Online versus in-store shopping

About 11 years ago now I mentioned that I needed a new jumper or something, and a friend handed me a copy of an ezibuy catalogue.

Page after page or women’s fashion. I loved it. I had not been a big shopper at all up until that point in my life. If I needed something then I would go and buy it, and I had spent the odd morning shopping with friends for fun, but my wardrobe was minimal. I had two pairs of work pants and 3 pairs of jeans. A denim skirt, a corduroy skirt and a few tops. I had 3 or so woollen jumpers, I full length good quality woollen coat, an oil skin for farm work, two polar fleece zip ups, sneakers, sandals (1 pr of each) and a few pairs of heels. Most of my wardrobe fit into a big suitcase and I had moved four times in the last six years (twice internationally and twice interstate!)

And now I saw this huge variety of STUFF. I bought one t shirt and one jumper. But now they knew where I lived and the catalogues and emails just kept coming.

Over the years I started experimenting with styles that I hadn’t tried before and some things were a win, some not.

Since then I have shopped online many times for clothes. I have imported dresses from England, all sorts from America and shoes from Italy. There was a period where my wardrobe was almost exclusively all bought online.

But, that being said, I am not 100% converted to online shopping by any means.Here are the pros and cons and some how tos for both.

Shopping on line

Pros

Access – you can shop any time of the day or night.
Variety – You can access specials and items that are not available in the flesh where you live. This can be great if you have special needs (a large foot) or preferences (gothic, rockabilly, steampunk etc)
Huge range of prices – you can get great deals (or some things are really over priced).
From the comfort of your own home
You can copy looks that you have seen and admired (on social media etc)

Cons

All that access may lead you to buy more than you need, which can add to the clutter in your life and make it hard to sort out outfits and get dressed.
The exposure to extra marketing etc that we get online can persuade us to buy things that we like on others, or in the ad, but not on ourselves. Personal style is in part defined by what we won’t wear (ripped jeans, too much black etc) particularly when these are elements that are every where around us, choosing not to partake and to have a cohesive look of our own becomes both striking and satisfying. Some people have as their signature style a tendency to be early adapters of trends and to make them their own, but not all of us, so buying what is marketed at us does not always work.

When you shop online the decision making process is fragmented. As part of deciding whether to buy or keep an item we need to look at whether or not the garment is well made and whether or not you like the way it looks on you. Both of these questions are only answerable when you have the garment in your hands. I find that I can eliminate items much faster in a shop. I can easily tell if the colour is off for me, or the fabric is not going to drape well, and I can try it on right then and there. When I shop online this process is delayed until the goods arrive. And when those goods arrive you have already paid for and to a greater or lesser degree commited to them. How many times have you been tempted just to keep something that you bought on line because it is too much bother to return it, even though you knew you were settling and that it was not your best item. When we shop online we have often already emotionally bought the garment and it can be a let down to admit it needs returning.

The problem when we settle is that we can get in the habit of settling and we end up with a wardrobe full of stuff that is ok, but that we don’t really love.
Because of the fact that it is hard to make a final decision with stuff we buy online, and also because it takes time and effort to do returns, I am becoming increasingly of the opinion that shopping online is more time consuming than shopping in a bricks and mortar (BM) store.

An exception to that is if you have found an item that you love that is repeated year after year and you buy it over and over. But that is not where a lot of our online shopping time goes.
Bricks and Mortar stores

Pros

You can quickly assess a whole shopful of garments and make a final decision on clothes without waiting for them to come in the mail. When I go shopping with my colour swatch or with a client or friend and their colour swatch, we can walk into the shop, get the swatch out and in a matter of two minutes we know if there is anything there that we want to try on. And when you know what ‘vibe’ you like with your clothes you can easily rule out various items and even shops.
It is social. Properly social, not online ‘social’. You see people and support local businesses and sometimes even designers and makers. That is nice.
You can’t shop in B and M 24/7 and that is a good thing. Do we need to be shopping for shoes at 2 am? Normally not, we should be sleeping.

Cons

You may not be able to source what you want/need locally. I have some clients that buy bras online because they cannot get good stuff that they like in the right cup size in Hobart. Same for heels in large sizes and I often buy my jeans and trousers online as over the years I have found great petite options. And knitwear I sometimes buy online. I look everywhere for nice warm knitwear in colours that I love, and buy it when I find it. I am in jumpers for a lot of the year in Hobart – thick and chunkyish for casual wear and refined v neck layers for under jackets for work wear.

You may not like or be able to go out to B and M stores. I had a decade or so where I shopped online because I had young kids and it was not fun taking them shopping, and we ran a farm and were renovating so when my husband was at home there was a lot more going on than shopping trips into town. I went a few times with my smalls and inevitably it was a revolving chorus of ‘hungry, bored, pee.’ Now they are getting bigger and it is quite fun going into town with them.

If I were housebound or lived a long way from shops then shopping online is obviously my best option.Lots of online shopping being returned
So, in summary, shopping online offers a lot of choice and a huge variety of price and quality. But you have to be prepared to send things back. Be brutal. Is it as good as the best item you ever bought that you really loved? If not, think carefully. Don’t waste good money on bad fashion.

But shopping online also offers access to things we could not otherwise get, extended sizing, overseas fashions and it is great for those with limited access to shops.

B and M shopping is a social activity, it allows you to assess a huge amount of merchandise quickly and make conclusive decisions on the spot.

You might be like me and find that both have a place in your shopping. But I think my heart belongs to B and M.Clothes I bought shopping pounding the pavement
Clothes I kept from online shopping