The Staples website has an even more extensive selection of office supplies online than the largest of the chain’s retail outlets. Along with a wide variety of general supplies, electronics, and furniture for offices, Staples offers a range of services including copy/print/ship, ink cartridge refill/recycling and custom business cards/forms helping it earn the TopTenREVIEWS Silver Award. Staples also offers electronic repair services. You can either bring your broken machine to a local store for repairs, or arrange to have a Staples repair professional visit your home to perform repairs and maintenance.
Staples carries the entire gamut of basic school and office supplies like paper, toner, mailing supplies, filing supplies, etc. In addition, Staples carries several major brands of electronics and office machines. A warranty/service plan is offered for any electronics or office machines purchased at Staples. Your warranty/service plan gives you access to the Staples repair team, who can help with any problems you may have. Staples also carries all the supplies, accessories and refills you’ll need to accompany your new electronics purchases. The Staples furniture section includes all the basic furniture for setting up a home or workplace office, from desks and chairs to lamps and shelving.
Check out the “Save with Staples Brand” tab on the homepage to browse the entire line of Staples brand products. Staples produces its own versions of many name brand products at cheaper prices. Not limited to just paper and basic supplies, the Staples brand includes all the major families of products (even furniture) except computers.
Staples is one of the few office supply websites to offer custom printing services. Using the many templates on the website, you can customize your own greeting cards, business cards, advertising materials, holiday greetings, etc. and have them shipped directly to your home or business. The custom printing service also offers custom rubber stamps.
Maximizing on the convenience of having retail storefronts across the country, Staples custom print jobs can also be picked up in the store, so last minute jobs are still possible. However, a test search for the nearest retail store yielded “no results within 100 miles,” so using the store pickup service depends entirely on where you live and whether there is a store nearby.
In addition to custom printing, Staples is the only site surveyed that offers electronics repair. It is always a good idea to research warranty and service plans when you buy new electronics and office machines, as many online retailers can only offer mail-order repair services. This means you’ll have to ship your machine off for service, leaving you without necessary equipment for several days or up to a few weeks. With Staples’ repair service, a repair technician will visit your home or business to minimize the time you go without your important equipment.
As with any website that sells thousands of products or more, the Staples website makes use of a handy keyword search function to help you find a specific product quickly. When you perform a search, the left-hand navigation loads a list of categories for narrowing your search, so in addition to scrolling through the pages of search results, you can refine your search by visiting a certain category. To browse families of products, you can use the menus on the home page to jump to a specific area of the site. As an added convenience for those shopping for ink/toner (one of the most common office supply purchases), Staples has an entire navigation tab dedicated to its ink/toner selections. If you’re not sure which cartridge to buy, you can browse by printer brand and model, so there’s no need to remember the code from your ink cartridges.
Staples’ site navigation is smooth and intuitive. With multiple ways to search and browse products, it’s easy to find what you want, even for below average internet users.
Staples’ “price match guarantee” is a unique feature where Staples will match any advertised price from another supplier on an identical item, either at the time of purchase or within 14 days thereafter. The same guarantee applies when Staples itself offers a lower price on a previously purchased item, excluding clearance items. You must take into account rebates and Staples rewards benefits, as well as shipping, when submitting a competing price for the price match guarantee, as these are figured into the actual price offered by Staples.
The overall quality of the Staples website is comparable to that of top-ranked site Office Depot, however, Office Depot won higher marks for its prominent promotions of environmentally-friendly products. Staples also carries a wide range of eco-friendly or recycled office supply products, but you have to look a little harder to find them.
Staples values customer loyalty very highly, and as a regular customer you will have the opportunity to take advantage of customer rewards discounts. They also have an e-mail program through which you can receive discounts and coupons on featured items. You can also receive discounts by choosing Staples brand products. When browsing the site, you will be given the option of comparing the Staples brand versions of several products, which are universally cheaper than name brands.
In addition to qualifying discount programs, Staples offers rebates on many products, however rebate programs may vary at any given time. The “Hot Deals” navigation tab contains links to different areas of the site where special discounts are offered, as well as a link to all the pink “Breast Cancer Awareness” products. When you purchase certain pink products, a portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Susan G. Komen Research for the Cure Foundation.
For its huge product selection, extensive services, user-friendly website and dedication to customer satisfaction and positive buyer experiences, Staples earned the position of #2 out of the top ten office supply sites. For students, home office workers and larger businesses, setting up and maintaining workstations and office supplies online can be as easy as visiting one website.
Once you become a Staples customer, re-ordering is easy and you’ll be able to take advantage of future savings as a reward for your loyalty. In an attempt to compete with the other major office supply stores, Staples goes out of its way to reward return customers and to beat out competitors on price. If you’re buying in bulk, Staples may be your best source for long-term savings.
