Clothing websites: please hire customers to sense check you!

[CrumpetsAndWine]

I have a list of things I want to buy at the moment and for various reasons can't get to actual shops.

Its not a particularly exotic list - some black knee high boots, a midi dress (preferably with pockets), a thin belt.

Yet many of the websites I've visited don't give me the info I want - for example the width of belts is not stated and they are photographed with nothing to provide reference for their size, or the boots don't have the heel height listed and the photo angles don't really help me decide, or (and this is what finally pushed me to a ranting mumsnet post) the washing instructions for the dress are given as 'please refer to the care instructions on the product label'!

And this is before the perpetual mumsnet bugbear of most dresses not having pockets and there being no filter to try and search for those that do!

Rant over.

I completely agree. Also often the pictures are artistic rather than actually showing the details of the product

The pictures drive me mad, If I want a dress I don't want to see what it looks like with the model crouched down on the floor doing some weird pose or doing a star jump or sat at a table - I just want to see the bloody dress!

This annoys me too. I quite like the websites that say things like the model is 5'8" and wearing a size 10, so at least with some items you can compare the length etc, and how it fits on her. However, not including heel height on shoes is ridiculous and a bugbear of mine too.

Yes I like when the give the model's height and size rather than just 'knee length' if the model is 5"11 knee length on her is going to be quite a bit different on me at 5 foot tall

Yes! yes! What is it with the crouched down in dresses pose? I spend a very small proportion of my time crouched down looking smoulderingly at people.

Also pictures with the model's long hair hanging down so you can't see what the collar looks like.

A filter for pockets is a nice to have, but you might as well be asking for the moon on a stick seeing as they can't even get the basics right.

Filters that actually pick up the relevant product type and show a sensible amount of options, like no more than 50, in price order.

I don't want to have to look through hundreds of dresses, of varying lengths, colours and styles that would suit a mix of casual office, a wedding or beach cover up when I want to look at what you've got in formal knee length dresses in a dark colour.

Somewhere near consistent sizing please. If you got this right, returns would plummet and we know that online retailers think customers return too many of the items we order. You're not helping matters, really.

For footwear, be accurate and consistent as to what your policy on European vs UK sizing is. I know that size 41 shoes almost always fit, but find this equivalent to 7, 7.5 or 8 and what turns up vs what's on the website rarely matches up.

And people wonder why some people don’t like online shopping.

This ^^ is why!

Don’t get me wrong, I online shop too much. But 9 times out of 10, I’m disappointed. Compared with actually knowing what I’m getting when I shop in-store.

This is my bugbear when buying earrings online. Unless they're on a model you can't tell the size of them.

I bought a pair on Zara and they were seriously massive!

Oh yes and can I add models standing with their arms folded across their front? I’m always hugely cynical and won’t buy anything where the model is standing like that as it makes me think it’s badly fitted and they’re hiding the fact it looks like shit!

@BarbaraofSeville

A filter for pockets is a nice to have, but you might as well be asking for the moon on a stick seeing as they can't even get the basics right.

Filters that actually pick up the relevant product type and show a sensible amount of options, like no more than 50, in price order.

I don't want to have to look through hundreds of dresses, of varying lengths, colours and styles that would suit a mix of casual office, a wedding or beach cover up when I want to look at what you've got in formal knee length dresses in a dark colour.

Somewhere near consistent sizing please. If you got this right, returns would plummet and we know that online retailers think customers return too many of the items we order. You're not helping matters, really.

For footwear, be accurate and consistent as to what your policy on European vs UK sizing is. I know that size 41 shoes almost always fit, but find this equivalent to 7, 7.5 or 8 and what turns up vs what's on the website rarely matches up.

Completely agree on the shoe sizing. I am a consistent EUR42 but UK sizes are inconsistent!

And just why do they miss off trouser length? I was looking for black trousers for a funeral and hardly any sites gave the length. I really didn't want to order from several places in the hope that one of them would be OK.

It's as if the people who do these websites have never bough clothes? Surely they want to see the same thing as us when they shop so why are the websites so bad?

Yes, this but for so many, many things ...... letters from companies that don't make sense, instructions that don't, web sites that don't, shop assistants (you Vodafone yesterday) that confuse you with tech. Do they never, ever run things past 'normal' people who don't work in the field. Makes me so mad. It is so lazy and fu; after all we are only the client what do we matter.

@BarbaraofSeville

A filter for pockets is a nice to have, but you might as well be asking for the moon on a stick seeing as they can't even get the basics right.

Filters that actually pick up the relevant product type and show a sensible amount of options, like no more than 50, in price order.

I don't want to have to look through hundreds of dresses, of varying lengths, colours and styles that would suit a mix of casual office, a wedding or beach cover up when I want to look at what you've got in formal knee length dresses in a dark colour.

Somewhere near consistent sizing please. If you got this right, returns would plummet and we know that online retailers think customers return too many of the items we order. You're not helping matters, really.

For footwear, be accurate and consistent as to what your policy on European vs UK sizing is. I know that size 41 shoes almost always fit, but find this equivalent to 7, 7.5 or 8 and what turns up vs what's on the website rarely matches up.

Especially when we know a lot of places dont put the returned clothes back on sale and they incinerate them as it's cheaper 🙄

I agree about a filter for pockets too. I was looking for trousers recently and loads I looked at seemed to have no pockets in the pictures but they weren't that clear, it wasn't specified so I was having to guess. I gave up and went to the shops

This is my bugbear!

Also when buying a bag or purse, why aren’t there any pictures of the inside?!

@MiloAndEddie

This is my bugbear!

Also when buying a bag or purse, why aren’t there any pictures of the inside?!

I found this recently! And none of them were shown to give much indication of the actual size like shown in someone's hand! I finally found one on Amazon that had photos inside

They need a filter to exclude dresses you can't wear a bra with.

But try out e-shakti. Not only can you customise the garments, it has a magic preview function that shows the different sleeve lengths, necklines and hem lengths.

I wish companies would provide info as standard eg

1. the type of fastening eg dress with centre back concealed zip, or skirt with elasticated waist (so you know how you will get in and out of the garment);
2. Confirmation if the dress / skirt etc is lined or not;
3. a small black & white diagram of the garment both front and back so you can see clearly the shape, where darts are, where the openings and fastenings go. Particularly with dark garments it can be very hard to see these details on line.

I just wish they wouldn't allow you to get to check out before informing you that your purchase is out of stock (Marks & bloody Spencer). And that the there is one thumbnail for every colour way of a garment so you don't have to scroll through pages and pages in your initial search. Scroll through the colours/patterns once you like the look of a garment.

I do think many retailers are struggling with the move online completely, rather than the websites /photo shoots being about selling an idea/mood to get you to go the physical shop to buy clothes. I find companies that traditionally had a catalogue (like Next, Boden etc) have much better websites as they are used to selling entirely through the photos and descriptions, not using their website as advertising for their store.

My biggest bugbear about online shopping is finding a bargain then getting to checkout and realising P&P is extortionate and not worth it for one item, so going back and adding more stuff I don't really want.

Expensive P&P, expecting you to pay to return,.
Finding a bargain and discovering it’s either out of stock completely or only in a size 4 or 24.
I agree completely about the odd poses. I want to see a model standing up, facing front and another photo from the back.
I don’t understand why it takes so long to process a refund when you’ve returned something. They take your money immediately on order. It should be possible to return it to your account on receipt of the goods.

They should be able to sort it out much better than they are at the moment.

I think it should be standard to state the length of items. Too many sites state trouser length as 'regular'/'long' etc and skirt length as mini/midi/knee length. But the actual length can vary dramatically so a pair of 'long' leg length trousers can be anything from 30inch inside leg to 36 inch inside leg.

Also, have staff monitoring customer questions who are paid to properly answer them, not just reply as quickly as possible. I recently found a few pairs of jeans I liked online, decribed as 'longer length'. The site had instructions for how to contact them with any questions about products so I messaged them carefully explaining which products I was interested in, that I had checked the info on the product description and that I would like to know the inside leg measurement of the longer length version. The reply was 'These products are available in regular and longer lengths- the sizes available can be found online. We hope that helps' [ffs no, it doesn't]

I also think that for products available in larger sizes there should be pictures of the item worn by a larger model. The way something hangs etc on a size 8 is very different from the fit on a size 16 woman with curves.

Just out of interest, why do so many people want pockets on dresses?

I have enough dresses to wear a different one every day for about 3 weeks, I love my dresses, but none of them have pockets, never crossed my mind that I needed pockets.