Shopping For Clothes Online | Best Tips

10 Shopping Online Tips I Use

I spend a lot of time shopping for clothes online for my personal styling clients. In this post, I’m sharing the 10 things I do when shopping for clothes online. If you follow these 10 tips when shopping for clothes online, you’ll end up wearing more of what you’re buying.

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Usually, I don’t think it’s a great idea to randomly look online and go to sites without having an idea of what you’re looking for. It’s a lot easier to shop online when you have a shopping list. A shopping list makes it easy to have everything you need to put together outfits. On your shopping list, you want to include things you’re missing.

Tip #2: Find Your Criteria

When you’re shopping for items online, ask yourself if the item fits your shopping criteria, or your style criteria. Your criteria refers to the things you love about clothing. For example, yours might include a color or range of colors that you like, or a certain fabric or style. Look for a minimum of 3 things that you love about pieces and that make you feel confident.

An easy exercise to figure out your criteria is to go to your closet and pull out your favorite three items. Looking at the three items you love and feel confident in, ask yourself: What are the things you love about them? Is it the color, the style, the quality, the cut, or the fit? This is how you figure out your criteria: your must-haves or deal breakers. If an item doesn’t meet a minimum of these three things, it doesn’t come into your closet.

Following your criteria makes shopping decisions easier and helps take the emotion out of the experience so you can make the right decisions for your wardrobe. I often find that we compromise on what we want. If we think we need something for a specific occasion, we tend to convince ourselves to buy something we may not love. But if you stick to your shopping criteria and check if each item meets your must-haves before bringing it into your closet, it will make deciding whether something is a yes, or a no much easier.

Tip #3: Find Your Personal Style

Know your personal style. Not the style you used to have or the style you hope to have one day, but what makes you feel confident today. Once you know what your personal style is, you can look at an item more objectively. You can ask yourself, “If my style is classic and minimal, and I’m looking at this item with a bright pattern, does that work with my style?”

Tip #4: Know Your Brands

When I’m shopping online for a client, I look at certain brands. Some of those brands will work for multiple clients, but a lot of times I’m tweaking the brands based on each person. I take into account what their lifestyle is, what their body shape is, and what their personal style is. These are some of the things that determine the brands that will work for them.

If you don’t know your brands, a simple exercise is to look at the brands of the pieces you love in your closet. See if there are brands that you have multiple items from. If you want shopping to be seamless and effortless, start paying attention. What are the brands you feel best in? What brands have sizing that works for you? Styles that you like? It’s important to take these things into account when considering what your go-to brands are.

Tip #5: Return Policy

Does it have a good return policy? When you’re shopping online, you want to be able to see the item in person, touch it, try it on, and make sure it looks and feels the same as you think it does when you see it online. If it doesn’t have a good return policy, don’t buy it. The one exception is if you’ve already tried the item on, loved it, it’s on your shopping list, meets your criteria, and fits your personal style.

I’ve gone into many closets and seen so many items with tags still on them. Purchases my clients made that they couldn’t return because they were final sale items. They thought they were getting a great deal, bought the item online, and when they opened the box, it didn’t look anything like it did online or didn’t fit right, and they were stuck with it. I’m guessing most of you, have experienced this at least once, and it’s not a great feeling. It’s like throwing your money away. So when you’re shopping online, make sure you can return the item.

Tip #6: Read The Reviews

Another thing I like to do when I’m shopping online is read the reviews. A lot of times, sites will have reviews from people who have bought and tried the item. These reviews often mention the fit, whether it runs big or small, and the quality. You can learn a lot by reading the reviews. So, if you haven’t seen an item in person and you’re not sure what it’s going to look like in real life, read the reviews. It’s a great way to know whether or not the item is worth trying.

Tip #7: Read The Descriptions

Another thing I always do is read the descriptions of each item very carefully. Most websites will have descriptions of each item. One of the main things I look for is what fabric it’s made of. That’s a big one for me because I’m looking for quality pieces both for myself and my clients. I don’t want something if it’s not made from a quality fabric, especially when considering the price. Sometimes, items on sale may look great in the photo, but when you read the description, it tells you a lot more. It will tell you the fabric, whether the item is lined, and the measurements. These are important details to consider when deciding whether or not to try an item at home.

Tip #8: Quality

I recommend this for anyone who’s looking to build a capsule wardrobe or to have pieces they’ll keep for years: look at the quality of the item. Oftentimes, you’re not going to be able to see the quality of an item in a photo. They have full production teams styling the pieces and professional photographers taking the photos. If you’re not familiar with the brand or the actual item, you won’t know what it’s going to look like in person, and you won’t be able to touch or feel it. So, you want to check what the item is made of? Is it made from good-quality fabrics and materials? Some of the brands I used to rely on, knowing they always used high-quality materials, have now switched to lesser quality fabrics. Now I make sure to read all the descriptions.

Tip #9: Care Instructions

Another thing you can learn from the description is the care instructions. If you’re shopping online and find an item that fits your criteria, matches your style, is on your shopping list, and is high quality, look at the care instructions. If it says “dry clean only” or “hand wash only,” and you’re not willing to follow those care instructions, the item won’t last in your closet or maintain its appearance. So, make sure you’re willing to follow the care instructions before you purchase it.

Tip #10: Zoom In

I never shop from my phone because I want to see whatever I’m looking at as big as possible to catch all the details. When I’m shopping for clients or for myself online, I always use my computer because the screen is much bigger than my phone. I zoom in to see the details of an item. For example, if it’s a blouse or a button-up shirt, I’ll look at all the photos on the site. That way you can see how it fits, how it lays on the body, and how it moves. This gives you a lot more information and helps you decide if it’s worth trying.