If you have decided to buy a dress online, you have taken the right decision because:
- You can explore huge inventory in a short time.
- The filters help you to narrow down your search across brands and geographical boundaries.
- You are able to reach your preferred makers operating in different towns or countries you never knew existed.
- Online stores take pride in introducing you to an ocean of new and innovative products you only dreamt.
- Besides saving on time and travelling cost, with big discounts, online buying can be very economical.
- You shop with your family in the comfort of your bedroom. Avoid conflicts though.
- Cash on delivery option guards you against cheats. Relaxed exchanges and returns give you shopping freedom like never before.
- The transactions are transparent and secure.
- Sending a gift to a friend is just a click away.
- You can help a friend looking for a particular dress by sharing it on social media, in case you came across one.
- You can read and write reviews about products and stores sounding everyone about a good or bad vendor or product.
- You help some vendors to save huge capital cost on brick and mortar shops or enhance their off-line sales. Motivated, they bring you more.
- There is but one hitch. You may have to write a small mail and pack it back to return or exchange. But surely that isn’t much compared to driving back to a far away store in this maddening traffic.
The list can go on. It is therefore a win- win situation between the buyer and the seller.
However, there have been grey areas too. But the resolves and amends were also quicker, making online shopping quite safe now. Read the following article to know how.
“Online apparel retailers mushroomed between 2012 to 2015. The period witnessed small and big players setting up stores with varied business models. A very intense competition also evolved cash on delivery mechanism. The selling cost was steep.
Notwithstanding, the prices had to be affordable or rather low compared to the offline market to push sales. But online retailers needed margins to meet the cost. To be profitable, online vendors compromised quality to keep the cost low. These vendors saw this as an opportunity and pushed low quality merchandise at a high margin at seemingly affordable prices. Bollywood replicas won hearts.
In our price sensitive country, customers quickly grabbed the low-price deals for obvious reasons; they were buying beautiful images and so their dream dresses show cased on beautiful models at unbelievable prices through digital transfer of money. It is a fact that digital payments go easy. They don’t hurt. Shelling out cash pains. But these buyers later frowned at the sight of the product. There have been common instances where delivered product was different from what was displayed in the image. The quality of merchandise was poor resulting into very high sales returns. Yet the vendors made reasonable profits by devouring on customers who chose to throw the delivered products than waste time in trying to return the same against a refund or exchange.
But then this caused a loss of trust. Online business was starting to be viewed as a big scam aimed at strapping common buyers of their money and focused solely at growing stock valuations to attract bigger PE investments. The shaking confidence had to be resolved. On line sellers obviously knew that their soaring valuations won’t survive for long. Quickly, in 2016-17, most of the market places sought to mend their vendor base. The erring vendors on market places were and are being shown the door or asked to mend. They now face heavy penalties and risk their brand being blocked. Most stand-alone boutiques were anyway conscious and never played foul.
This has largely corrected the situation rendering online buying quite safe.”
However, we request you to bear following in mind when you shop online:
- Take a good look at the dress, its style, color and other contours and imagine yourself in the dress. Do not get influenced by a dress shot on a model.
- If you already know the colors which go well with your skin tone, it will immensely help you to make the right choice. You can find many notes and articles on net about skin tones and colors which support a particular skin complexion and tone.
- Although most online stores try to display images with accurate and original color of the dress, yet actual color may be marginally different. But only marginally.
- The dresses are often shot on models who stand tall compared to an average height. At times the stores also notify about the dimensions of models.
- You must take a good note of the accessories and an accompanying part of apparel which the model has used. For example, you may be buying a top or a kurta which has been shot using a particular bottom. You must note the color of bottom and imagine all that is available in your wardrobe or contemplate arranging a matching bottom.
- Last but not the least, read reviews on the vendor and product well, consider ratings and other authentications if available, before you place the order.
Happy shopping!!