You’ve probably realised by now that my time is extremely precious. Between school runs, a legal career, a larger-than-life Middle Eastern family and my blog; free time is hard to come by. Gone are the days that I would spend my whole weekends shopping with my sister, leisurely strolling through thousands of square-feet of beautiful retail space, feeling and caressing the clothes, wearing out the strip on my credit card while the shop attendant freshly steams our garments.
These days, the only time my credit card comes out is when I stop to fill up fuel in my car or when placing an online order and Paypal is not accepted. Yes, I too have embraced the digital version of shopping. Window shopping takes place in a minimised window beside a draft legal document in the office.
Living in Australia, far removed from the rest of the fashion world, I shop at The Iconic – the largest online retailer in Australia. My shopping frenzy usually begins on a Friday morning while I’m feeding the kids their breakfast and we’re chatting away about our weekend plans – and suddenly I remember that tomorrow is Saturday and I have an event to attend #lastminuteoutfit!
After I drop the kids off at school and between my morning meetings, I head to The Iconic, use the filter to refine the impressive range of categories to suit what I need. WOMEN – DRESSES – COCKTAILS DRESSES. Then I can sought by designer (yes, I can switch stores without taking the lift), colour and even size.
I am able to browse through several high-quality images and read a comprehensive description of each product. I can then add a few options to my basket (including shoes and something for my husband when I break the news to him that he’ll be babysitting tomorrow night), enter a discount voucher and proceed to the streamlined check-out process using my Paypal account.
Within 3 hours, my receptionist will notify me that a parcel has arrived for me. After I do my discrete little happy dance, I scurry off to the staff loo (hoping no one else is in there), try on the items, get a rough idea of what they look like in the bathroom mirror and make a decision without a pushy sales assistant lying to me about how “ah-mazing” I look.
I now have a new designer dress for tomorrow night’s event without leaving the office, without battling parking, without trawling through racks, without waiting for a change room and without having a retail assistant sneer at me because my kids are playing hide-and-seek in the clothing racks!
Sure, I miss the social experience of shopping at traditional bricks-and-motor stores and the potential for coffee and a movie afterwards but I lead an incredibly hectic life and time is of the essence. Besides, I never have to worry about losing a receipt and returns are free!
By shopping on The Iconic, I still get the immediate gratification that I would otherwise get at a store without the aching feet.
I love the way The Iconic have democratized shopping.
Check out more online shopping reviews like this at ShopVenture. Shop Venture is a fantastic user-generated rating and review community for the online shopping world. Their mission is to help shoppers, like me, make smart purchase decisions. Like me, shoppers can read real-customer reviews, share their own reviews and use ShopVenture’s search tools to discover new shops around the globe.
Although I like to consider myself as an online shopping connoisseur, whenever I discover a new online shop, I always use ShopVenture’s A-Z Shop Directory to do my research first before I start filling up my shopping basket. It’s like asking your friends about a new store before wasting time taking a trip to the shop and finding out for yourself that their product is poor quality or that they don’t offer a returns policy.
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