Online Shopping Tips

I have to admit that I like shopping. Clothes, food, skincare, cosmetics, digital products, lab equipments (;P) etc. It’s totally fine to just grab and go when you are in a shopping mall/supermarket (my dad and some of my friends definitely do it!), but for me, a female graduate student who live off a stipend and has a tight schedule but still want to have fun clothes, skincare of good quality, advanced digital products-online shopping, especially for clothes, skincare, housewares, is my top choice.

There are several huge advantages I value very much about online shopping over mall shopping in Ann Arbor. Here are the top two of them.

1, Convenience:

We all have a busy life. Online shopping provides us the opportunity to shop in comfortable pajamas on the couch at home. Especially when you just arrive at the States and you don’t have a car, it’s kind of a very time-consuming way to get to the shopping centers by bus. Besides, the only free time you probably get would be nights and weekends when the public transportation in Ann Arbor runs less frequently.

Most of the brands the malls in Ann Arbor carry have very mature online shopping options. Just google the brand you like, you will be lead to the online store.

Here are some affordable brands me and my friends (both international and domestic) usually go to.

Clothes and shoes (casual): ASOS, UrbanOutfitters, J.Crew, Gap, Banana Republic, Express, Forever 21, American Eagle Outfitters, Hollister, ALDO…

Skincare and cosmetics: Sephora, CVS, Origins, Clinique, Estee Lauder…

Department stores: Nordstrom, Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s, Lord & Taylor, Von Maur, Bon-Ton…

Fun place: Woot (deals and fun T-shirts with nerdy geeky designs)

Of course, you can almost find everything on Amazon.com =D

2, Better prices via price comparisons and consumer reviews

It’s the information generation, everybody talks on the Internet about the stuffs they bought. So when you are eyeing on a piece of clothes or some new products you have never tried, go read those consumer reviews and make your wise choice afterward. It’s much easier for you to compare the price on different websites (some sites even do the comparison for you!) and get the same stuff with lower price.

Especially with computer and digital goods purchase, the product review sites, such as CNET, are very thorough and helpful. There are also a lot of review videos on YouTube. Go check them out before you spend big bucks!

Deal websites such as Groupon, Livingsocial have daily deals. The best way to get informed about their deals is to subscribe to their email lists. To my knowledge, almost all of the online stores have email lists you can subscribe to. Basically, you will get emails from the stores about their promotion events and coupons etc.

There are websites that will give you cashback when you shop. Personally I use Ebates. By clicking on the shop button to open a tracking ticket by Ebates, the stores give Ebates a commission for referring traffic to them and Ebates shares a portion of that commission with you. Briefly speaking, you get some cash back for using Ebates to enter other stores.

It seems that I can talk about online shopping forever=P

Here are some points to keep in mind when you do online shopping.

1, Sizing

Since you can’t try things on, it seems a little bit harder to get the sizing right. US sizing is very possibly different from what you are used to in your home countries. For example, I’m 5’8”, medium-build. I would only go through the Large rack back in China, but I’m definitely Small or Medium in the US. You can go to the mall first to try on clothes for a sense of the sizing or find the online stores which have free returns service and buy the clothes in two adjacent sizes and just try on at home and give the one that doesn't fit back. Sizing could be tricky anyway, but I believe you can figure it out!

2,  Fabrics, materials, ingredients and so on

I do research based on my budget and characters of a product I’m looking for before shopping. It’s a way to make myself more confident and informed (people can be very helpful, but also misleading sometimes!) Since I’m not born and raised in the United States, there are some products or ingredients I don’t recognize. Online shopping makes it easier for me to consult dictionary or Wikipedia anytime to avoid buying wrong products.

In the end, keep track of your spending, sometimes since you can’t realize how much money you spend by simply clicking on one button on your computer, the credit card bill could be a shocking surprise at the end of the month.

Happy online shopping!

Written by Ping Guo

Ph.D. student in Chemistry