Tomima - Lingerie and Underwear Expert

I came across an entry on The Lingerie Post blog called "In Favour of Online Lingerie Shopping" written by Gill Fernandez, owner of ever-so-sexy.com website. In it, Fernandez summed up why shopping for lingerie online is better than going to a traditional retailer.

As a fellow owner of lingerie and underwear websites (HerRoom & HisRoom) I must confess I too hold a similar view - lingerie shopping online is a much more positive experience than shopping at a lingerie retailer who will coax you into a dressing room, get you to remove your clothes, then hold you hostage by feeding you bras to try on until you beg for mercy and agree to buy several more than you planned.

Basically, I hear three arguments against lingerie shopping online:

• Can’t try it on before buying.
• Can’t touch or feel before buying.
• Security concerns when purchasing over the Internet.

Well, let’s take each one of these issues and talk about them.

Can’t Try it on before buying - Michael Dell made an interesting comment that really stuck with me.  He said he didn’t want to be a customer’s first purchase, but rather every purchase thereafter.  The rationale being that the first purchase is fraught with a lot of contemplation, comparison and education. I have pretty much the same view when it comes to women and underwear.  A woman who doesn’t  know what she wants should probably spend some time just shopping around and looking.  But, most of us have already purchased underwear, so we know what we want.  There are very few of us who want to just purely shop for a bra.  It’s more like we know what features, color and style we want.  In fact, many of us are simply replenishing our lingerie supply with a style we already own.  So, not trying it on first is really not an issue.  For that small percentage out there who aren’t sure of their size,  I know that HerRoom has customer reviews, specific sizing charts for each vendor, and "fitters comments" on every item on our site.  So, an online customer can actually get more information about a piece of lingerie than they would walking into stores.

Now, I get that trying it on first means you don’t make a purchase that you might have to return.  But, return policies have become quite simple and fast on most websites.  And, the time and gas saved not having to drive to a store probably covers the cost of the return if you don’t like it.

Can’t touch or feel before buying - This argument on the surface sounds salient.  But, let’s give this a little more thought.  If you were to order from a catalog, you couldn’t touch it, and many times when you go into a store, underwear is in a box or packaging that can’t be touched prior to purchase.  Look at all the toys and other merchandise that we buy in tamper-proof packaging.  We don’t get to touch that either.

I hate touting my sites, but I work really hard to come up with solutions to customer concerns when shopping.  For example, on HisRoom we have softness and thickness gauges on all our men’s undergarments.  This way a guy can gauge how soft and how thick the garment is before he buys it.  So, this is just one of many ways for a shopper to get a sense of the garment before it’s purchased online 

Security Concerns when Purchasing Over the Internet - During the WWW Wild West years of the Internet, I would agree that security was an issue.  However, between the banks, credit card companies and our government, this issue has all but gone away.  Secure check out on most sites is very safe.  Credit card companies are quick to give customers refunds once they prove fraud has occured on their credit cards. You are more likely to have your credit card number stolen at a restaurant or at an ATM than you are at an online retailer.

The  truth about fraud is that it’s  perpetrated more on the websites themselves.  Our websites constantly receive bogus orders submitted by faudulent credit cards.  The only one this hurts is the online retailer.  We don’t have the luxury of a bank or credit card company to refund a mailed-out order if we don’t catch it in time. 

I will conceed that there is one disadvantage to shopping online - timing.  If you need something the same day, you are better off going the traditional retail route and trying to find it in a local shop.

Having said that though, there are a number of advantages to shopping online over traditional retail.  First, is speed.  Online you can visit many different retailers in a relatively short amount of time right from home.  Second, your selection online will always be better than anywhere else,  Third, convenience.  You can literally shop in your underwear.  And that brings me to the fourth advantage: privacy.  You can freely purchase items you may feel uncomfortable purchasing openly in a retail store.

So, I think I’ve crafted a pretty good arguement for shopping online for lingerie and underwear.  It is a far improvement over traditional retail lingerie shopping.

Having helped women with bras now for more than nine years, I have discovered that bras and shoes have a lot in common.

Comfort - For everyday wear, bras and shoes must be comfortable. At the end of the day, if you can’t wait to take either of them off, you know they will never be your favorite. Now, you’ll wear a pair of shoes or a bra even if it’s not comfortable as long as it’s fabulous and shows off your outfit to best advantage.

Prefer certain brands - You pretty much know which shoe brands fit you the best and are the most comfortable for your feet. Well, the same holds true for lingerie brands. When you find lingerie brands you like, you should go to them first when looking for a specific style like a strapless or racerback. This is because, like shoe manufacturers, a lingerie manufacturer will use the same molds and patterns year after year. They know they fit a certain customer well and don’t want to lose them by changing the fit.

Don’t know until you wear it for a while - You can try it on in a store and wear it for a little while, but you never know if your bra or shoes are going to be comfortable until you actually wear them for a day. This is why we all have shoes and bras we rarely wear sitting in our closet and drawers.

Sizing is predetermined - but you don’t always buy your same size. When trying on shoes, you go up or down a size based on the fit. The same is true with bras. You try on your size, but you adjust the cup or band size to hone in on your best fit. Also, if the shoe or bra doesn’t come in your exact size, you will consider getting another size simply because you love the item so much.

Design and shape matter - With bras and shoes, their design and the way they look matter. With shoes you know that strap will hit your baby toe and hurt, the arch support isn’t high enough, or the heel is too high. With bras the straps aren’t wide enough, the underwires aren’t short enough, or the center panel is too high.

Price matters - The better the shoe, the higher the price. The better the bra, the higher the price. This is simple economics. The best quality product cost more. You also get a better product if you’re willing to spend more money, and it will last longer. In shoes as well as lingerie, you really do get what you pay for.

Has Victoria’s Secret gone too sexy and lost it’s core business? Several blogs and articles are claiming this to be the case. Due to it’s success with "Pink," the stores now have a decidedly young and very sexy feel when you walk in. Many long-standing customers now feel they are "too old" to be shopping at Victoria’s Secret and are going elsewhere.

"We’ve so much gotten off our heritage … too sexy, and we use the word sexy a lot and really have forgotten the ultra feminine," said Sharen Turney, Victoria’s Secret’s chief executive. "I feel so strongly about us getting back to our heritage and really thinking in terms of ultra feminine and not just the word ’sexy’ and becoming much more relevant to our customer," Turney said. The new goals of Victoria’s Secret are to down-play "sexy" and focus on sophistication. "We will also reinvent the sleepwear business and focus on product quality," she said. "Our assortment will return to an ultra feminine lingerie brand to meet her needs and expectation." So what was the wake-up call for Victoria’s Secret? Their 4th quarter in 2007. Sales slipped and profits fell by 12%. Management has informed Wall Street to expect below expectation performance in the first quarter of 2008.

When a downward trend appears, management tends to go running back to the core concept. Victoria’s Secret was started in 1977 in San Francisco by Roy Raymond in an effort to create a lingerie shop that both men and women would feel comfortable shopping in. The idea was to give the store a British feel and make the customer feel like they were one of the "upper crust" shoppers. The stores were filled with dark woods, elegant fixtures, carpeting, furniture and thoughtful staff. A lot of change is going to need to take place to get Victoria’s Secret back on its original message.