Online Clothes Shopping Guide

As much as I love the convenience of buying stuff online, it hasn't been a smooth sailing experience when it comes buying clothes online. In fact, recently I've sworn several times to never buy another piece of clothing online. But as you can guess, the convenience and the increasingly powerful digital advertising media keeps drawing me back again and again to the stores where I've made bad purchases hoping that this time around it's going to be different. However I can't say that all of my online-shopping experience has been bad, and there are definitely lessons to be learned and tips to note down, so I'd like to summarize my experience below in hope that it will help others in the quest for the perfect online clothes shopping experience. I will be focusing on those stores I frequent the most.

Victoria's Secret

Beauty is in the [fill in the blank]. My answer --- model. I don't think I'm the first girl to ask the question "why does it look so good on the model and not on me"? No actually I don't think it's just because the model is prettier and thinner, and have bigger boobs. It also has much to do with the quality of the clothes. Sometimes I'm just not so convinced that what I see on the catalogue is actually what I get in the mail. As far as clothing from VS goes (excluding lingerie), my overall impression is that they are made of poor quality material, and have just so so or below average workmanship compare to items in the same price range that you may find in department stores.

Lingerie on the other hand fares better, however you still risk getting sub-par quality items if the item you've chosen is not sold in the stores. It's definitely easier to pass off cheaply-made items for more than what they are online just by putting them on a pretty model since you can't feel or touch the material. The company knows it and takes full advantage of that fact.

Overall Impression: Unsatisfactory
Clothes - thumbs way down
Lingerie - thumbs up for in stores
thumbs up for online if item also available in-store, and is on sale
Return Shipping: $5

ASOS.com
My previous post rated ASOS very high in terms of their online-advertising effort, but this is a post about the quality of items sold, and I'd have to say that they too suffer from the same malady as Victoria's Secret. What rated ASOS so high in the previous post is what rates them so low in this post, because the glitzy pictures and run-way videos raise your expectations of the products so high that in the end the let-down is so great that it's almost unbearable. More often than not have I ended up buying poor quality items that can not be worn period, or can not be worn again after one wash. However, I have to say that I have been buying mostly their store brand stuff, which is much cheaper than the designer collection they have. Perhaps my cheapness got to me. But who's not looking out for bargains?

Overall Impression: I can't resist their website ... sigh. But most of the stuff on sale are better off left on the models. I'm sure you can't go wrong with their designer stuff, but I'd much rather just try them on in a store to make sure things fit if I'm going to blow that much money on a piece of clothing.
Sales: they are so very very enticing but more likely than not, you're better off spending the money on buying one good piece of clothe than purchasing many pieces of ill-fitting rags.
Return: They're in UK! So don't plan to return anything.


J Crew

I love J Crew for its quality in stores and online. The down-side of purchasing items online is that you can not return the clearance items period. So if you happen to get them in the wrong size, you are stuck with them. However, the quality never fails to impress me regardless of what I get. Their online items are as good as their in store items. However their in-store sales are much better than their online sales.

Overall Impression: Great Quality
Sales: better in store than online
Returns Negatives: can not return clearance items bought online

Gap
I think the quality of their clothing in general has been going down in the recent years, even though the price hasn't. And as in the J Crew case, their online quality is very comparable to their in-store quality because the items sold are more or less the same.

However I did enjoy shopping at Gap Maternity online last year. The clothes are very comfortable and stylish as pictured online. I also loved the return policy where you can return the clothes in any store free of charge.

Quality: thumbs up for maternity, but down for general women's clothing
Returns: good anywhere in-store

Banana Republic
The only thing I've bought from Banana Republic online ever was a belt since I wanted to test out the waters before doing any bulk purchases. To my dismay, the item turned out to be of lesser quality than pictured.

Nordstrom
Great sales for design brands. The quality is guaranteed by the fact that you are purchasing designer labels. They also allow you to return online-bought items to any stores. I would definitely buy from them again if I weren't so cash-strapped right now.

Shopbop.com
The items sold on this website are in general over my price range, however, it's still nice to see what kinds of nice things are out there. While pregnant I wanted to buy something to motivate myself to lose the baby weight after baby, so I went to the website and found a designer red dress which was on deep discount. When the dress came, of course I was too big to fit into it, so I waited and waited. Let's just say that in the end, the dress acted as a great motivator, and that was about it.