If you love shopping like me, chances are you would already have done some shopping online. Online shopping offers great excitement and convenience to us busy women. Having to juggle work and family, many career women only found time for themselves after settling their family and children after a day’s work. Usually, by that time, the off-line shops are closed. With the wonderful array of shops available online, clothes shopping now offers an amazing range of variety and styles (some of which are only available overseas), all at a click of the mouse.

What are the benefits of online clothes shopping? You can do it in peace (think – no fussy toddlers and sulky teenagers bugging you to leave the store) and in the comfort of your own home (imagine settling into your favourite chair with a mug of coffee/tea) and let your fingertips do the work! The best part of online shopping? The shops are opened 24/7! You can shop at any time at your convenience!

While there may be challenges buying clothes online, here are four tips to ensure that your online clothes shopping be as fuss-free (you don’t want to waste your precious time), and as pleasant as possible.

You don’t want to waste money on clothes that don’t fit. If possible, buy clothes from shops with specific measurements of their clothes. Shops with size labels like ‘Small’, ‘Large’, Size 10 and Size 12 may differ when it comes down to the actual centimeters and inches. Therefore, the most reliable way to get the right fit is to know the actual centimeters / inches the clothes are in. A Size 10 for a label may be a size 12 for another. Chances are, shops which are able to offer specific measurements are serious about their business.

]]>

If you were to get the right fit, you need to get yourself measured, preferably by a professional tailor. And keep the measurements with you when you are shopping. If you cannot get yourself measured, then, the next best thing is to measure your clothes. To do so, just lay them flat on a hard surface (e.g. wooden table) and measure, using a tape measure, the key areas of shoulders, pit to pit, armhole, waist, hips and length. Alternatively, if you have a favourite label, whose clothes fit you well, check out their website and see if they provide specific measurements for their sizes.

In the same way, clothes measurements may be published in one of the two ways – based on the person wearing the size, or off the actual clothes pieces. Measurements off an actual blouse, for example, are measured when the clothes are laid flat. The bust measurements are usually read as pit-to-pit measurement (the horizontal length from one armpit to the other). So, a pit-to-pit of 44cm, for example, would fit a bust size of about 88cm (depending on the stretchability of the materials).

It is important that, if you have any queries, to send them to the customer service. Legitimate shops will publish their emails and contacts for customers to contact them. Some shops have online forms for queries to be sent to them directly on their websites so that you do not have to open your email browser. Many shops also have Facebook pages for you to interact with them. If you have any queries with regard to the issues of fit and quality of the clothes (for example if a certain fabric is sheer), it is good, at this juncture to raise them to be answered. You could also request for more pictures of the products where relevant.

With all these in tow, it is easy to enjoy online clothes shopping without the stress, without the mess and with all the fun intact!