coupons in several ways, such as signing up for the Americanas.com newsletter and taking advantage of daily offers. Always search for discount codes before you finish placing your order. If you don’t, then you could end up spending more money than necessary.
Criticism of Americanas.com
I can’t really think of anything negative to say about Americanas.com. I suppose it might not have the items you want if you are looking for extremely niche products. Americanas.com tends to focus more on the types of things that average consumers want to buy. If you need a specialty item, then you will probably need to go to a specialty website. That doesn’t seem like a huge concern, though. That’s just the way business works. Personally, I’m happy that Americanas.com has such a wide range of items that I want to buy. If it carried a lot of niche items, then it probably wouldn’t be able to offer such steep discounts.
Americanas.com Customer Support
I can only think of one time in my life that Lojas Americanas made a mistake with my online order. I had ordered a new smartphone and somehow the warehouse made a mistake and sent me the previous model.
I tried to talk to customer service on the phone, but I don’t think they really understood what I was saying. As far as most people could tell, I had the right phone. I knew, however, that it was a slightly earlier version that lacked some of the features I wanted. If you didn’t work in the industry, it’s quite possible that you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between these two phones since they look practically identical.
This is one of the reasons that I appreciate being able to visit a physical location. I took my phone to Lojas Americanas with a copy of my order form and receipt. I think that my concerns made a lot more sense when I could talk to someone in person. At one point, we actually pulled out phone’s latest version and compared it to the one I had received. This made it obvious to the customer service rep that a mistake had been made. He apologized and immediately gave me the right phone. It was such a strange situation that he even had a manager come over to give me a free gift card.
I would have preferred that the mistake not happen. Getting a gift card, however, ensured that I would remain a loyal customer. It was a smart move on his part. He showed me that the employees at Americanas.com really appreciate their customers.
Conclusion
Everyone has their own priorities when shopping online. For me, I’m mostly concerned about price and convenience. Americanas.com stands out in both of those ways.
In my experience, Americanas.com is a reliable e-commerce site that has several advantages over its competitors. If you want a smooth experience, low prices, and the option to talk to customer service representatives in person, then I think Americanas.com will work well for you. It has been my go-to site for years.
