If there was one subject I could write a college-sized textbook on, it would be online shopping. I’m not sure whether I should be proud of that fact, or not be sharing it with everyone and their momma. Yet, here we are. When it comes to cyber shopping there are so many different sites, apps, and Instagram boutiques. I’m sharing my tried and true ways to navigate the world wide web and online shop like a pro.
shop my tee and a similar kimono.
Phone Apps
We all have them, and probably have too many. Anyone else do an app purge every once in a while? Well, there is one app that has been on my phone since sophomore year of high school. Old Faithful, if you will.
It’s the Hautelook/Nordstrom Rack app.
If you take one piece of advice away from this on how to online shop, download this app. The Hautelook part of the app is daily curated sales that cover all categories. Everything from babies, to home goods, to kitchen brands, to shoes. They go live everyday at 10AM and if you scroll all the way down to the bottom you can see what’s coming up for the next couple of days. If you see something you know you’ll like, set an alarm. I’m not judging.
The other section of the app is Nordstrom Rack. It’s not curated and themed, but you can see everything Nordstrom Rack has and obviously you can always get good deals. This is my go-to spot for late night browsing. The best part, if you buy something from Hautelook, you can return it to any Nordstrom Rack since they are like sister stores.
Hautelook is my favorite, but if it’s not your jam check out Rue La La, Gilt, or Jane. These are all curated daily sales apps that I’ve used before.
Boutique Sites
Whenever I’m browsing for something new (pretty much anytime I’m conscious), I always run down my mental list of boutiques. I have a handful of favorite boutique spots that I always check first before going to sites like Nordstrom or Dillard’s. Why? Well, I love to shop small businesses. It’s just way more satisfying to know that you’re helping someone built their business. Besides the sentimental aspect, boutiques usually have great sales. And they usually carry really good brands. Do the math and you can usually find the same pieces that you’d find at larger stores, but on sale. Some of my favorite boutiques carry brands I love like Buddy Love and Show Me Your Mumu, but the boutiques have sales more often than if you shopped from the brand directly.
But how will you know about sales? Sign up for their email list. I know, we all have about a thousand emails sitting in our inbox or that we’ve deleted from places we don’t care about. But, purge some of your current subscriptions and add ones you’ll actually want to read. Boutiques aren’t going to be blasting you everyday with emails anyways, they usually save their emails for the good stuff (i.e. sales and new merch). I know a lot of dedicated online shoppers who create a separate email just for email subscriptions from stores. Dedication.
And this way, you’ll always be in the know.
P.S. I usually find my fav boutiques by browsing Instagram and following them. That way, even if I don’t sign up for emails and online shop, I’m following their posts and they’ll share sales there too.
6pm.com
, I’m just a little nugget in the big blogger world so this isn’t sponsored. But, I love, like seriously, love to online shop at 6pm.com. One, because they have the most amazing sale selections for shoes. Two, refer to point one. This is where I snagged my Marc Fisher’s that you can read about here. It’s just the bomb. You can search down to the super specifics too, which is great if you’re looking for something particular.
Well, you’ve now graduated from Caitlin’s School of Online Shopping. Congrats, you’re a whole new person. But seriously, I hope this helped y’all navigate the web and use your time to actually shop the good stuff. 
cheers,
caitlin