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.

My people. I went online to look for a blazer. Feck sake. Some websites are particularly bad. 4 arty pictures of an item, but none of them show the product in its entirety.
Went looking for sunglasses too. I saw side view from the left, side view from the right, diagonal birds eye view from God, but what does it actually look like straight on?! I thought it was just me whinging again.

I would like shops to use inches for size a szie 14 is never the same (often even with a shop 2 ranges are different sizes)

A 42 inch chest with 28 inch sleeves is totally understandable

No site gets my cash without a flat shot of garment.

Easiest and cheapest pic in the world to take.

Zara is the only place that manages, which might be why they’re the market leaders.

I got a lovely thin leather belt hand made to fit me from Etsy. Also I love my boden dresses as they have pockets. I agree it’s hard to shop online

@KatyMac

I would like shops to use inches for size a szie 14 is never the same (often even with a shop 2 ranges are different sizes)

A 42 inch chest with 28 inch sleeves is totally understandable

Agreed.

Just tell us what it measures, then we can decide whether it'll fit, tightly, averagely or loosely.

I ordered a size 12 dress at Christmas. It arrived and was tiny! 30" bust and 20" waist! Size 12 my arse.

Does my nut in when things are sized S/M/L but with no reference guide to normal sizing!

Also recently when looking at a top I found online only to find all the photos of it the model had the top tucked in so you have no idea how long it is!
Same goes for trousers when the model has a long top and you can't tell how high the waistband is!

Lol someone needs to send this whole thread to all the big fashion hitters! Maybe they'll take the hint 😄

The pockets thing! DS needs zipped pockets for medication, not details on the description and you have zoom in and guess if they have zipped pockets. So annoying.

Also I brought a jumper and liked the material and checked the other colour options, all different material.

All of this is why I'm baffled at the massive surge to online shopping. I get it can be done from home and there are advantages, but in person shopping also has massive advantages so I think they're should be more of a 50 50 split in popularity.

@TopCatsTopHat

All of this is why I'm baffled at the massive surge to online shopping. I get it can be done from home and there are advantages, but in person shopping also has massive advantages so I think they're should be more of a 50 50 split in popularity.

I would 100% prefer to shop in a shop. I like shopping, I like trying things on & I like seeing things in real life BUT shops at the moment are useless! They have hardly any stock, a lot of the staff have no idea of what stock they have & they shops are so badly merchandised you can never find what you are looking for. I'm far from being a basher of shop staff - I was a fashion retail manager for over 15 years. My staff & I knew every style we stocked, we knew if it came in other colours & we knew if it was coming back in to stock, we knew what looked nice with it & how it fit. Shops now don't seem to care, they obviously don't train their staff and are happy to rely on their online orders.

Yeah I think it depends what you’re after as to whether it’s easier to shop online or in store - if you are specifically after eg a pink jumper it’s usually easier to find them online by searching whereas they can be spread out all over the store. But if you’re after jeans, usually easier in store as the fit can vary so much and they are usually in one display together.

Big shout-out for Uniqlo online in this respect - they do S,M,L,XL etc etc, but have a chart you can click on to see what measurements those sizes translate into. And their models seem to be doing fairly normal stuff. If only they had more stuff in stock in larger sizes...

When requesting a refund I always say item not as described. I'm hoping they will look at their listing then look at everyone returning for the same reason and it might click for them.
If adding pockets is a cost cutting exercise then why on earth do newborn babies have pockets in their clothes? Great to know my baby can fit the house keys in but me a fully grown adult nope carry my keys.

Yes this is how I always sit! Just an example of how we want to see a dress

@TopCatsTopHat Because every time I go to a shop and can't find something I need, their response is always "Have you tried online?"

And because 99.9% of petite and tall clothing is now online only, and extremely rare to find in shops any more. I'm so tired of people of average height and size asking about this. Anyone who needs any kind of specialist sizing knows full well that it's more or less all online only now. And don't even get me started about bras.

I think I've resigned myself to having to pay for delivery and returns, because they seem harder to avoid now, especially from smaller retailers, which is fair enough. They can't afford to pay for endless free postage/returns if people aren't buying anything.

It would also cost most of us to go shopping in person anyway, even if it's just minimal petrol to the nearest out of town shopping centre with free parking.

If it looks like I'll have to pay for returns, I'll order all the sizes from now on and then can get it all done in one go, with only one set of delivery and return to pay for. I just pay for everything on a credit card, and the refund should have been processed before I have to pay the bill.

Saves my recent experience with Uniqlo, where I carefully read all the information, took measurements and entered them into their size guide and it told me I was an XL, which I was a bit shocked by, but my measurements were slightly larger than their fit guide for that size. But the trousers came and they were looser than I'd like, especially if they bag slightly when worn, so really I'd want to try the L on as well as a comparator, but I won't because I'll have to pay for delivery again.

I have a love/hate relationship with Uniqlo. I really like their stuff, but there's no store near me despite living in one of the largest shopping cities in the country and them having loads of stores in London not bitter at all so realistically, it's online only for me from them.

Yes they seem to forget that you can be 5ft 7 qnd all legs and equally 5ft 7 and all body, or somewhere in between so the model's height may give you somme indication but it doesn't give clarification.

Just today I collected trousers from an online click and collect order. I wanted wear at home heavy jersey trousers, that look decent for opening the door and maybe the school run (where I dont get out of the car), what actually arrived was viscose shiny trousers. It wasnt stated so going purely by pictures which didnt show any shiny-ness at all 😒

Inspired by another thread, why can't they put the inside leg measurement in the description?

@zukiecat

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.

It's quite popular but personally I hate pockets in skirts and dresses. They ruin the line of it, especially for me, with my hips being my widest point. It's like adding a little baggy flag on my fat bits just in case people hadn't noticed them 😂