USVI-On-Line

Hello Ladies... (& Gentleman)

I need some home brew market research from the shoppers out there. Especially luxury retail -

Do you buy the expensive stuff on-line?

What are your favorite sites for this kind of stuff (we are talking about designer label clothing and accessories)?

Do you/would you buy from European websites?

And any other tidbits you may want to share.

Thanks,

We buy breweriana from Europe - glasses from closed breweries, that kind of thing. I tend to buy jewelry on Christmas Eve after lots of nagging from NoTanLines.

Cheers, RickG

Living in rural Tennessee, if you want something like that you either have to buy online or travel to Atlanta or NY, so yes, due to the sad fact that I am a label-whore, I have learned to buy online. I actually prefer to buy online because I find the salespeople in those stores intimidating anyway. They act like they OWN the stuff and you aren't worthy to touch it, not that they are the person in there SELLING it to you.

I guess "favorites" could be sites I have purchased from more than once? Those would be: eluxury.com, bluefly.com, nordstrom.com, and tiffany.com.

Would I buy from a European retailer? Yes, I suppose. As long as there was a good currency conversion (so I knew what I was paying, I find some European sites don't have this) and shipping was pretty reasonable (cost and time).

I buy stuff, even occasionally expensive stuff, on line from time to time.

We're not much into designer label items, but if we decide we want/need something, we're not averse to ordering it over the net.

I have ordered items from overseas before, but it's usually only after determining that it can't be had domestically, mostly to save shipping costs , but concerns over being able to get satisfactory customer service, or pressure from an outside agency to force the same, are factors as well, especially with big ticket items.

John does all the designer shopping in our house--he is my personal shopper! The ones I know he shops from regularly are bluefly.com, xxoo.com (I think?), nordstroms.com, saks online, eluxury. I would say 90% of what he buys comes from online--it's just more convenient.

This is for clothes, shoes, and bags. No jewelry, because I dislike fancy jewelry and neither of us wears a watch.

The issue for shopping from European sites would be the shipping cost, and how long it would take to arrive.

Hope that helps.

Thanks for the feedback so far. The particular retailer I may be consulting for actually ships for free to the US (gives you an idea on the mark up on fashion). And I think they have the most complete return info, etc. that I have seen on the web.

Free shipping caught my attention. I like to order these chocolates from Paris every year for my birthday, and this year the shipping for a small box was 30 euro. Crazy. More than the cost of the chocolate.

I do a lot of shopping online. The only thing that irks me is when people charge more than they need to for shipping, and when they don't make returns dead-easy.

I tend to avoid shopping from those sites unless I need to.

About as luxury/designer as I get is clothes and jewelery, bags etc., and certainly a bargain hunter. I use overstock.com for most of it. I have purchased quite a few things from there and have never been disappointed. They usually offer deals on shipping for bigger stuff like furniture and such.

Two European firms I use - smallislandtrader.com for china and florisoflondon.com for my Mother's favorite perfume.

I have a tendency for Eurpopean products based on quality. I used to order on line from Liberty of London (before they stopped), Aspinal of London and of course I've ordered from domestic luxury retailers like bluefly, saks, neiman-marcus, burberry and others.

BUT I am also a bargain shopper so I like that angle as well. I don't mind paying for shipping if its reasonable or for a product that I can't get in the US.

Aspinal of London has a pretty good site that makes it easy for US customers with transparent shopping. Outside of Florence, Italy I count their leather products amongst the best in the world. I LOVE - and I do mean love --my pink passport cover!

I buy EVERYTHING online...toilet paper, clothes, shoes, food, electronics, etc. I also work for a high end jewelry retailer on STJ (Verace) so if you want to pick my brain a little have at it.

stjohnjulie wrote:I also work for a high end jewelry retailer on STJ (Verace) so if you want to pick my brain a little have at it.

Julie your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to bring them around on advertising here!

Hi there! Sure, I can help you out. So the only expensive stuff I buy is accessories, because I tend to get quite bored of clothes quickly, so it’s not worth spending a lot on them, while a good pair of shoes or a nice belt can really last you a lifetime and look good for that long too, in my opinion. I would definitely buy off European websites, most of them are cheaper. Generally ,though, I buy in store.

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