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Wards.com Isn’t Just an Old Brand Online—it’s a Weird Blend of Nostalgia and Buy-Now-Pay-Later Shopping
You know Wards.com, right? Or at least the name rings a bell. Montgomery Ward used to be a retail giant. Now it’s been reborn as an online catalog store with a heavy focus on “Buy Now, Pay Later.” It’s the same name, but the game feels very different.
The Backstory You Didn’t Know You Needed
Montgomery Ward wasn’t some small-town shop. In the late 1800s, it basically invented the mail-order catalog. Farmers in the Midwest would order furniture, tools, even entire houses from it. Fast-forward a century, and the company had department stores all over the country.
But by the late ’90s, they were getting steamrolled by Walmart, Target, and all the other retail heavyweights. Bankruptcy hit in 1997. By 2001, every last store was shuttered. That should’ve been the end of the story.
It wasn’t. A small direct-marketing company scooped up the rights to the name in 2004. Then Colony Brands—the folks behind Swiss Colony—took over and decided to give Montgomery Ward a second life. No new stores, though. Just catalogs and a website: Wards.com.
What You Can Actually Buy There
Think of it like an old-school Sears catalog that lives entirely online. Wards.com sells all the obvious home stuff—sofas, dining tables, rugs, and bedding—but it doesn’t stop there.
There’s electronics like TVs and laptops, kitchen appliances, jewelry, clothing, even power tools. One glance at the site and you see “New Arrivals” plastered across categories. A velvet accent chair might show up for $299—or more likely, “$20 a month.” That payment language is everywhere.
It’s not trying to compete with Amazon’s two-day delivery blitz. It’s built for people who want to browse, think, maybe circle something in a catalog they got in the mail. Then they’ll spread the cost out over a bunch of small payments.
The Hook: Buy Now, Pay Later
The site leans hard into Wards Credit, its in-house payment program. That’s the main reason people shop there.
Here’s how it works: You buy a $400 dresser, and instead of dropping the whole $400, you pay $20 a month. There’s no annual fee. And if you pay on time, Wards reports to the credit bureaus, which can help your credit score.
The approval bar isn’t sky-high, which is part of the appeal. Even if someone has shaky credit, they might still get approved if they can make a down payment. It’s a lifeline for people who need a new fridge but don’t want to max out a high-interest credit card.
The Numbers Behind the Curtain
Despite the familiar name, Wards.com isn’t a giant anymore. In 2024, it made around $50 million in online sales. That’s not nothing, but compared to Wayfair or Amazon, it’s a drop in the bucket.
Most of that money comes from furniture and home goods. It’s not selling rare sneakers to hypebeasts—it’s selling recliners to people who still like flipping through catalogs with sticky notes in hand.
Where Things Get Messy
Here’s where the shine fades: reviews are brutal.
On Trustpilot, Wards.com has a 1.4 out of 5. Out of 156 reviews, nearly 80% are one star. PissedConsumer’s numbers aren’t much better.
People complain about shipping that feels stuck in the ’90s—delays, lost packages, and sky-high fees. Some customers say they were promised credit they didn’t actually get. Others complain about being overcharged or left hanging on refunds.
One review summed it up bluntly: “Poor customer service… takes 3 weeks to get your order.” That’s not a rare outlier—it’s the tone of most reviews.
Why Anyone Still Shops There
Despite all that, people keep ordering from Wards.com. Why? The credit program.
When someone’s fridge dies or their kid needs a bed, spreading payments over time without going deep into credit card debt is a big deal. For many, Wards is one of the few places offering that option without making it complicated.
The catalog angle matters too. Some customers still enjoy flipping pages, circling what they want, and mailing in orders. That nostalgia is powerful, even if the execution isn’t always smooth.
The Good and the Bad, Plain and Simple
There are obvious upsides. The site has tons of products. Payments are flexible. Credit reporting can help people build financial footing. And there are regular clearance sales—3,000 markdowns aren’t uncommon.
But the problems are just as obvious. Customer service is slow and frustrating. Shipping is expensive and often delayed. Credit approval can feel random. And if something goes wrong with billing, it can take weeks to fix.
What Wards.com Really Is Today
This isn’t the Montgomery Ward your grandparents knew. There are no green-awning stores or legendary guarantees. Wards.com is an online storefront built on the bones of a famous name, with a catalog vibe and a buy-now-pay-later engine running the show.
It’s a niche player, serving people who want or need that kind of financing and don’t mind waiting for their purchases. But anyone shopping there should go in with eyes wide open—expect occasional headaches, high shipping costs, and a lot of “please hold” if you call for help.
The Takeaway
Wards.com is a strange mix of nostalgia and necessity. It gives shoppers a way to buy furniture, gadgets, and home goods without shelling out all the cash at once. That’s the hook—and for some, that’s enough.
But the name doesn’t mean you’ll get the kind of service Montgomery Ward once stood for. Today’s Wards is smaller, scrappier, and sometimes sloppy. If you use it, keep orders small at first, track them carefully, and don’t let the monthly payment promises blind you to the fine print.
For anyone who remembers circling gifts in the old Montgomery Ward catalog, it’s both familiar and completely different—like running into an old friend who’s changed a lot since you last saw them.
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