Just because you want to wear boutique clothing and dress to the nines doesn’t mean you can’t be smart about it. Below are a few tips to help you save and get exactly what you want.
Don’t Pay For Shipping
Some of the alternatives are finding the same product at another boutique, buying more items so that you qualify for free shipping, maybe a friend wants to buy something too, or checking if the product is available at a different store. Call customer service directly and see if they will extend free shipping or order the items for you with their privileges. If free shipping is not available upfront, either by ordering on certain days or because of specials, then see if becoming a member gets you free shipping. There is also the option of signing up to a service that ships for you from various stores. One such service is shoprunner.com. You could also consider an app that tells you where the best deals are or when an item you want goes on sale. You never know, you may just find a site that sells the item cheaper even with free shipping.
If the store has a retail branch, then you may be able to pick up your item from the physical store and in this way avoid the shipping fee.
Don’t Pay For Return Shipping
According to Perfectly Priscilla Boutique, “Online shoppers expect that stores allow returns where you can spend the reimbursed money on a different item, but you have to check this because sometimes they don’t. You also have to see if they are going to take a fee out of your refund to pay for the return shipping. And most importantly, don’t forget about the limited amount of time you have to make a return.”
Setting Gmail’s reminder so that it goes off every 6 days after you purchase something could help, or you could sign up for a service that returns items for you. At just $5 to send various items back to different stores, this is a great deal.
Another thing that works at least sometimes is to ask customer service to send you a free shipping label. They may be especially sympathetic if you want to return the item because of a flaw or some other fault that originated from their side.
Never Underestimate The Power of Customer Service
You can usually contact a boutique’s customer service staff through chat, Skype or a 1 800 number. Any little query you have they can answer, and you might be able to get extra credit if an item you recently bought at a regular price just went on sale. Also, if there are any ways to get an item you really want at a slightly cheaper price, then customer service would be the ones to help you out. The customer service staff could also tell you whether that dress you want will be cheaper in a couple of weeks when the summer sale is on.
Look At The Front, Back and Zoom Images of Each Item Before Ordering
This is really important, and these image options are now pretty much a given at any serious online boutique. If a store doesn’t offer this option, then see if you can find the same product at a different store that has detailed images.
Lighting also shows colors differently, so comparing items on different sites will also give you a better idea of the color.
You can’t always trust that the sizes the boutique is adverting are the same as the sizes you are used to without having a base to work off of. So check each site’s size chart, and measure yourself. This way you’ll be able to see if you should buy the store’s size 8 or 10 for example.
Rely on customer reviews because they are written by people who have already bought the product. This will increase your chances of being more satisfied with your purchase.
Avoid Paying Retail Taxes
You only have to pay taxes if the online store also has a physical boutique in your area. Stuff like this is usually automatic, but it never hurts to make sure the site is not trying to get one over on you.
