Save Yourself: The 10 Worst Online Retailers

Ads like this are the only reason to visit AmericanApparel.com...if you like that sort of thing

​It's frustrating enough to shop for friends and family members during the holidays. Do I get my 80-year-old aunt a gift card to Kroger or H-E-B? Decisions, decisions.

Unfortunately, some online merchants make the process even more difficult by creating overly complicated, ugly or annoying Web sites. Instead of shopping with the Christmas spirit away from raucous crowds, you spend your time reversing credit card charges, waiting on hold for customer service and drinking whiskey straight out of the bottle. It's beginning to look a lot like IHATEMYLIFEANDWANTEVERYONETODIE-mas.

Fortunately for you, we've put together this list of the ten worst online retailers to keep you from going crazy and shooting Santa. You can thank us later...with an iTunes gift card.

You can read my list of the 10 Best Online Retailers here.

Yes, bubble-tab graphics do still exist online

​10. Microcenter.com
I love Micro Center, but this is a Web site only nerds can love, just like their insane newspaper sale flyer I get every month. We assume that the PC engineers ganged up on the Apple graphics guys during the initial Web site meetings and chanted, "Function over form! Function over form!" as they beat them senseless with millions of lines of code.

Banner ads on your retail Web site mean you're doing it wrong.

​9. ToysRUs.com
I almost feel bad taking a crap on Geoffrey the Giraffe like this, but parents often have less of a clue when it comes to technology than kids, so a Web site designed for selling toys probably should be easier to use than this. Also, would it kill you to update your graphics to something that doesn't make us feel like we're going into a seizure?

8. Costco
It makes sense that a store overly packed with bags of potato chips the size of a burlap sack and value packs of flatscreens would have a Web site that was cluttered and difficult to use. Also, we're pretty sure most monitors are now wider than 800 pixels, so you might want to consider widening your layout there, Costco.

7. JC Penney
You'd think that a mall store that got busted for gaming Google last year would have spent as much time and money on the Web site it was trying to artificially force up the search engine rankings as it did on the cheating. Clearly, that is not what happened. The skinny layout forced all the way to the left of the browser window screams 2001.

Nothing says "we hate our online customers" like hiding the links to the merchandise.

​6. Nordstrom.com
It seems like many of the luxury retailers have a tendency to skimp on the Web site. It isn't the dumbest idea, as often rich people are too busy hiring butlers and drinking champagne in the back of their Bentleys to bother with online shopping, but they could make it easier for their personal assistants, right? This isn't a horrible Web site, but, conceptually, it needs to be held to a higher standard when considering the clientele and the type of merchandise it sells.