Online Shopping: The Good The Bad The Ugly

I love online shopping it's a pure addiction and I must admit I am pretty new to it, well new as in I've been buying online for about a year now, that's sort of new isn't it? Not entirely sure why I didn't get to it sooner, it's not that I'm concerned about fraud, people stealing my identity or wiping my credit card clean. First of all I've had someone try twice to use my credit card details online fraudulently, once they were able to use it for some "online entertainment" site for the grand total of $100, the other time they failed...suckers! I got the $100 from the bank so I know overall I'm protected, add to that there's never enough money on my credit card for someone to be able to use it to pay for anything too extravagant so I purchase freely always opting to use PayPal. Most banks will also call you if they see a strange transaction e.g. a transaction made in Kowloon Hong Kong when you live in Dubbo, so you're pretty safe.

  

So what makes me buy online? Part of the thrill is being able to browse freely, no one asking if you need help twice in less than a minute- this happened to me the other day and I am not entirely sure the sales assistant was of sound mind and body although working in retail can do that to you, poor love. You can take 3 or 4 days hunting down that perfect gift for your mum where as in store you’re limited by opening and closing hours and for those who’ve worked in retail like me when the doors are down it means we’re closed people closed! Then there is distance, time, travel and that wretched revolting thing known as Sydney traffic. The second major reason is the savings. I recently purchased a sewing machine, it’s still in the box but I just had to have it, I do sew, quite frequently at that but not this very second. The machine was about $160 and I saw the same in Spotlight for $300, man if I bought it in Spotlight then realised I could have saved $140 by buying online I would have probably thrown myself down a flight of stairs. Missing out on a sale makes me green and I get all fuzzy headed and mad and angry and disappointed and I just want to scream and and….sorry got carried away there for a minute. It does also truly pay to shop around online too. That same sewing machine was being sold by a number of retailers and there was price differences of up to $50. I have seen identical childrens clothing items vary in price by more than 30% so shop around, compare shipping and compare price. There are a number of price comparison websites dedicated to listing items and the various retailers as well as the price so you can instantly see who is cheaper, dig a little further and skip ahead a few pages in your google search, you might find that smaller newer just starting out retailer that has the item you want at a truly affordable rock bottom price.

  

The third big reason is the variety. There is nothing like logging onto Strawberry Net or Cosmetics Now and doing a bit of Umm…I’ll take that….and that…oh that’s cheap a litre of Kerastase shampoo for $30…yoink….oh yeah we need more lip-gloss…yep…ooh…I like Christian Dior at that price I better buy it….Honey do you want some aftershave, they have Bvlgari for $40. The options are amazing an endless variety of pretty things which keeps you coming back time and time again. Given that a large majority of our major shopping centres in Sydney tend to house the same stores in each centre the variety really is quite minimal. Not everyone likes to shop at Myer, David Jones or Target, not everyone digs Sportsgirl, Cotton On or Diva and sometimes they just simply don't have what you need at the price that you can afford. Add to that sometimes your shopping experience isn't all that it cracked out to be when you got ready in the morning, looking for the perfect outfit for your work Christmas party, you went down stairs and escalators, you tried on, dressed, undressed and redressed into 300 outfits and still didn't get anything you liked. Perhaps it was online after all?


So, when you add all these wonderful benefits together you start to realise that things that used to be out of your reach as they were far too expensive are now a possibility. No one needs to buy their makeup from the junk shop anymore unless that’s your thing and let me tell you once upon a time I did buy makeup from the Reject Shop as it was all I could afford. You can now have Chanel mascara for the same price as the Maybelline they sell in Woolworths and Price Line and if you’re not sure about that just check. I don’t mind Maybelline or Revlon or any of the mid range makeup that’s available but I find the quality of the high end brands far superior, far better for my skin and they last longer in all respects. The buck doesn’t stop with makeup, though considering the huge savings you can make on the high end brands by purchasing online (in excess of 50%) it tends to be the start of many people’s online shopping journey and as such I have noted down some of my favourites below.

  

While the cost savings are great and the variety abundant it’s also those little boutiquey, crafty, one of a kind pieces that I like to hunt for as well. Etsy is perfection when it comes to finding that little something different and I don’t know a person alive that doesn’t appreciate a complement on the little chevron necklace you picked up or the little moustache framed print in your son’s room. Gone are the days where everyone had basically the same thing from the same big 3 retailers in their house, on their backs and feet and on their walls, beds and couches. Online shopping opens up avenues to finding the most unique of items that truly suit you, your style and your budget. Extending from that online is great for buying those hard to get things that you can’t seem to find instore e.g. the bluey pads that I used under baby in the early days, nursing bras in a ridiculously large cup size, these little metal things that help keep my vertical blinds up, a spare part for a breast pump or a new spinning sweeper thingy for my robot vacuum cleaner.

  

As with anything there is always an element of risk involved, riding on an escalator can be dangerous if your laces are untied, you might just be standing at an ATM and roll you ankle totally stationary like my husband once did, you might even get hurt just sitting at your computer and get zapped during an electrical storm, the possibilities are endless, but on a serious note, online shopping has its ups and downs, nothing is perfect. First of all and I’m sure that most of this goes without saying and is pretty basic stuff but I don’t always learn my lesson so if I can impart some wisdom on someone else then this blog is working. Ok, so if you don’t like something that you bought then that cheaper than instore item just got a whole lot more expensive when you need to not only pay for postage to return it but for postage to get it sent back to you. Some, not all, but some online retailers I have dealt with won’t pay for postage on items that you want to have exchanged which means the $20 round trip postage you have to fork out makes a cheap item really quite expensive. Be careful to read their terms and conditions which I didn’t do until recently…

I purchased 3 GHD hairbrushes online from Hair Care by Mazen Bali. When I received them one was wrong, one was half hanging out of the box which looked like a semi-trailer had reversed over it a few hundred times and the other hair brush was the size of an elephants hoof. They all needed to be returned however when I emailed them they reminded me that they would be charging me a 10% restocking fee for any returned items. I, of course wrote a letter as I do explaining that the purchase was basically a complete right-off from start to finish and I wasn’t prepared to pay the $15 postage plus another $7.50 for the items to be put back onto a shelf. I won that argument but I might not have been so lucky if fate wasn’t on my side that day. So read the conditions- some won’t refund some will, others will only give you a store credit note if you do need a refund, others won’t cover items lost in the post if you don’t chose a registered shipping option however these companies are rare and most of them are there to please their customers and if you contact them via email and express your concerns directly nine times out of ten you’ll come to some sort of agreement that works for everyone.

Now onto the fun stuff. Below are some of the stores that I have bought from both good and bad.

1.      StrawberryNet- a friend I work with introduced me to Strawberry Net last year and what a wonderful day that was. They basically have every single last cosmetic, perfume, aftershave, shampoo, conditioner and product of beauty that you can think of. Their items are very quick to arrive, all are wrapped in this pretty silvery purple paper and the box comes tied with ribbon. HOWEVER….I have had my credit card details stolen from their online merchant (don’t ask I don’t know what that means either) and have had my bank call me stating someone was trying to make a purchase with my credit card details on their site fraudulently too. In addition, I have my doubts about the not only the authenticity of some of their products but the age of some too. I received a Calvin Klein lip gloss free with purchase some time ago that was well out of date and while I don’t look a gift horse in the mouth (don’t ask I don’t know what that saying means either just throwing it around because it seems to fit) but I think it a little unethical to be sending people products that they use on their face and that are ingested that are out of date. The lip gloss stank to high noon and made my lips feel like they had been bitten by a thousand monkeys. I also received a face wash that was out of date too, it was one based on AHA so had a used by date because of its more potent active ingredients. I have also recently read some reviews of the retailer online and it seems there are plenty of people out there unhappy with their products and services so be cautious and take care when imparting your personal details as this company doesn’t accept PayPal.

2.      Cosmetics Now is a lot better. They sell most of what StrawberryNet does and they are also cheaper by a few dollars on most products. They have the widest range that I am aware of in my time searching which helps when you have multiple items that you need to buy and don’t want to buy 5 things from 5 different retailers. They are an Aussie based company, quick to send and have free shipping on everything but fragrances which incurs a $10 charge. Be mindful, their only downside is that they outsource their customer service hotline to an overseas source which did make a recent issue with an item that didn’t turn up a bit troublesome. They also only have an answering service, no direct number to a human and the return phone calls were fraught with the usual issues that come into play when calling a mobile internationally.

3.      Wiggle.com & eastbay.com I haven’t purchased from these guys though I did fill up an online shopping cart recently and stopped before I parted ways with a few hundred, it wasn’t the right time to be spending that sort of money. But when I do really need to update my Asics Kayano’s I’ll be a knocking. My best friend is a personal trainer and she and her PT buddies have bought from there and they rave about it. They are grossly cheaper than buying instore- on the Kayano’s in particular, which you just need to try because once you do you won’t go back when it comes to runners, are anywhere from $60-$100 cheaper. The postage is a little high, for memory was about $40 for 2 pairs of runners but you’re still going to save anyway.

4.      Littlestyles.com.au & babysgotstyle.com.au- These two companies do it best, they are amazing no bullshit top notch online retailers. If they had a shop then it would be the best shop in the world. It’s like a well oiled machine. They sell kids clothes, toys, footwear, bedding etc and their range in each of these categories is humungous and I love everything about what they sell, how they conduct their business and their attention to detail. You really won’t find much better when it comes to stocking all the coolest, latest, funkiest range of kids clothes, cool little wooden toys, gorgeous little stuffed handmade dolls for girls. Love em! For people who don’t have kids but have kids to buy for every-now-and-then you must check this site out, I don’t know a child or parent alive who wouldn’t be grateful to receive an item from either of these two companies. They have next day delivery and you must sign up to their newsletter which means you’ll be able to take advantage of their sales. Littlestyles are always having a sale and if you wait you might even get lucky with a 25% off one too.

5.      My Baby Rocks http://www.punkbabyclothes.net/. This site sells exactly what the title says- punk baby cothes. ACDC and Jimmi Hendrix onesies, tutu’s, Pantera t-shirts matching for baby and daddy and mummy but it isn’t all about rock bands, they sell lots of rockabilly inspired clothing- sparrow’s and cherry covered onesies, little pink skulls with hair bows, slogans on shirts the list goes on. They are an American based company, postage ok, postage time slow but if you’re looking for something totally unique and a way in which to let other parents know you’re totally cool and you have uber cool kids that rock out to Hendrix then they are your people. Their sizing’s are small so go up a size or two in clothing and footwear. They also frequently have discount codes but you need to Google them. Sign up to their mailing list, they only mail out about sales which are once a year but they offer about 25% off so it’s worth it and you won’t get endless emails about crap either.

6.      Others that I use…

a.       Ezibuy.com.au- Manchester and home wares

b.      Zazzle.com.au- printed goods

c.       http://www.applecartkids.com.au- stuff for kids that live in cooler climates- stockings, leggings, socks etc

d.      Asos.com.au

e.       Styletread- hundred and hundreds of shoes- FREE DELIVERY AND FREE RETURNS, like having your own private shoe store in your house and the delivery guy for our area isn’t bad on the eye either.

f.       Etsy- Surely everyone knows about Etsy by now but if you haven’t you gotta check it out. Amazing.

g.      Moosaidthecow.com- kids stuff

h.      Brightstarkids.com.au- personalised labels- really cheap and great quality

i.        Harvey Norman Photo Centre- everything you need for printing photos, making photo books, calendars etc. Their platform is slow anytime after 5pm so try and work on your project before that time on a weekend if you can. They also have huge sales, sign up for a newsletter.

j.        Fishpond.com.au- NEVER buy a book instore again, these guys are cheap.

k.      Book Depository- Haven’t used it but have many friends who have and rave about it.

l.        Urbanoutfitters- cool home wares and clothes. American based.

m.    Kids Style File and Home Style File are a sort of blog type thing that showcases cool online retailers and often have discount codes advertised.

n.      Then of course are your big retailers such as Woolworths, Big W, Target, Myer and more. They all have online stores with limited stock compared to in store but they are good options if you need something that you know these guys sell. I must say if you’ve got a number of kids in nappies Big W are brilliant. Rather than struggling with two boxes of Baby Loves just get them sent to your door. A life saver with a newborn let me tell you.

o.      Woolworths, now this one needs a little mention. They totally suck at stocking in the items that I need all the time. One minute they have the readymade mushroom rice that my son likes and the next day they don’t. When I need it they don’t have it when I don’t they do. Drives me freakin’ bananas and it’s not just the rice, it’s nappies, wipes, formula, cereal, zucchinis and I get so tired of driving to 3 Woolies just to get some god dam nappies in the right size. Try online if this happens to you too, it will save time running around.

p.      Deals Direct- Seriously reduced prices on just about everything.

q.      Authentics Online- Australian based street shoes. Great prices, reliable and amazing customer service.

r.        http://www.alannahrose.com.au/ Truly sensational invitations

s.   Glicksfurniture.com.au- replica furniture

t.    Mattblatt.com.au- replica furniture

u. As a dear friend has made good mention of below re:eBay, I thought it I good idea to add this to the body of this post incase others don't see the comments but I think eBay might actually need a complete post of its own. In the intermin, yes, eBay is a good place to check for online purchases but has (in my opinons) equally as many pitfalls as it does advantages. Stay tuned, I'll get to that one shortly.

This is just the tip of the ice berg in online shopping. There are millions more out there and hundreds more that I have used which in time I will add to the links page. In all, my experiences have been pretty good and when not I have usually come to a fair arrangement with the retailers. If you have experiences that differ to mine or have any other retailers you’d like to share please do I’d love to hear about them so would my credit card and my husband!

Oh and one last thing. YOU MUST GOOGLE DISCOUNT CODES. Most retailers will have that little box which says “discount code”at the checkout. It doesn’t hurt to Google the retailer name and discount code. I have saved hundreds by doing so over the last year and the codes are rarely advertised on the website. Occasionally they will send you a code if you subscribe to their newsletter but often they don’t so it pays to search around and punch a few codes in to see how much of a discount you can receive. I recently bought 2 dresses off Asos. A bit of hunting and searching around led me to a Grazia page with a 20% off code for Grazia readers. Don’t mind if I do!

Happy shopping.