Black Friday Has Passed, But the Best Is Yet To Come

Blame it on the bedbugs, fear of fake Santas, or the stomach bug that’s been circulating, but 2010  Black Friday sales were up 15.9% from last year. This bodes VERY well for Cyber Monday.

You know what else you can blame? The presence of online deals equally as impressive as those of brick and mortar stores, or the free shipping offers (Think STELLAService Excellent-rated “The Big Big O” Overstock.com) that led to a 12.1% increase in average order value, to $190.80 from a 2009 average of $170.19.

Another perk to shopping online: you can do it in your skivvies.

You can also blame the free returns policies of certain sites, especially ones that include a pre-paid return shipping label that make post-office trips obsolete. (To view a list of these sites, click here!)

Or, you can attribute it to gift-wrapping that e-retailers will do for you, saving you a trip to the loved ones in Hartland, CA.

Perhaps you were banned from a store or can’t control your kleptomania, but e-retailers do not judge.

The best of online holiday shopping is yet to come with Cyber Monday a few days away-to view where to get the best Cyber Monday deals, visit here.

STELLAService College Shopping Guide

When it comes to college shopping, shopping online is a great way to save both time (you’ve only got a little bit left) and effort (because boy is it hot out!). By shopping at only sites STELLAService rated Elite and Excellent, you can be sure that behind the scenes is a customer-focused company eager to help get you and your family the best products.

So, to make things easier, we’ve crossed a college shopping guide with some of our best STELLA rated sites to bring you a complete college shopping guide of great items from the best sites. This is not an advertisement for these companies. Rather, all of the items were hand-picked by one of our STELLAService analysts who is still in college (and who wrote this from her dorm room). When you like an item you see, just click the recommendation- it will bring you right to the product page. We hope you enjoy the guide and enjoy the STELLA service you’ll discover.

Note: We can’t say whether each recommendation is the best price for that item available, even amongst other standout STELLA rated sites, since sales and promotions change so quickly. However, we intend for this guide to help suggest great places to start your online shopping in each category.

Dressing Rooms of the Future

It’s difficult to know if something will fit you by seeing a 2-D representation of it. Perhaps that is why only 10% of all apparel is purchased online.¹ Obviously, there is no way to try on clothing you see on a website. No matter how many product images, videos, or demos there are, there’s always the intangible aspect of shopping for clothes online.

Or is there?

I recently saw the video above that really blew me away. Is this the future of online shopping? After all, online retailers lose large amounts of money with returned apparel, since by the time the product is returned, inspected, and put back on the shelves, it is likely out of season. Customers lose money when they have to pay for return shipping, resulting in a net loss even if they receive full credit on the item (another reason to shop at stores with free returns!) Virtual dressing rooms would reduce the need for costly returns and exchanges.

While the video above is, at the moment, conceptual and not yet implemented, there are currently a few virtual dressing rooms online that are less advanced and interactive. Fits.me is a virtual fitting room for online retailers of apparel. Consumers can input their measurements and see a pre-figured 3-D image of how different sizes would appear on them. Tobi.com has a virtual dressing room in which users upload copied-and pasted images that link up to a live image of themselves through a webcam; however these images are also pre-figured and don’t give a true sense of what the product looks like on the user.

Is this the future of online shopping?  Surely virtual dressing rooms get us one stop closer to translating the virtual world of online shopping to mimic the experience of a physical store.

¹http://money.cnn.com/2007/05/14/news/economy/online_retailing/