Hollar Review: Is Legit or Scam?

Hollar is your one-stop shop for a wide variety of items such as toys, apparel, electronics, beauty products, accessories and party supplies to home essentials – all at an unbeatable dollar!

Everyone needs stuff. But where is the best place to get these? Online shopping has come to stay as a shopping option; and because of the convenience that it offers, it’s even overtaking traditional purchases in brick and mortar stores. As a result, there are many online stores today.

Interestingly, while convenience is highly rated, harsh economic realities are pushing customers to rate stores that offer sweet deals even more highly. That is where Hollar comes in. It is an online dollar store – a store that gives the convenience of online stores as well as the sweet deals of dollar stores.

Yes, Hollar is legit. It is not a scam online store because they will never steal your money or credit card details. And they will ship any item you purchased from the store to your destination without a problem.

The big question is whether it is worthwhile to buy from Holler. Are the deals of the store too good to be true? If the store does offer high quality and functional items at “steal prices”; what about its service? Does it offer top services (like easy ordering, fast delivery, easy returns, effective customer service, etc) that we’ll expect of the go-to online shopping destination? In the first place, is Hollar legit, or is it just another scam?

This Hollar review will examine Hollar in order to provide the information that will help you answer these questions and more.

Hollar review at a glance

• Website: www.hollar.com
• A US-based online dollar store which was started in 2015
• Offers a wide range of products that include home, office, and school supplies, toys, apparel, shoes, and fashion accessories, and more
• With items costing only a few bucks, prices are some of the lowest you’ll find anywhere
• Offers a price match guarantee
• Quality of items offered is largely fine
• Ships to only the US (the 48 contiguous US States)
• Free shipping is available (for orders over $25)
• Unwanted items can be returned to Hollar within 365 days of the order date
• Customer support is available via email (support@hollar.com) and telephone (888-682-5119)

What is Hollar?

Shopping on the cheap has grown in popularity especially since various worldwide recessions. But why pay a premium for a piece when you can get an almost identical functional piece for a bargain? This is the draw of dollar stores. These dollar stores are especially popular in the US, as they are in the tens of thousands.

Hollar is an attempt to bring dollar stores online. It was started in late 2015 by a group of like minds; some vastly experienced in discount shopping. In particular, David Yeom (who is a co-founder and current CEO) is someone who, while growing up, spent countless weekends hunting for deals in discount shops. Also, John Um (also a co-founder) was at the time the Head of Strategy at the 99 Cents Only Stores. Hollar was intentionally set up as a store to discover things you didn’t know you needed, and things you need every day; from toys to houseware, to apparel, and more. Its goal is to offer incredible products at the best prices around. According to its site, when you shopping Hollar, “you can shop freely knowing you’re getting the most for your dollar”.

Is Hollar legit?

Hollar is a legitimate store. In this digital world, even fraudsters have gone online. Many use storefronts to rip people off. Thus, you’ll want to make sure that an online store is legit before making any payment in it for an order.

We will not follow the lead of some reviewers that attach the legit label to stores that they are satisfied with, and the scam label to scam that they are not satisfied with. Rather, we’ll follow an objective course.

The first test of a legit online store is legality. This is because an e-commerce platform that is backed by a 100% legal company is less likely to be a scam. In this regard, the website is operated by Hollar Inc which is a Company duly registered in the US. Suffice it to say that scam stores do not seek company registration certificates.

Another test of a legit online store is visibility and industry-wide recognition. This is because the scam stores operate in the shadows. Thankfully, Hollar ticks this box. First, there is a physical presence. Hollar has an identifiable office and warehouse that holds millions of units of merchandise. Thus, it is unlike scam stores that are only virtual and do not have any physical merchandise to deliver.

Also, Hollar has grown in popularity since it debuted. This is thanks to targeted social media and TV advertisement as well as a partnership with industry influencers (one of such Hollar’s partners is vlogger Kathryn Snearly). Suffice it to say that the scam stores will not seek the exposure of adverts or partnerships.

Another test of a legit online store is the test of time. This is because in our information age, a scam store will be called out after only a few rip-offs; and with such exposure, it will disappear. Granted, Hollar has been operating for just under four years; but given its exposure, that is more than enough time for it go under if it were a scam.

The ultimate test of a legit online store is “fitness for purpose”. This is because a legit store will deliver real products that are functional. Hollar ticks this box. You only need to do a little internet search, and you’ll find happy customers. Granted, there are also negative reviews, but the sheer numbers of positive reviews are overwhelming.

Thus, there is really no doubt that Hollar is a legit online dollar store. Being 100% legal has industry-wide recognition, has a good operating history, and fulfils orders with functional products. Also, remember the complaint of Hollar restricting purchases. This is in sharp contrast to what the scams will do.

Is Hollar Safe?

Hollar is safe. A legit online store will not rip you off, but it also has to be safe so that it will not leak your sensitive information (such as credit card detail) to unauthorized persons and leave you exposed to the online fraudsters out there.

In this regards, it is safe to say that Hollar is safe. The online dollar store uses secure payment channels. Also, its website seems to employ the industry-standard SSL encryption for providing a private connection between a retailer and its customers. More importantly, there is no report of Hollar suffering a data breach or any record of anyone complaining of leakage of payment instrument details after using Hollar.

Products

Many shoppers want a one-stop-shop that allows them to get all they need in one place. This is super convenient as it saves you the time and effort f checking out another store. But it may also result n cost savings – from big order discounts, or from shipping one order instead of shipping different orders from multiple stores. Hollar ticks the box in this regards.

Hollar offers a wide range of stuff. You can get virtually all home essentials, lifestyle products, toys fashion products and accessories, and more. When shopping in Hollar, the product categories you’ll find, and the items you’ll find in each category are as follows:

• Toys – Sports an Outdoor Play, Action Figures and Sets, Games and Puzzles, Novelty Toys, Building Sets and Blocks, Dolls, Stuffed Animal and Plush Toys, Learning and Education, Dress-Up and Hero Play, Grown-Up Toys, Music and Sound
• Kitchen – Tableware, Tools and Gadget, Kids’ Kitchen, Kitchen Storage, Drinkware, Bakeware and Cookware, Cutlery, Cook Books
• Office, School and Craft – Back to School, Arts and Crafts, Kids’ Art and Craft, Kids’ Backpacks and Lunch Bags, Kids’ School Supplies, Office Supplies
• Home – Storage and Organization, Bedding, Bath, Home Décor, Kids’ Home, Outdoor and Gardening
• Health – Personal Care, Health Care, Exercise and Fitness, Travel Size
• Beauty – Make-Up, Beauty Tools, Cosmetics Bags and Organizers, Hair Care, Skin Care, Nails
• Apparel and Accessories – Women’s Accessories (Hats, Gloves, Handbags), Kid’s Accessories (Key Chains, Headband, Hair Clip, Totes, etc), Travel Accessories, Jewelry (Bracelets, Necklaces, Earrings, etc), Women’s Clothing and Shoes (Dresses, Tops, Bottoms, Swimwear, etc), Girls’ Clothing and Shoes, Boys’ Clothing and Shoes, Men’s Clothing and Shoes
• Household – Air Fresheners, Automotives, Batteries, Cleaning supplies, Dish Washing Supplies, Hardware, Household Cleaners, Laundry, Outdoor and Gardening, Paper and Disposable Plastics
• Seasonal Supplies – Summer (Pool and Beach Supplies, etc), Easter, Valentine Day, etc
• Grocery – Beverages, Candy and Sweets, Condiments, Spreads and Spices, Dry Grocery, Snacks
• Baby – Baby and Toddler Toys, Baby Shoes and Clothing, Diapering, Essentials, Nursery, Nursing and Feeding
• Party – Bundles, Decorations, Party Favours and Games, Table Ware, Invitations and Stationery, Gift Bags and Accessories
• Tech – Audio and Video, Cables and Cords, Cell Phone Accessories, Laptop and Tablet Accessories
• Pet – Dogs Supplies, Cats Supplies

One beautiful thing about Hollar is that you’ll find a host of branded products. Unlike many cheap and affordable stores that sell only off-label products, Hollar gives you many popular brands.

Importantly, Hollar gives good quality. It is not news that cheap products, most often than not, feature cheap quality. However, Hollar is out to beat this “you get what you pay for” syndrome. We understand that quality means different things to different people, but everyone will want a functional and durable product.

The many reviews of Hollar in the independent customers’ review platforms show that Hollar can be classed as delivering quality products. For example, in Sitejabber.com Hollar is rated 4.0/ 5.0 (by 339 reviewers), and on Trustpilot.com it is rated 5.2/ 10 (by 39 reviewers). On both platforms, Hollar got raving reviews for the quality of its products. The relatively average rating of Hollar on Trust Pilot came largely from non-quality related complaints.

Using Hollar

It’s also relatively easy to use Hollar. It has a simple website that should be familiar to online shoppers but at the same time intuitive enough for those new to online shopping. You can find items by browsing the product categories. You’ll also see many items on the landing page of the website under “steals of the day”. Alternatively, you can use the search tool. Clicking on any item will take you to its description page where you can view its details. You can add an item to your cart with a click of a button. Checking out is also relatively easy. Also, Hollar takes phone orders. So if you need help placing an order, you can contact its Customer Support via email or telephone.

Most times, customers will want to modify or cancel an order after placing it. Thankfully, Hollar allows this. However, such requests are only granted if the order has not shipped. Since many items are quickly processed and dispatched, you’ll want to submit any order modification or cancellation request as fast as possible.

Pricing and Related Policies

Pricing

Hollar advertises that you can find what you love for just a few bucks, promising to give the best prices around. It does live up to this promise. You’ll find a $1.00 shop where you can find a host of items for just $1.00. You’ll be surprised at what you can get with $10 in Hollar. In fact, you’ll literally be filling your cart.

Price Match Guarantee

To ensure that customers get the best deals possible. Hollar even offers a Price Match Guarantee. That is, if you find a product on a competitor’s website advertised for less than it is in Hollar, as long as the product is identical to the one Hollar is offering, it will match the price.

Competitors’ prices will be matched for up to 30 days after the date of purchase. Eligible competitors that Hollar will match their prices include Amazon.com, Target.com, Walmart.com, Dollargeneral.com, Kohls.com and 16 other online stores.

Promotions

Won’t you want to be able to get items for free or for less than their listed price? Then you’ll like stores that run a lot of promotions. Thankfully, despite its rock-bottom prices, Hollar still comes out as a promotions-generous store.

On the landing page of Hollar, you’ll find a host of discount coupons slashing prices by as much as over 80%. There are even a referral and a welcome bonus. When you refer someone and that someone makes a qualifying purchase, you and the friend will each receive $2.00 credits to be used for purchases in Hollar. You can earn as much $50 referral credits in a year.

Payment Methods

You’ll an online store that supports a range of convenient payment methods so that paying for your order will be hassle-free. Thankfully, Hollar ticks this box. You can pay for your Hollar order with PayPal, as well as with all major credit and debit cards including Visa, Mastercard, Discover, and American Express. With these supported payment options, you shouldn’t have any problem with paying for your Hollar order.

Shipping

Unlike the brick and mortar dollar stores, you’ll not be walking out of Hollar with your purchase. Rather your order has to be moved from the fulfilment centre of Hollar to your address (where you’ll take possession of it). Thus, it’s important to consider if the store ships to your address (shipping destinations), how long it’ll take before the received delivery of your order (delivery time), and how much it’ll cost you (shipping cost).

Shipping Destination

You’ll only be shopping from an online store that ships to your location. Thus, you’ll want a store that ships to many worldwide locations so that your location is more likely to be covered.

In this regards, Hollar serves only its domestic market. It ships merchandise to only the 48 contiguous US States. Hollar does not ship to Alaska or Hawaii; it also does not ship to military (APO/ FPO) addresses. Thus, if you’re in the continental US states, you’ll find joy using Hollar; but if you’re resident anywhere else, you may have to do your online shopping elsewhere.

Delivery Times

No one will want to place an order and wait forever for it to be delivered. So the ideal legit online store will make fast deliveries.

In this regards, Hollar does relatively well. After an order is placed, the expected delivery time is 5 – 8 business days (excluding weekends and holidays). At the time of writing this review, Hollar supported only this Standard Shipping. Expedited Delivery options were not available. However, the standard delivery of 5 – 8 business days is still relatively fast. Hollar is able to achieve this relatively fast delivery time because orders are fulfilled from its fulfilment centre in Ohio (US).

Thus, if you are a US shopper, and are tired of cheap and affordable items purchased from China-based cross-border online stores which take an eternity to arrive, Hollar is a fine alternative. The low prices of Hollar products match (or even better) the pricing of these affordable Chinese products, the quality of Hollar may even be better, and delivery time of Hollar is 8 or more times faster.

Shipping Cost

The total cost of any online purchase is the item’s purchase cost and its shipping costs. Thus, even when the item is reasonably priced, high shipping costs can easily make it expensive to purchase. Thus, the ideal legit online store should also come with shipping costs that are as low as possible.

Thankfully, Hollar’s low pricing is not to be overturned by high shipping costs. The online store offers a flat shipping rate, which at only $3.99, is relatively very low. This is easily one of the lowest shipping cost you’ll find in the industry.

Interestingly, it also offers free shipping. Most often than not, free shipping offers come with a minimum purchase requirement. Many stores tend to set a high minimum purchase requirement to subtly pressure buyers to buy more (in order to chase free shipping). Thankfully, the minimum purchase requirement of Hollar to get free shipping is only $25. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a lower minimum purchase requirement in the whole industry. To put this in perspective, a minimum purchase requirement of $50 is widely considered as low and very friendly; and you’ll easily find stores with free shipping order requirement in three figures ($100+). Thus, Hollar does not give buyers the “subtle pressure” to buy more. With only $25 required to get free shipping, you’ll not have to break the bank in order to get free shipping.

Returns

Most often than not, online shoppers are not totally satisfied with their order when it is delivered. Reasons vary but we’ll not be highlighting these. Suffice it to say that a customer will want a store that allows him/ her to return an unwanted item to it. Thankfully, Hollar allows returns. What follows is its wonderful return policy.

Return Window

Stores that allow returns accept only returned items that get to its warehouse within a specified timeframe. Thus, you’ll want an extended time period so that your returned package will not get back late and be rejected.

Hollars says that if you are not 100% happy with its products, you can return it to the store within 365 days from the order date. If you’ve checked many reviews, you’ll find that this is one of the most generous return windows out there. The industry’s average is 30 days from the delivery date, but that does not compare to the full year (from the date of placing the order) that Hollar offers. Thus, the risk of a return shipment getting to Hollar late and being rejected is almost zero.

Return Process

You want a hassle-free return process so that you can easily return an unwanted item to its retailer. With Hollar, you only have to contact Customer Support (either through email or telephone) with a return request. However, products to be returned must be unused and in their original packaging.

Customer Support Service

No matter how efficiently or openly a store operates, people will have questions that they’ll need answers to before committing to using the store, while others that are already using the store may have issues with their orders. Thus, the ideal legit online store will have an effective customer support service for handling customers’ questions and complaints.

Thankfully, Hollar does fine in this regard. The first place to getting answers is usually an FAQ page with self-help articles, and you’ll find that Hollar has an FAQ page accessible from the landing page of its website. However, while the page is very succinct and provides sharp and direct answers that sufficiently treat the questions, we found that it is not very detailed.

However, if the FAQ does not do it for you, Hollar supports contact channels that allow you to directly reach a support Rep of the company. You can either send a mail (using support@hollar.com) or put a call through (using 888-682-5119). The contact time is between 7 am – 4 pm (PT) from Monday through to Friday.

We were impressed by the presence of the Hollar Customer Support on many of the independent Customers’ reviews platforms. The store goes to these platforms to proactively try to help customers who may have had issues.

While it’s fine that email and telephone channels are supported, we’ll like to also find a live chat feature. Also, support is not available 24/ 7; but for a store that serves only its domestic market, this can be forgiven, because there will be no problem of the support hours being the down-time of some customer in some part of the world.

Complaints

Purchase Restrictions

One complaint against Hollar that is very common is that it places restrictions on purchases. This is just one of the many reasons why the store has its somewhat average rating on Trust Pilot.

For example, Hollar’s best-selling $2 light-up jumbo pillows were so popular that the company’s had to put a one-per household limit. Imagine wanting to get two formats of these beauties (say the sparkling unicorn and the pink puppy). Many customers found to their frustration that they could only get one. In fact, many items in Hollar are so restricted. As such, very often customers find that they cannot make bulk purchases (as the jumbo pillows example shows, the bulk could just be a few more units).

To this, Hollar explains that most of its items are limited editions and that limits are placed on items to ensure that all of its customers can have the chance to order them. What this will mean is that products frequently run out of stock.

Damage in Transit

Another complaint against Hollar that can be found is that items are delivered in damaged conditions, which apparently was not the condition of the products when they were dispatched for shipping. With this complaint occurring in different platforms, we think it’s significant enough to deserve mention. It will appear that Hollar needs to do better in its packaging or that its shipping partners need to do better in its handling.

Sites Similar to Hollar:

• StyleWe
• BangGood
• TopHatter
• Rosewholesale
• Gearbest

Pros

• Offers a wide range of products
• Offers high-quality products including a host of brand-name products
• Offers rock-bottom prices
• Offers a price match guarantee
• Offers many price slashing promotions as well as a referral bonus
• Convenient payment methods are supported (credit/ debit cards and PayPal)
• With orders fulfilled from its Ohio fulfilment centre, delivery is relatively fast (5 – 8 business days)
• Free shipping is available and with a very low minimum order requirement ($25)
• Where free shipping does not apply, shipping cost is relatively low (flat rate of $3.99)
• Offers a very generous return window (365 days from order date)
• Customer support is available via email and telephone

Cons

• Ships merchandise to only the 48 continental US States
• Expedited shipping options are not available
• Products frequently run out of stock
• Sometimes, restrictions are placed on purchases
• Live Chat is not supported

Summary

Hollar is a legit online store. If you want convenience, deals, and value, you’ll find joy in Hollar. As an online store, you can simply click buttons, and it’ll ship products to your door. Like a dollar store, you’ll find a wide range of incredible products for $1 or just a few bucks (it even a low price match guarantee) Most importantly, it’s a legit store that offers top quality, so you’ll find that its products are largely functional.

You’ll find a wide range of products in the store; from fashion, accessories and beauty products, to home, office and school supplies, to toys, and more. Interestingly, these include some name-brand products. For a difference, shipping is relatively fast, shipping cost is relatively low, and if you happen not to like your order, you’ll have 365 days (from order date) to return it to Hollar for a refund.

However, Hollar is not all smooth sailing. At the time of writing this review, it ships directly to only the US using only Standard Shipping; some products go out of stock quickly, so purchase limits are placed on certain products; and sometimes, items get damaged in transit.