To be tired of clothes shops selling so many brands other than their own

[CheeseandMarmiteToastie]

Does anyone else get sick of visiting the website of a shop they like only to find a search for anything brings up all kinds of random brands like Long Tall Sally, Mountain Warehouse and Roman. I know you can filter but it’s really tiresome when actually you just want Next or M&S or whoever clothes. I wish it wasn’t a thing now 🙄

The inability to filter down to a number of manageable items is purely down to the fact that companies do not test their systems adequately. They include filter but don't check if it actually works.

There is no interest in bothering to find out what the customer experience is and whether it works. "Let's just bung a hundred other brands on our website whether they appeal to our target market or not. It doesn't matter if they can actually find M&S items. We just need to drive sales at any cost."

Each time I rang TSB, I was on hold for 20 minutes before I could actually speak to someone. God forbid if I put the phone down and needed to call them back. A girl in TSB said that a 20 minute wait was "pretty good". I no longer bank with TSB.

Yes. If I'm searching for jeans or a maxi dress on Tu (Sainsbury's) then I probably don't have a £79 for one Fat Face item budget.

I do like the fact that if an item is sold out on the actual brands website I can check elsewhere for stock. However, discounts rarely apply if I do find it on the Next website which js annoying.

And yes, the endless scrolling - I just give up.

Be good if AI could be used instead of filters, tell them what you're after, they show a few examples, and you can be really specific (like "please no polyester ").

Not a clothes shop but you need to watch out on Superdrug now.

They've launched a marketplace similar to Amazon that is 3rd party sellers so you need to be careful if you want your item to actually come from Superdrug and not Dave selling out of his garage.

Next owns a lot of the brands or run their websites so it is to be expected they are sold on their platform, Joules, Cath Kidston, Gap, Fatface are a few of them that have ties with Next or owned by them

Same.

I’m looking at Tu because I want something affordable, I don’t want items from more expensive brands coming up automatically.

And sometimes the filters work, but other times if you go a certain way around then I can’t get filter by age to come up too, for example (this is more on Tu on the Argos site I think).

John Lewis is the absolute worst for this as they have about a zillion brands (the M&S range is a bit more curated). There’s not even an option to save the brands you care about so you don’t have to click a million boxes to filter.

@shockeditellyou John Lewis is a department store though so you'd expect different brands.

I quite like it with M&S. I get 20% staff discount (DH works for them) , but my style is more Fat Face and Seasalt. Now that we can get 20% off non M&S items I check the other 2 websites first and then see if I can get it cheaper with staff discount.

It makes sense and if it keeps those brands going that's good, surely ?

It's a pain, but it's stopped a lot of the stores from going bust.

With Next, a lot of them are brands they now own- Lipsy, JoJo Maman Bebe, etc.

It’s so irritating. But it also means 8 end up going to a different website and then finding the same problem.

im a weird size - I’m between sizes so depending on the fabric and style, sometimes I can fit into the smaller size, other times 8 need the next size up, our town has no clothes shops anymore, so I can’t go into town and browse in person. I have to rely on online shopping. But with so many now charging for returns, which I refuse to pay, I just don’t buy anything anymore.

I notice it most if I click on an advert and discover the item I liked is a different brand and in the hundred+ price bracket rather than being at a next or m&s price point. It's a waste of my time.

Personally I like it - I’ve tried brands I wouldn’t usually and found some I really like.

I love that Next and M&S do this as it’s introduced me to brands I wouldn’t have known about. If I’m after things I want specifically from Next I just filter, it’s only a couple of taps/clicks

I agree, but I think it's the only way these stores are surviving. That's the only reason I can think of why they're doing it.

I'm a big massive marks and Spencer fan. I find it frustrating that they don't seem to sell everything or in every size in my local branches, despite being very big flagship London stores, so I'm kinda forced on the website sometimes. And it us frustrating to trawl through all these different brands trying to find what you want.

The filters on these sites are rubbish.

I regularly shop on line because my size is rarely on the racks in the stores, otherwise I'd be buying in store.

That said, if I'm looking for say a skirt, and I filter on skirts, I will often see jackets, shoes, trousers or whatever appearing in the search results even when I've applied a filter for "skirt". Or searching for trousers and I'd get results for trousers but also thrown into the mix will be dresses or whatever. It's not a pure result and I put that down to the metadata associated with the images on the sites.

I love it. I only need to search Next, John Lewis and M&S and I can typically find what I want without having to trawl the internet looking at individual sites.

In the summer I found a designer leather bag on next went direct to the designers website and saved £100! I just treat them as an online catalogue and then typically shop direct with a discount code.

I like that you can get loads of brands on the Next website as I can get free next day delivery to store (which is 5 mins from my house) so I will often choose to buy from Next rather than the brands own website. I do think the filters could be improved though as I don't really want to look through 3000 pairs of jeans!

It's not the various brands I am concerned with, it is the lack of quality and choice in high street clothing retailers that I don't like. My ancestry includes several tailors and a draper, all of whom would turn in their grave at what is on offer nowadays.

You notice the difference in France within a very short time, for example.

I love it. I recently found out that M&S do Aveda hair products, with considerably better deals than anywhere else. Did click and collect for a shampoo and a conditioner a couple of days ago and am just off out to collect them now.

Yes, Matalan

Many of these brands would have gone completely bust if they hadn’t been picked up by Next or M&S for distribution.

Next has one of the best logistics and distribution networks in the UK. Many brands can’t afford the tech investment required to do that alone.

It’s really not difficult to filter by brand.

When I saw Boux Avenue on M&S recently, I did a double take. I mean why are they selling that polyester Chinese rubbish?

But if you don't want to see them all then you just filter on brand.

I find it useful as I only need to look in the one place - eg I wouldn't think of looking at Roman's own site but I often find stuff I like from them on Next.

Also if you've got a Next account then ordering and returning on there is easier so if I've seen something eg in Monsoon then I'll check if it's available to order through Next as I can do an easy return if it doesn't fit.