I have a friend who’s an E-Bay addict, let’s call her E-Holic.
E-Holic buys 80% of her clothes from E-Bay (usually designer) and anything she doesn’t like or that doesn’t fit she re-sells on E-Bay – often for more than she paid for it.
Please note that E-Holic is a shopping demon, and slim with an hourglass figure, so luckily for her she can get away with a wider variety of styles than the rest of us. She also knows her own personal style very well and rarely makes the wrong choice.
E-Holic uses a bid sniper service - I forget which one. In case you’re not familiar with them they are often low cost and put in a bid for you at the very last moment ensuring no one else has a chance to make a subsequent bid. It helps prevent against a bidding war as well, meaning that you are likely to win the item at a lower price.
E-bay, and on-line shopping in general, works well for E-Holic but not everyone is so lucky. I find it a hassle to re-sell on E-Bay and so unless you are selling high priced items personally I just can’t be bothered. It’s easy enough to do but can be time consuming to take and upload the picture; write the description; wrap and pack the item; queue at the post office etc
Shopping on-line can be good for the wallet if you know what you’re looking for but find you get easily distracted in stores. So if you’re on a budget, and a mission(!) then on-line could be the way to go. Beware though that if you’re buying something for a special occasion you’ll need to allow enough time for delivery and to find something else in case it’s not right.
A big advantage of buying in store is of course that you have the opportunity to try things on and so usually when you bring clothes home you already know you love them; that they fit properly and flatter you. When buying on-line you can really look forward to them arriving only to be disappointed when you try them on. If you return the item/s and end up with nothing then you can be left feeling pretty deflated.
Also you can’t feel the quality of the material when buying on-line which, if you’re a touchy feely person like me, is a big disadvantage. Your love of an item of clothing can often be strongly influenced by how it feels against your skin and although the on-line description will tell you the type of material (and sometimes you can watch a moving image of a model wearing it) it can still be tricky to know exactly how it will cling and hang on your body.
Most on-line stores are now very good at making it easy to return items and many offer free postage on your returns. ASOS has to be my favourite and in my opinion has got pretty much everything right from start to finish. The layout of their website is user friendly; they have a wide variety of choice (including designer wear); competitive prices; very quick despatch time; excellent delivery service (with my deliveries they often come back at the end of the day if they have missed me earlier); easy to return; free postage on returned items; quick confirmation of returned items and a quick refund.
No, I promise I’m not working on commission - they really are that good!
A lot of other on-line stores have got it right as well and so on the whole there is no reason to be put off by the hassle of returning unwanted items – most of the time it’s no hassle at all.
When deciding to shop on-line on-line or in store it’s worth considering the following criteria:
a) Do you have a clear idea of what you’re looking for?
b) Do you know how to dress for your body shape and what is likely to suit you?
c) Do you know which colours suit you without trying them on?
d) Are there certain on-line stores which seem to cater well for your body shape?
If you’ve answered yes to most of these questions then on-line is probably the way to go; otherwise take at least 3 or 4 hours out of your day to visit your local shopping area. On-line shopping is very convenient; less tiring on your feet and less stressful if you hate crowds. It can also be a great way to cheer yourself up at the end of a difficult day but on balance I would say that nothing replaces a day out shopping with a good friend.
Alice Treanor © 2010
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