CBS Essentials: How we choose the best products for your home, work and life

It’s simple: CBS Essentials is your trusted guide to online shopping. Our mission is to help you find strong, reliable products for your home, your health and your family, and to connect you with the latest deals and news on the brands you love, all from one name you can trust. you can count.

Our writers and editors live and breathe online shopping, with years of collective experience spanning the retail landscape and product review. We compile expert advice, customer reviews, and first-hand know-how to find the right products to recommend. We’re plugged into all the top retailers to make sure we know when deals drop, new product launches and sales start. And we provide how-to reviews in the categories where shoppers want the most help with their decision-making: consumer tech, mattresses, robot vacuums, apparel, and more.

And this is important: our editors work independently of the CBS News newsroom; we work independently of retailers; and we earn money when you buy things from our links. We will always be clear with our readers about this.

How we select products

Our team of experts reviews each product across five key metrics to provide in-depth, objective and helpful recommendations.

1. Verified reviews: We only consider products that are widely reviewed with consistently high ratings from verified buyers and qualified experts. If a product does not meet this high standard, it is not part of our buying guides.
2. Trust in the brand: There’s a reason Americans trust some brands more than others, and we pay special attention to those with proven track records, consistent sales, and solid reputations for quality and satisfaction. We’re always on the lookout for new, innovative companies and products that may interest your household, but we weigh our selection metrics in favor of those that have a proven track record.
3. Customer Feedback: We keep tabs on what our readers buy, what they keep, what they return, what they repurchase. We listen to what our readers and fellow consumers have to say, and incorporate that data into the buying guides and deals we bring to you.
4. News: We keep a constant eye on new products and brands, and review them with the same meticulous standards we apply to every review and summary. Whether it’s a new product that’s gone viral or a new brand that’s disrupting an entire business model, we make sure it meets our quality criteria before recommending it.
5. Features and history: Whether it’s a brand new washer dryer combo or the latest smartphone, features and capabilities matter. We evaluate each product’s feature offerings against its previous versions and competitors. Our experts—in tech, furniture, appliances, cooking, travel, fitness, and deals—know which features matter, so you can too.

Our goal at CBS Essentials is to do rigorous research so you don’t have to, and to recommend only the best products for your busy life.

How the CBS Essentials Team Works

The Essentials team sticks to strict content guidelines: all product selections and editorial decisions are our own. We have affiliate relationships with many retailers, which is how CBS Essentials makes money. When you click on a link to purchase a product, we receive a portion of the resulting sales revenue. This affiliate relationship does not affect our editorial decisions and our mission remains to provide readers with the best deals.

Our items are also not influenced by retailers. Sometimes a particular post may be sponsored by a brand. In this case, it will be clearly identified as “sponsored content”. We will always be upfront about this.

How we select our offers

Not all sales are profitable. Some offers are rarer or more valuable than others. You can count on CBS Essentials to tell you not just when a new deal drops, but how epic that sale really is. Some items may be out of stock at the time the links are clicked. Some offers may be over by the time you read an article. These things are subject to the retailer, and we work hard to keep up to date with deals and stock information.

Follow the essentials of CBS

There are many ways to stay in touch with our team and our coverage: