Online Shopping for Lingerie

There are great bargains to be had when shopping for lingerie online, if you know where to look, and know which online stores are reputable.

First of all, lets touch on security, ‘https’ is what you need to look for. This will be displayed when you enter the shopping cart, once the products have been selected.

IF the URL doesn’t show https “https//:www”, its not secure. Don’t give your credit card details.

Next, with any clothing or apparel purchase, especially with lingerie, size is important. This can vary from brand to brand. So before you buy the item, look at the size chart. Any reputable online store will have a sizing chart, either stating the dimensions in cm’s or giving some comparison to a regular brand they stock.

If the site doesn’t have a size chart of any kind, and I don’t mean, simply, S, M, L, XL etc, not a reputable site. They are common sizes, with no real indication of the actual size. Sizes differ between countries and also brands.

Range. Any reputable online lingerie store, should stock a quality range. There should not be simply 2 or 3 outfits shown. The advantage of being online is that there’s no real ‘space’ restrictions, like a physical store.

Normally online stores have warehouses of the stock. This is why you can get the lingerie cheaper. One, the online stores buy in bulk and two have don’t have the in-store restrictions, passing on the savings to you.

If they don’t, and they are selling the product for the same as store price, don’t buy it, they are marking up the price too much, not passing any advantage on to you.

Delivery should be within a few days, not weeks, if not, you know that they are shipping from overseas. Which usually means it wont be as good quality, may be fake merchandise or ‘copy’, and obviously the product isn’t held within the country or company warehouse or headquarters.
Even though your buying online, you still want to support your country industries.
A good way to see this, is looking at their contact information. If they show a postal address within the country, a PO Box or physical address, this is a good sign, if they show a postal address overseas, or no address at all, not a sign.

Customer service. They should have email and phone support. When you email, they should respond, within 48 hrs, not 48 days! Again, signs of either a poorly run company, or fake email, or overseas support.
If you wish to ring the company, they should answer! Also, they should be able to answer your questions about lingerie items, delivery or sizes, etc. They may not be able to answer all questions off the top of their head, as many online stores have thousands of products, but they will have a general understanding, or will research the product for you.
If they cant answer the question, or palm it back to you to research it, not reputable. Online stores should be the same as physical stores in terms of customer service in phone or email. If you rang up Sony and they couldn’t answer your questions about their products, you would be surprised.
The internet is littered with dodgy online stores, offering products at prices that are questionable. If they fail any of the above tests, you know why. Don’t buy.

Basically they should provide a few forms of acknowledgement to the online customer that they exist. Address, phone, email. The more information they provide, the more confident you can be they are real and reputable.

Another part of customer service, not usually thought about due to online presence is, returns policy. Even though they are online, you should still be able to return the lingerie (as long as you haven’t damaged them), with the same policies as in-store.
A reputable company should believe in the quality of the products to offer a return policy of some sort. Either cash back (including or excluding postage), or exchange for a similar product or product of similar value, so your not losing out.

Payment systems. Online stores should have a few payment types. Credit card (MasterCard and Visa), and Bpay at least. They should also have associations with security bodies, like VeriSign, so you know your details are used within country policy guidelines.

This is a basic list, but some logical and key points for online shopping, for sexy lingerie or clothing. So next time you shop, if they don’t pass the above, you know why, don’t buy. If they do, buy away, enjoy the discounts, freedom, and advantages of lingerie shopping online!