These days there are so many ways to spend money online. Gone are the days when online shopping was restricted to Amazon.com or Ebay.com. Now, websites offer sample sales, sale alerts, and powerful comparison tools. Online shopping can be particularly useful (and oh so exciting!) for Professionelles too busy to hit up bricks and mortar shops or needing a break at work. Here are a few of my favorites as well as tips to make the most of your online shopping experience.
General Tips:
- Don't pay for shipping: Most websites these days offer free shipping. Usually free shipping on returns as well. For example, Endless.com, one of my favorite online shoe retailers offers free overnight shipping on most shoes. Amazing! If the website isn't offering free shipping directly, Google the web site's name with the words "free shipping" and you can usually find a free shipping code. People who hate online shopping often complain about the extra cost of shipping, especially if the item doesn't fit and needs to be returned. With free shipping, online shopping costs the same as in store shopping.
- Search for coupon codes: Stores often mail out promotional codes to preferred customers and sometimes those customers post their codes online for the rest of the world to use. It's definitely worth the extra effort to look for promotional codes.
- Price compare: once you find an item you like, make sure you look to see if other stores are carrying it at a cheaper price. This is as simple as typing the item into Google (notice a theme in this post?) and seeing what else pops up. If you do find the same item, in the same size, for less, you can check to see if your original retailer offers a price match or beat promotion. Also, make sure to check back within a week of your purchase to see if the price has dropped. Many websites will give you a price adjustment. For example, Zappos.com will credit you the difference within 10 days.
My Favorite Sites
- Sample sale sites: These websites take overstock items from designers, usually sold at sample sales, typically in New York, and puts them online. Most of these websites are "invitation only," but an invite usually just means a referral from a friend. There are two that I visit regularly: Gilt Groupe and RueLaLa. Both work in the same way. Each day, several new designer "boutiques" are opened. The sales last for a few days and the items are heavily discounted. Popular items go very quickly. From personal experience, when a Gilt sale is posted at noon each day, many items are sold out in 15 minuets. I personally prefer Gilt Groupe to RueLaLa, primarily because Gilt has better designers. RueLaLa will occasionally carry a designer I love, but Gilt is more reliable. Gilt, however, usually carries items at a higher price point than RueLaLa. A $500 bag is still unaffordable even if it is 75% off. A general tip for Gilt is to preview the week's coming designers and make sure to sign in at exactly noon on the day of the sale. Put all items you find initially desirable in your shopping cart. This will give you 10 minuets to decide if you want the item. When time runs out the item will be released to other shoppers. If you aren't already on Gilt, click here to sign up.
- Sale alert sites: My two favorite sale alert sites are Shop It To Me and Shopstyle. Sale alert sites send you emails informing you when items you're interested in go on sale. These sites allow you to customize the kinds of sales you're interested in by brand, category of clothing, or specific items (Shopstyle only, once you find a specific item you'd like receive an alert on, roll over the item, then click the sale alert button). You can also narrow your results by size and price as well as dictate how often you receive these sale alerts. Once you find an item you like, you will be taken directly to the online retailer offering it and you can make your purchase there. Shop It To Me also allows you to poll your friends on whether they like a particular item you're considering buying. When you receive your SaleMail alert click on the envelope icon under the specific item.
- Comparison sites: Comparison sites allow you to compare prices and styles. My two favorite are Like.com and Shopstyle. Like.com works by running visual, color, and detail searches of a base item or type of item you designate. For example, if you are looking for wedge sandals, search for wedge sandals. Once you find one you like, you can run a visual search which will pull up other wedge sandals that are similar. Through this search, you may be able to find something similar or even better for less. Alternatively, you can enter a specific item you know you like, but perhaps can't afford, or is not exactly perfect. Using the same search mechanism, you may be able to find a cheaper option or a more perfect item. Shopstyle is sort of a hybrid between aggregation websites (like yahoo or MSN) and social networking websites (like Facebook or Myspace). Shopstyle allows you to search a broad cross section of stores for theperfect item. It also allows users to create a profile , make a look book, or maintain a wish list. Other users can browse or follow particular people in order to find inspiration.
Online Shopping Scams
ReplyDeleteSHOPPING ONLINE HAS its perks but security from shopping scams isn't one of them.
Internet-related fraud accounted for 60% of all consumer complaints in 2006.
1. Missing Auction Goods
police are currently hunting a man who has conned eBay buyers out of more than $100,000, selling them trucks, cars and boats he has never delivered. Auction fraud — i.e., when goods are not delivered or grossly misrepresented — holds the dubious distinction of being No. 1 on the National Consumer League's Top 10 Internet Scams list every year since 1998.
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