Anthropologie Review : Is Legit or Scam? 2024

Anthropologie was coined as a French twist of the college major Anthropology. However, unlike its word cousin, Anthropologie has nothing to do with the study of humans and human behaviour. Rather, Anthropologie is a fashion and home décor retailer that (according to their mission) will surprise and delight you with unexpected and distinctive finds for your closet and home.

Yes, Anthropologie is legit.  It is not a scam fashion store because you will receive any product you purchased from the store without a problem. They will never steal your money or not deliver your purchased item. But the question is do they deliver quality?

Anthropologie advertises as a portal of discovery, where the creative-minded woman (who is concerned about fashion but too busy enjoying life to be governed by the latest trends) can find the desired styles. Their product offering includes women’s apparel and accessories, intimates, home furniture & décor, and beauty & gifts items.

This Anthropologie review will x-ray Anthropologie to provide the information that will help you determine if the fashion and home décor retailer is legit and worth trying.

Anthropologie review at a glance:

• Established in 1992, and started an online business in 1998
• Part of the URBN brand, and focuses on women clothing and home collections
• Now operates over 200 physical stores worldwide
• Free shipping available for orders of $150+ (only to customers registered in their loyalty program)
• Returns allowed within 60 days of the delivery date
• Payment is via credit/ debit cards, PayPal and Anthropologie gift cards
• Customer support via email service, live chat and telephone

What is Anthropologie?

Anthropologie was started by Dick Hayne in 1992 in response to a friend who was dissatisfied with the shopping options available to her in the suburbs of Philadelphia. While many shopping stores focus on styles for young women (teens the to early thirties), Anthropologie was started to cater to creative, educated and affluent 30 – 45-year-old women. Thus, Anthropology is a store you’ll grow into.

The store was a success, and to cater to more customers, they opened up their online business with the launch of their website in 1998. As expected, more customers were reached and Anthropologie saw the need to go international. The first store outside the US was opened in London, England in 2009. Following that, other stores were opened in new markets. Today, Anthropologie operates over 200 retail stores throughout the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

Anthropologie is part of URBN, a portfolio of global consumer brands. Other brands in the group are Urban Outfitters, Free People, BHLDN, Terrain and the Vetri Family.

The online store can be found at https://www.anthropologie.com/en-gb. The website is mobile optimized and resizes to fit the small screens of mobile devices and tablets. Anthropologie does not restrict customers from anywhere. Anyone who is above 16 years of age can visit the website, create an account and shop in the store.

Is Anthropologie Legit?

Anthropologie is legit, not a scam. It’s a no brainer that you should want to make your purchases in only online shops that are legit. If a customer unsuspectingly falls prey to any of the many scam stores on the internet, the customer will end up paying money for items that will never be delivered. In the worst cases, the customer may even lose more than the purchase price. Therefore, it’s important to consider if Anthropologie is legit or just another scam store.

The sheer length of time that Anthropologie has been operating shows that they must be legit. The shop was launched as far back as 1992; while they started online operations in 1998. This means they have been operating for upward of 26years, and have been online for 20 years. Suffice it to say that no scam store can carry on scamming operation for that long. Usually, scam stores are short lived. When their scamming operation is exposed, they pack up and disappear.

Also, Anthropologie is part of a larger brand URBN with visible and known directors. This is unlike scam stores where operators are largely unknown. Also, Anthropologie has a physical existence, which means that they have the capacity to fulfil orders. As you’ll agree, an online store that fulfils orders is legit.

As has been mentioned earlier, Anthropologie had over 200 physical retail stores worldwide. These stores hold actual merchandise, and it is from there that they ship out orders to worldwide addresses. Scam stores have only a virtual existence. The lack of physical fulfilment centres is the reason there is usually no physical merchandise to be shipped when an unsuspecting customer buy from such scam stores.

That said, the over two decades of seamless operation, the visibility of their operators, the presence of fulfilment centres in different locations worldwide all point to one thing – Anthropologie is legit.

Is Anthropologie safe?

A legit online shop will not rip you off, but if it isn’t safe, it can leave you exposed to other fraudsters. Therefore, while it’s important to determine that the online shop you’ll buy from is legit, it’s equally important to determine that it is safe.

Purchasing from an online shop entails the submission of personal information and payment details. This will include your name, date of birth, telephone number, email address, mailing address, credit card details and more. A shop being safe means that it should safeguard the data you share with it, and ensure that such data do not get into the hands of unauthorized third parties (read as cyber fraudsters, identity thieves etc)

The privacy and security policy of Anthropologie starts with “guarding the privacy and safety of your data is very important to us“. Anthropologie goes on to say that they use digital and physical security and process controls to protect your data, and add that they encrypt and anonymize data where they can and it makes sense. However, there is no detailed information about what particular digital controls are employed or the encryption level used.

However, we do know that they will not share your personal information except it is with service and ad partners, for the purpose of providing you essential service and targeting ads to you.

Anthropologie Dresses:

Anthropologie Shoes:

Anthropologie Bags:

Product Range

The ideal shop should hold a wide product range so that you can make a choice. A wide product range is also good because it allows you to buy all your related items from one place instead of visiting different stores, and that will enable one to take advantage of bulk purchase discounts.

A review of the merchandise of Anthropologie shows that the retailer is not just a fashion retailer; there is also a strong focus on providing home collections. In the clothing shop, you’ll find fashion styles and fits that are perfect for any occasion, be it cocktail parties, weddings, or casual daytime silhouettes. You’ll find excellent party skirts, head-turning blouses, as well as the accessories to complete your look including uncommon ones such as one-of-a-kind slides and head-turning totes. In the home collections, you’ll find exquisite furniture, curtains, decorative pillows, duvets, wall art, Morrocan-inspired rugs, artist-inspired vases and glass wares and more.

The categories of the merchandise in Anthropology as found on their website, as well as the items in each category are as follows:

• Clothes – Dresses, Tops, Tees, Sweaters, Jackets, Jeans, Pants, Skirts, Jumpsuits, Loungewear, Sleepwear & Intimates, Petites, Sets, Swimwear, Kids & Babies wear, and more
• Shoes and Accessories – Shoes, Jewelry, Bags & Small Accessories, Scarves & Wraps, Winter Accessories, Hair Accessories, Hats, Belts, Kimonos, Socks & Legwear, Eyewear, Travel & Tech
• Beauty and Wellness Products – Bath & Body, Skincare, Makeup, Hair Care, Perfume, Mini Size, Bath Bar, The Wellness Shop, The Mask Shop, Men’s Grooming, Tools & Brushes
• Home and Furniture – Furniture, Kitchen & Dining, Bedding, Holiday Décor, Candles, Room Décor, Bathroom, Rugs, Curtains, Hardware, Lighting, Wall Art & Mirrors, Wallpaper, Stationery, Tech & Travel, Kids & Babies wear, Organizing & Storage products, Paint by Farrow & Ball, Seating Collections, and more

Prices and Promotions

Prices

The first consideration when making purchases whether online or in physical stores is price. As much as customers want to have gorgeous fashion styles and tranquil home collections, not many will want to break the bank for that. Thus, the ideal retailer should hold affordable merchandise.

Many online fashion stores promise to be affordable. However, Anthropologie does not sing the affordability chorus. Is this because they don’t want to shout their own praise, or simply that they are not affordable?

Sadly, the prices listed in Anthropologie do not fall into the affordable range. For example, you’ll be hard pressed to find a dress that is priced $100 or below. Many of the dresses are in the $120 – $200 category. Also, you’ll be hard pressed to find a top that goes for $50 or less, as many of the tops are in the $75 – $150 range. You won’t even find scarves for less than $25.00; almost every listed item under scarves and wraps was above $28.

The sales section, which is the section that usually holds discounted merchandise, also does not help. Yes, the items are discounted, but their prices still remain on the high side. You’ll find skirts slashed from over $100 to about $70, and V-Neck tops slashed from about $50 to about $30. When a heavily discounted V-Necks are around $30, there no telling you that the store is expensive. Jumpsuits and counts also have prices significantly slashed, but still, stand highly priced at $80 and above. If you want low priced items, you’ll have to check the sales section of home collections for the knobs, but even those are about $5.00 – $15.00.

We can go on and on, and only one conclusion can be reached, if you want to shop on the cheap, Anthropologie should not be where you should be coming to.

Promotions

One thing that customers want to see in a review of any online shop is the promos that the shop runs. Shop promotions help to make the shop items available for less than their full prices, while some even make certain items available for free to customers. Thus, taking advantage of such promos will result in significant cost savings.

Anthropologie runs different promos from time to time. Many of the promos are time-limited; that is, only running for a specified period of time. However, you cannot combine one promo with another. At the time of writing this review, some promos were running, which included:

• 20% off full-price pants & jeans online and in US and Canada stores for a limited time
• Up to 30% off select home items online and in US and Canada stores for a limited time
• Extra 25% off sale items valid online and in US and Canada stores for a limited time
• 20% off the full-price face, hair & body masks online and in US and Canada stores for a limited time
• 25% off select full-price holiday décor online only for a limited time
• Select styles now $20 – $98 online and in US and Canada stores for a limited time
• Up to 50% off select furniture valid online only for a limited time
• Colloquial Rain Boots & Chelsea Boots by 52 Conversations by Anthropologie for $48 online and in US and Canada stores for a limited time

Anthropologie does run a lot of promotions, but these promotions are not tantalizingly huge like we’ve come to see in most fashion stores. Given that the prices of Anthropologie are not on the low side, huge promotional offers would have done the trick to bring prices down to acceptable levels.

But with the conservative promos, prices will still be steep, even after the promos have been applied. For example, where pants are listed at between $70 – $200; and if you take up the20% discount promo offer on pants, you’ll be having them at $56 – $160, which is still on the high side. It also does not help that the promos cannot be combined, as it means that you can only use one at a time.

Shipping

Shipping is one of the most important considerations for online shopping. The two-level shipping considerations are shipping costs and shipping times. You don’t want the shipping cost to take the total expenditure on your items to unacceptable levels, and you also don’t want to wait forever before receiving delivery of your orders.

In terms of shipping cost, free shipping wins it for customers all the time. Thus, it’ll be nice to see fashion retailers that offer free shipping. Thankfully, Anthropologie offers free shipping. However, free shipping is offered only as part of their loyalty program called AnthroPerks. As a member of the AnthroPerks program, you’ll be eligible to get free standard shipping on all orders over $150. It should be noted that, like many other online fashion retailers, free shipping is only available to customers in the contiguous US, Alaska, Hawaii, US territories, & APO/FPO addresses. Customers from Canada and all other international addresses do not qualify for free shipping.

It’s a good thing that free shipping is offered at all, which puts Anthropologie ahead of fashion retailers that do not offer free shipping.  However, when the free shipping policy of Anthropologie is compared with that of other fashion retailers with free shipping option, Anthropologie’s will take a back seat. First, most fashion retailers simply offer free shipping to every customer whose order meets a qualifying amount; but Anthropologie restricts it to only customers who are registered into their loyalty program. Secondly, the order amount that qualifies a customer for free shipping is higher in Anthropologie than in most other fashion retailers.

There are some fashion retailers that will ship free to you if your order is up to $50.00, while many others, with high qualifying amounts, will ship your package to you free of charge if it is up to $100. In the light of this, the $150 that Anthropologie requires that you spend before being eligible for free shipping is too much.

The free shipping option is for standard shipping. For US customers, the standard shipping takes 5 – 7 business days. There are other shipping options, which includes Express Shipping (which takes 2 – 3 business days), and Overnight shipping (which takes 1 – 2 business days).

Shipping methods are as follows: Standard Shipping is via USPS First Class Mail; Express Shipping is via USPS Priority Mail; while Overnight Shipping is via FedEx. Anthropologie does not ship on Saturdays, Sundays and on nationally observed US holidays.

Also, Anthropologie endeavours to process shipping orders the same day. However, orders (standard shipping) may take up to48 hours to process; while express shipping and overnight shipping (if placed same before 1 PM) will proceed the same day, and shipped on the next business day.

It should be said that Anthropologie is exemplary in this regard. Processing orders the same day is something that is worth emulating. It is not uncommon to find that some stores take up to 5 business days to process orders before shipping them out. The knock-on effect is the elongation of how long customers will have to wait before receiving delivery of their package.

In Anthropologie, the shipping cost depends on your order amount. The cost of the US standard shipping ranges from $6.95 – $15.95. It cost $6.95 for orders up to $49.99; it cost $8.95 for orders of $50.00 to $74.99; it cost $10.95 for orders of $75.00 to $124.99; it cost $12.95 for orders of $125.00 to $149.99; it cost $13.95 for orders of $150.00 to $299.99; and it cost $15.95 for orders of $300.00 or more.

For Express shipping cost, add $10.00 to the standard shipping cost. For example, express shipping for all orders under $50 will be $16.95 ($10 + $6.95), while express shipping for all orders of $300 or more will be $25.95 ($10 + $15.95). Also, for the cost of overnight shipping, add $15.00 to the standard shipping cost. For example, overnight shipping for orders under $50 will be $21.95 ($15 + $6.95); while overnight shipping for orders of $300 or more will be $30.95 ($15 + $15.95).

It will come as a big disadvantage that the shipping costs of Anthropologie increase with the increase in the order amount. As mentioned earlier customers want free shipping or flat rates that stay fairly the same no matter the number of items in your package.

Anthropologie also ships internationally. You’ll find the shipping cost at checkout, or you can contact their customer support service for applicable fees.

Returns

The returns policy of any online store must be looked at before making any purchase from the store. Because in online shopping, you cannot physically assess the items before making the purchase, there is the chance that you will not be totally pleased with the item when it is delivered to you. Thus, it’s important to ensure that you can return the item, and get another one in its stead, or get refunded your payment.

Like almost every online fashion store, Anthropologie accepts returns if you have to return any item(s)in your package. They allow a return window of up to 60 days of the delivery date. That is, you have up to 60 days from the day you receive delivery of the item(s), for the item(s) to be returned back to the warehouse of Anthropologie.

It should be noted that the return window of Anthropologie is very generous. Most fashion retailers have 30 days windows; which makes 30 days the industry average. Anthropologie doubles that, which means that a customer will not have to worry about the returned item(s) not getting to the warehouse on time.

However, you should note that the returned item(s) must be in their original condition. That is, they must be unworn, unwashed, and unaltered. All original tags must be attached, and the items must be returned in their original packaging.

If the item(s) returned gets to Anthropologie on time (within 60 days), and they are passed okay, a full refund (original selling price) will be issued to the original form of payment. Interestingly, if the item(s) gets to them after 60 days, you will still be refunded; but the refund will be issued as store credit.

All items purchased at physical stores should be returned to the store where it was purchased. If you’ll rather exchange the item for another rather than get a refund, Anthropologie also allows that, but exchanges are done at the current selling price, and item(s) to be exchanged must be of equal or greater value.

There are some exceptions to the 60 days returns window. Furniture and select décor have a 30 days returns window. All BHLDN merchandise must also be returned within 30 days of the delivery date, and should not be returned to stores. Items curated by Anthropologie must be returned to the selling partner. As a result, their return policy will differ greatly.

After your returned item(s) is received by Anthropologie, it will take about 2 – 3 weeks to be processed. Their website even states that “additional processing delays may occur”. After all the processing, the refund will be issued to your original payment method, and it will be credited in about two days. Therefore, it means that you can wait for up to 4 weeks (or longer) before your refund will touch your account. It’s therefore not surprising that this is one of the areas where Anthropologie has received negative reviews. There are some complaints on customer review platforms that can be summarized as: “getting a refund takes forever”. Anthropologie can do well to shorten the processing time of returns so that the refunds can be issued out sooner than is currently done.

Payment Method

The ideal store should support a wide range of payment method so that finding one to use from wherever you are shopping from will not be a problem. Anthropologie accepts a range of country-specific and global banking options; these include Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, JCB, China Union Pay, PayPal, Apple Pay, Afterpay, Anthropologie gift cards and e-gift cards issued in USD.

They do not accept money orders or checks (cheques). However, with global payment options like PayPal and credit/ debit cards; paying for your items on Anthropologie should be painless. Nevertheless, some customers will want to see more banking options supported, especially e-wallets and cryptocurrencies.

Customer Support Service

No matter how well a service provider put together their service, there will still be customers who will have questions. Therefore it’s important to consider what channels an online platform supports for providing assistance to customers.

Like most online retailers, the first step to getting assistance from Anthropologie is an FAQ section on their website. The self-help section provides answers to many of the questions that customers would have, especially questions relating to shipping and returns.

If you need to contact a support agent directly, you can do that using email service, and telephone service. Anthropologie advertises that they respond to email support submissions in 24 – 48 hours. This is a waiting time that really can see some improvement. However, if waiting for up to two days to get a reply from customer service is too much (which definitely will be the case), you may use the instant feedback options – live chat and phone service.

Two phone lines are listed on their website that you can use. The first 800-309-2500 is for general support issues, and is available 24/7; while the other 800-732-2306 is for furniture specific support issues, and is available only from Monday to Saturday between 8 am – 11 pm (ET).

Reputation

This section will look at customer reviews of Anthropologie to determine how the store is perceived by actual customers. These reviews are collected by reputable customer review platforms such as TrustPilot and Influenster.

Anthropologie is rated “bad” on Trust Pilot with an average rating of 1 out of 5. The reviews seem to agree that items are “a bit overpriced”, but that was not the cause of the poor ratings. Among the numerous complaints included: orders not arriving on time, sometimes even upward of one week after, even when the customer had paid extra for express or overnight delivery. The customers’ reviews noted that Anthropologie’s excuse almost all the time is that the items went out of stock almost immediately as the orders were placed. However, because there are too many of such cases, customers suspect that Anthropologie simply collects their money knowing well that the items are not available, and wait to ship out anytime the items are made available. In the least, when items that are out of stock are shown as available on the shop website, it is misleading.

There are also too many customer reviews of Anthropologie not forthcoming with refunds. It’s been mentioned in this review that the long processing time for returns means that customers can wait frustratingly to get their refund. Lastly, one stick with which Anthropologie was flogged in the reviews was poor customer service. In many of the reviews, customers have it that they got little or no assistance whatsoever or that the support agent who attended to them was rude etc. In the issues of “out of stock” items causing delays in delivery, reviews have it that Anthropologie didn’t as much as communicate customers on the status of their orders. Only when customers do not get delivery, and then bombard customer support service will they get the “out of stock” excuse. What is more, the reviews have it that no apologies are tendered, and in most cases, there is also no communication of when the items should be expected.

This review can somehow attend to the poor customer support service because Anthropologie did not respond to any of the numerous negative reviews of Anthropologie on these customer review platforms. Usually, fashion retailers (whether out of concern for customers or simply PR) respond to aggrieved customers on these platforms and try to help with the resolution of issues.

On another of the customer review platforms (influencer), Anthropologie is actually rated highly, with an average rating of 4.1 out of 5. Again, there is also a consensus that items are “a bit pricey”. However, it is also agreed that items are of good quality, especially the small house accessories.

Summary

Anthropologie advertises as a portal of discovery, where the creative minded woman can find distinctive fashion styles and home décor. First, the store is legit and has over 2 decades of seamless operation in fashion and home décor retailing. They also pledge a commitment to ensuring the security of customers’ data.

“The treasures you find at Anthropologie”, as they call their items, are top quality merchandise, which is sourced and crafted with care. However, you’ll find that they are highly priced. Though Anthropologie offers regular promotions, these are a bit too conservative, and as such, prices slashed by such promotions are still on the high side.

Anthropologie also has one of the longest returns windows in the fashion retail business. Thus, if you’re not totally satisfied with your order, you can return it and you’ll be issued a refund. However, the long returns processing time and the experiences of many customers suggest that you may wait quite a while to get your refund.

The one very nasty patch on the shine of Anthropologie is the persistent complaint that the store advertises items that are out of stock, only to hold customers money when they order those items, and make customers wait until the items are made available before the orders are processed and shipped out. If this issue can be resolved, returns processing and refunds can be expedited, and prices can be brought low, Anthropologie will be hard to beat in the fashion and home décor retail business.

I like

• A wide selection of clothing items and home collection
• Free shipping available
• Long refund window (up to 60 days)
• Process orders same day they are placed (or at most 48 hours for standard shipping)

I didn’t like

• Relatively high qualifying amount for free shipping (orders of $150 or more)
• Shipping cost increases with an increase in the total cost of the order
• Long time to get a refund
• Conservative promotional offers
• Long response time for email support service
• Persistent complain of showing as available items that are out of stock, thereby misleading customers into ordering and waiting for too long to receive delivery

Do you have experience with Anthropologie? Good or bad, kindly use the review section below to give us your brief Anthropologie review.