While building my minimalist wardrobe, I've been doing a lot of my shopping online. Obviously, everyone partakes in online shopping now-a-days and can give you some advice on it. Here, I've compiled my top tips for online shopping and techniques I've been using for a while now. They've not only helped me create an awesome wardrobe that I love, but they've also helped me save a lot of money! I hope this helps you with your online shopping ventures too!
1. Keep an Amazon Wishlist. You can keep a wishlist on Amazon that allows you to click a button on your browser and then add anything from the internet to it. This will help you make a list of all the items you want and then from there you can adjust based on what you like the most and what you really, really want. It's also helped me to figure out what kind of style I prefer, which has been the biggest accomplishment in this whole venture.
2. Don't Purchase Things Right Away. I know a lot of people that this is really hard for, including myself at times. We justify our on-the-spot spending with stupid excuses that really have nothing to do with buying these items. But I assure you that you will feel so much better (i.e. powerful, awesome, and like you have the greatest will power ever) if you do not purchase things right away. This is also where that Amazon wishlist will come in handy for you. There you can still put things aside and save them for later.
3. Sign-Up for Shop Emails. I know that those emails every day can get really annoying and that's why I have a separate email for these things. I delete all the ones I'm not interested in immediatly and then keep the ones with coupon codes and sales from stores that I want to purchase something from off of my wishlist. I've actually received coupons after signing up for an online store and then leaving things in my shopping cart.
4. Wait for Sales. Be patient young grasshopper. It will all be worth it. I've seen most people who switch out their wardrobe quartly do it like this: Jan-Mar, Apr-Jun, Jul-Sep, and Oct-Dec. That doesn't work for me for the simple fact that there is no way that my "summer clothes" can go all the way until September. I live in Michigan where at any point in time it may snow after Labor Day. So, I decided to time out my quarterly wardrobes like this: Mar-May (spring), Jun-Aug (summer), Sep-Nov (autumn), Dec-Feb (winter).It's definitely more appropriate for the Michigan seasons, but also for my budget. The wardrobe turnover happens to be when the biggest sales of the year are. Memorial weekend (the end of May) has awesome sales, always. Same with Labor Day weekend (end of August/early September). November obviously has awesome sales with Black Friday and more imporantly in the case of online shopping, Cyber Monday. Then the turnover for spring usually has awesome sales for people that are going on springbreak and what-not. It all works out fabulously as I can build my wardrobe while saving a few bucks!
5. Check Shipping & Returns Policy. This is obviously the biggest downfall of online shopping: not being able to see and try on your clothes before you purchase them. I always check return policies before I purchase an item when I don't know how it will fit me. With some stores, I know that I need to size down or up from my normal size and there are some stores (like Modcloth) that are sweet enough to let you know how an item will fit. It's a big bummer when you have to pay for return shipping when you're already bummed about the fact that you can't keep it. Most exclusively-online stores offer free returns. A lot of online stores that have physical stores allow you to return in-store, so also keep that in mind.
I hope this helps on your next online shopping ventures! xoxo
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