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Giants rule in online toys
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December 2, 1999: 4:55 p.m. ET
New survey ranks industry giants eToys, Amazon.com as best Internet toy stores
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Online toy shoppers should keep one thing in mind this holiday season: size apparently does matter.
For the second consecutive quarter, eToys Inc. held off Amazon.com Inc. by the narrowest of margins to retain its claim as the nation’s best online toy store Thursday, as judged by Gomez Advisors, an e-commerce market-research firm based in Boston, Mass.
But in a telling indication that bigger really is better in the world of online retailers, six of the survey’s top seven spots were held by well-known industry giants.
The survey also revealed that bricks-and-mortar stores still have a ways to go in their effort to be competitive with Internet-only operations. Pure-play online operations held four of the top seven spots.
"The top tier really have the experience with toys and inventory planning you need to succeed online,” said Liz Leonard, a senior online retail analyst with Gomez Advisors. "Some of the new [sites], they’re just like any store down the street from the big names, but they have been able to watch and learn.”
Click here to view Gomez Advisors’ online toy store rankings
In the end, eToys (ETYS) used its superior shopping services and low prices to squeak out a narrow victory over Amazon.com (AMZN), scoring an overall grade of 8.17 out of 10 compared to Amazon’s 8.15 score.
Gomez lauded eToys easy-to-find gift resources, as well as its option to find unique gifts for even the hardest child to please. In fact, about the only thing Gomez could fault the site for was not offering toy reviews from either experts or users, something that can be found on other sites.
Amazon actually beat eToys and every other site in most categories, including ease of use, online resources and customer service. But the Internet- retailing giant was hurt by a low customer-confidence score, which was due in part to what Gomez called higher than average shipping costs.
Amazon was also penalized for not offering gift suggestions to first-time buyers; a fact company spokesman Bill Curry said was not true.
"We view ourselves as the ultimate shopping experience online,” Curry said of the company’s second-place finish. "We are competitive on pricing and that includes shipping costs.”
Rounding out the top five were KBkids.com, SmarterKids.com and Zany Brainy, a new entrant to the survey which made a splash with a 7.29 score.
Other sites of note include ToysRus.com, which finished seventh with a 6.83 score. Gomez lauded the site for promoting visits to its bricks-and mortar-stores and offering free shipping on smaller products. But the site, in addition to the technical problems it’s been having recently, was criticized for not offering expert or bestseller lists, making it hard to find hot products.
Meanwhile, Wal-Mart’s new toy site failed to win may kudos, finishing 14th as its lack of synergy with its bricks-and-mortar operation and disappointing prices hurt the company’s rating.
Overall, the scores were much higher than Gomez’s fall ratings, an indication the toy industry continues to be one of the strongest online, Leonard said.
"Consumers are being served exceptionally well by the online toy industry,” Leonard said. 
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