Online Shopping - Where the Deals are

You should see my inbox every morning, day, night, middle of night, all the time. It's freaking loaded with the latest newest awesome offers, begging me to shop now for great great great great great great deals – and it’s nobody’s fault but my own that I get so many emails – I obviously signed up for these services at some point in the past. Now, I’m shellshocked- the offers never stop coming and I can’t keep up. And, I realized something else this weekend too! While trying to shop for a handbag in a real store - I was just pissed that everything I wanted wasn't on super sale. WTF? I'm brainwashed into thinking I can only buy designer goods at discounted prices. Nordstrom must really love that. So I thought this might be a nice time to talk through some of these discounted fashion sites. I’ll just go over the clothing sites right now, maybe later we can discuss all the furniture sites out there calling my name. Here we go.

Gilt Groupe – They just recently revamped their site and while I’m not convinced it’s as easy to navigate as it used to be, I'm ok with it. I’ll figure it out because Gilt Groupe is awesome and I like them. Here’s why. When they feature something on their site to discount – it’s really a good price, not like some others that I will get to later that don’t really offer discounted pricing unless you are buying an off size or super ugly item that will never sell. These guys mean it – good stuff at good prices, sometimes designer (high end) and sometimes independents (not as high end), and they have women’s, men’s, house stuff, travel (see their sister site Jetsetter), and baby stuff. I’ve ordered piles of things over the last couple years – and it’s all been good quality. They also have a return policy where they will take things back and most often give you a credit toward your next purchase – also good because there will always be something coming up that you will like.

RueLaLa – Also awesome. They have similarly good stuff for the whole family – and usually an excellent choice of nicer brands. Me likey. And they do sample sales at times to reduce their inventory - at even better than usual prices.

ShoeMint – I’ve ordered a few items here – just to check out the shoes, because frankly they have some really cute shoes at very low low prices. I had to see for myself if the product was good or not. I got some really cute silvery loafers – I like them but they are sort of stiff and I haven’t gotten them broken in enough and they hurt like hell – but still…..very cute. I also got some wedges – for around $40 bucks – and while I think they will only last one season, they are super cute too. I think the price/quality deal is pretty fair. Inexpensive for only ok construction and quality. I haven’t seen tons on this site that I love, but I still think it’s a good option for inexpensive shoes.

HauteLook – This site is operated by Nordstrom, but it’s not super obvious or super Nordstrom-y. They have deals on brands that are pretty straight forward, I think the prices are really good, I've only ordered a couple of things here, but I like it because Nordstrom tends not to mark things down very much, but this site does, and it's kind of like your own version of Nordstrom Rack but you don't have to pick through a bunch of dirty racks to find anything good. It's all right here.

The RealReal – Holy crap – this site is awesome. It’s a treasure hunt of high end fashion – a consignment site of models and rich ladies throw-aways. For handbags, gently used shoes and clothing – you can find some great things here. Check it out. They do a pretty nice job of close-up photos, so you really can see what you're getting and what the flaws are. The only downside is that models all have super skinny bodies and giant feet - so good like finding your sizes. But when you do, then HELLO DOLLY!

Bluefly – Remember when this was the first site of this kind and people were talking about it. Well, for the longest time I couldn't understand why anyone ever liked it. I’ve never once found that their prices were worth the time to look through the stuff– their discounts were always pretty lame compared to others. I have never purchased anything here and probably wont. I have noticed recently that since all the other good sites have come online, Bluefly is starting to better their discounts to keep up. I'm not sure that will work for me though - I'm still a little bitter from past years and lousy discounts here. But feel free to check them out if you want.