The world of on-line shopping has kept on growing and growing in the last decade from year to year. In 2012, in the United States, people bought products on-line in worth of 289 billion U.S. dollars, compared to 256 billion U.S. dollars in 2011. Most of the on-line shopping is going on around the winter holidays, while a lot of people try to avoid crowded stores and the cold weather.
But shopping for things on-line is not that easy, especially if you are buying clothes. Most people prefer to shop on-line because it saves them time, they spend less on gas, there are less taxes and there is no crowd. For now, clothes come in on the third places of things people buy on-line, after books and software which come in first, and electronics.
We have put together a list of things you should be looking for when you want to buy apparel on-line, broken down into quality matters and security matters. You can use the list the next time you want to shop from the comfort of your home.
Quality
A Fred Perry Knitted Full Button Cardigan can be a few clicks away if you know where to look. We found it on the Cockney Rebel Fashions site as well.
1. The easiest way to make sure a site that sells clothes is genuine, check if you can contact them in person as well. For example, Cockney Rebel Fashions is a UK e-shop that also owns a physical store. They sell clothes from really great brands, such as Fred Perry, Lyle and Scott and Diesel, and the fact that you can check the clothes out in real life and make sure they are really from the designers they claim to be, is a great plus-point. Buying from well-established brands is a secure way to go, but we also encourage you to buy from a local artisan once in a while.
2. The site you are buying from should have a good customer service. If you write them asking about some clothes or accessories you wish to buy and you don’t get a decent answer (or no answer at all), you should probably skip the site.
3. Before you buy, look at what others are saying. If you are already on-line, check other sites for reviews of the e-shop you are trying to buy from.
4. Buy from sites that offer you a lot of information on the item you wish to purchase, such as big photos, fabric information, size guides and more. If you only get a thumbnail, you’re probably not making a good deal. If you read a lot of details about a piece of clothing and when you receive it, it doesn’t correspond, you can have the site to back you up and a good reason to give it back. The site we mentioned before, Cockney Rebel, is a good example of how clothing should be presented on-line.
5. Just like in the case of physical shopping, think twice before buying an item. Do you have something with which you will wear it? Does it fit your wardrobe? This way, you will keep your clothes and wardrobe organized and functional.
Security
You can get a nice Lyle and Scott Merino V-neck jumper from the Cockney Rebel website.
1. Check if the site is secure. There are many ways of telling if a site is secure, one of them is the https intro to their address or a certain logo, such as a locked padlock that will appear in your browser or address bar.
2. Never give away private data, such as your social security number.
3. It’s best to buy from sites that have a return policy. Usually, it’s easy to return something you bought on-line and if the webpage you are trying to buy from is not going to offer you this possibility or it’s going to make it really expensive, it could be a scam.
4. Do you shopping from a computer you know and preferably own. Don’t buy from your work, cyber-cafe or other such places, as you never know where the information could end up and who else might be using the computer.
5. Credit cards are said to be the safest option to making a payment, because they you to seek a credit from the issuer in case the product isn’t delivered or does not correspond to what was ordered.
Additional tips:
1. If there are more items you wish to buy from a site, purchase them all at once so that you avoid possible shipping costs.
2. The disadvantage of buying exclusively on-line is that you cannot try on different things and experiment with the clothes. This is why it’s best to give physical shopping a try to, and then go to the on-line shop of the store.
3. According to a study, Tuesdays could be the best days to shop on-line for men’s clothes, but we think any day is a good day for fashion and shopping.
All in all, on-line shopping can be quite a good experience, but only if you do it right and make sure you keep up the standards of both quality and security!
Fraquoh and Franchomme
P.S. Do you buy on-line? What do you like to buy? What tips do you have for first-time buyers or experienced buyers? Share your comments below!
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