Gilt Groupe sample sale site - feedback and info
- Thread starter tania_rc
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I've bought multiple items from Gilt Groupe, HauteLook, Regents Secret, never had an issue with any of them. I love sample sales online! 
I just scored a pair of AG jeans yesterday from Gilt, woo hoo!
I just scored a pair of AG jeans yesterday from Gilt, woo hoo!
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LibertyRose
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Count me as another online sample sale lover. I've made it a habit to checkout Gilt, Hautelook, and Ruelala during my lunch hour. 
It's my daily window-shopping opportunity. 
I have bought from Gilt, Hautelook, and Ruelala. Below is a quick & dirty comparison for these 3 sites. Hope it's helpful to the newbies!
Site Design: Gilt has the best presentation, photos, and models. It looks even better than Neiman Marcus and Net-A-Porter, which is amazing because both NM and NAP sell in-season merchandise whereas Gilt doesn't.
Merchandise Selection: Even though you can find Marc by Marc Jacobs on all three sites, Gilt has the upperhand when it comes to uber-designers. Alexander McQueen, Oscar de la Renta, and Carolina Herrera have appeared on Gilt exclusively. Hautelook and Ruelala for the most part do mid-price lines that you can find on Shopbop.com or RevolveClothing.com. The good news is that popular sizes actually can make it to these sample sales, though they are typically gone within the first 10 minutes or so.
Customer Service: This is where Gilt is inconsistent. The shipping is fast and the packaging is classy, but it charges a high handling fee and allows store credit only. Hautelook is the same way. You have about 10 to 14 days to return an item. Ruelala does refunds for returns made within 30 days.
Now, an important feature of online sample sale sites is their waitlist. Online sample sales follow a strict schedule: subscribers know at least one week in advance which sale will happen on which day, and site traffic can be incredibly heavy during the first five minutes after the sale starts. Given the competition, a site's capacity to hold an item for you is key. As far as I know, Gilt is the only one that reserves an item for you for 10 minutes, and it starts a waitlist for temporarily unavailable items (items which are in someone else's shopping cart). If the sale does not go through in due time, Gilt sends a notification to waitlisted shoppers. They also do the same for a sold item which has been returned. On the other hand, Hautelook will show the item is on hold for someone else but the burden to check its availability is on the shopper herself.
My own experience with Gilt so far started with 2 Walter cashmere dresses which I promptly exchanged for another Walter sweater dress and a high-waisted skirt from Mint. I think the grace period for returns is a little short and I do not like getting store credit (I really believe that, psychologically, store credit makes shoppers more inclined to 'settle' and buy something they like but may not completely love because we don't know what the future line-up looks like). On a more positive note, I give Gilt credit for issuing store credit promptly. Once, UPS showed that my returned was received on a Tuesday morning, and there was a sale that I was interested in happening on the same day a couple of hours later. I called Gilt to see if they could process my store credit in time for the sale, and the rep was able to do that over the phone! I was impressed.
So, not a complete rave for Gilt because as a result of their policy I am stuck with two so-so items worth $200 that I can no longer return, but I do recommend it. I hope they continue their stellar line-up so I can buy and return items with the confidence that I will see something I like from their future sales that I can use my store credit for.
It's my daily window-shopping opportunity. I have bought from Gilt, Hautelook, and Ruelala. Below is a quick & dirty comparison for these 3 sites. Hope it's helpful to the newbies!
Site Design: Gilt has the best presentation, photos, and models. It looks even better than Neiman Marcus and Net-A-Porter, which is amazing because both NM and NAP sell in-season merchandise whereas Gilt doesn't.
Merchandise Selection: Even though you can find Marc by Marc Jacobs on all three sites, Gilt has the upperhand when it comes to uber-designers. Alexander McQueen, Oscar de la Renta, and Carolina Herrera have appeared on Gilt exclusively. Hautelook and Ruelala for the most part do mid-price lines that you can find on Shopbop.com or RevolveClothing.com. The good news is that popular sizes actually can make it to these sample sales, though they are typically gone within the first 10 minutes or so.
Customer Service: This is where Gilt is inconsistent. The shipping is fast and the packaging is classy, but it charges a high handling fee and allows store credit only. Hautelook is the same way. You have about 10 to 14 days to return an item. Ruelala does refunds for returns made within 30 days.
Now, an important feature of online sample sale sites is their waitlist. Online sample sales follow a strict schedule: subscribers know at least one week in advance which sale will happen on which day, and site traffic can be incredibly heavy during the first five minutes after the sale starts. Given the competition, a site's capacity to hold an item for you is key. As far as I know, Gilt is the only one that reserves an item for you for 10 minutes, and it starts a waitlist for temporarily unavailable items (items which are in someone else's shopping cart). If the sale does not go through in due time, Gilt sends a notification to waitlisted shoppers. They also do the same for a sold item which has been returned. On the other hand, Hautelook will show the item is on hold for someone else but the burden to check its availability is on the shopper herself.
My own experience with Gilt so far started with 2 Walter cashmere dresses which I promptly exchanged for another Walter sweater dress and a high-waisted skirt from Mint. I think the grace period for returns is a little short and I do not like getting store credit (I really believe that, psychologically, store credit makes shoppers more inclined to 'settle' and buy something they like but may not completely love because we don't know what the future line-up looks like). On a more positive note, I give Gilt credit for issuing store credit promptly. Once, UPS showed that my returned was received on a Tuesday morning, and there was a sale that I was interested in happening on the same day a couple of hours later. I called Gilt to see if they could process my store credit in time for the sale, and the rep was able to do that over the phone! I was impressed.
So, not a complete rave for Gilt because as a result of their policy I am stuck with two so-so items worth $200 that I can no longer return, but I do recommend it. I hope they continue their stellar line-up so I can buy and return items with the confidence that I will see something I like from their future sales that I can use my store credit for.
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adorevintage
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Everything sells out so quickly, you literally have to visit the sale as soon as it becomes available. Even after 30 mins mostly everything is sold out. Haven't made any purchases though.
Shopping Showdown at High Noon
Quite a funny article from thedailybeast.com
:
Quite a funny article from thedailybeast.com
:
The Gilt Groupe, an online sample sale site, has a million members and caused an epic shopping craze—even in a recession. Why are women so obsessed? By Lesley M. Blume.
“You have to have a strategy,” explains a 30-year-old New York City-based businesswoman. “It’s an incredibly aggressive market. Work from the bottom up and work fast, or you’re dead in the water.” This is not a conversation about trolling the stock market for bargains; rather, this woman is offering advice on scoring items on Gilt Groupe, a members-only discount-designer-clothing Web site. Featuring heavily discounted wares from coveted designers like Oscar de la Renta, Alexander McQueen, and Vera Wang, Gilt Groupe launches a new sale each day at 12 p.m. What follows next can often be compared to a bloodbath as members try to outscramble each other in filling their carts with shoes, dresses, bags, and other treasure.
“I was covering the finance ministers’ meeting in Horsham, as everyone was trying to figure out how to lift the world out of this economic crisis,” says one D.C.-based journalist in her early 30s. “Suddenly I realized that it was midday on the East Coast. Our London correspondent, an employee from the Treasury department, and I all stopped what we were doing and sat in the press tent, clicking madly, trying to order stuff.”
In this realm of discount Web sites, fashion-minded consumers appear to be as ravenous as ever—crazed, even—as huge price cuts make what were once pipe-dream Vogueeditorial—only designer brands accessible to the masses for the first time in years.
Gilt Groupe reports that it has just signed its one-millionth member, creating fierce competition to land that pair of size-38 Christian Louboutin patent leather heels. The clientele has become diverse, ranging from socialites looking for a wear-one-time-only gala dress, to office-assistant underlings looking to jolt their wardrobe with a trophy item, to grandmothers in Florida cat fighting it out over Tory Burch sandals.
The upside: It’s all terribly democratic. Anyone with a fast Internet connection can snare a trendy Doo.Ri and Thakoon (a Michelle Obama favorite!) dress for $300 or $400.
The bad news: Gilt Groupe gets expensive and overwhelming very quickly. Some hardcore members say that they have become calamitously hooked on buying the still-not-cheap bargains, even in the trough of a recession. And these women are not of the limitless-funds, ladies-who-lunch variety, either.
“It. Is. Ruining. Me,” writes the D.C.-based journalist in an email. “I was going crazy at first, just buying stuff because the discounts were so great, despite whether I really like it or not.”It’s hardly a newsflash that sales of all varieties often lead to dubious choices and false economies. As glamour icon (and marathon shopper) Marlene Dietrich once pointed out, “the temptation of getting things ‘cheaper’ is cluttering up our households with unnecessary objects and actually burdens the budget.”
So, it should come as no real surprise, then, that Gilt Groupe’s trigger-happy, sales-psychology-on-crack formula is creating, shall we say, some spiraling habits among its customers. And yet some of the anecdotes of self-described addiction are still staggering.
“I am definitely a Gilt Groupe junkie,” says a New York City-based writer, who says she has spent over $10,000—almost a quarter of her annual income—on the site over the last 12 months. “You just get really caught up in it. It’s almost like drunk shopping. I damaged the mouse on my computer from over-clicking on an item, to get it into my cart.” Gilt Groupe, which launched in 2007, is not alone in turning women into combative shopping zombies; competitor outlets such as Haute Look and Rue La La also have large followings. Yet something about Gilt that has made it the queen bee of sales sites, the zeitgeist face of the phenomenon. Perhaps it has something to do with how easily the name "Gilt Groupe" lends itself to a particular slang; many refer to the site as “Guilt Groupe” and say that they are “gilty” of buying too much clothing from the site; often they call themselves “Gilt Groupies.”
“I prefer to think of our members as ‘shopping athletes,’” says Gilt Groupe co-founder Alexandra Wilkis Wilson. “It’s like a competitive sport, and when you get an item, you feel victorious and there’s a sense of pride associated with it. You’d never get that shopping at an outlet; you just feel like you’re slinking around, looking for treasure.” Most of the Gilt members consulted for this piece say that they have spent around $5,000 on the site—yet Ms. Wilson says that some shoppers have spent more than $100,000 on Gilt Groupe merchandise.
“It’s the thrill of the hunt,” says Michele Wissot, who covered sample sales as a senior writer at Daily Candy. “It’s that feeling of, ‘Ha ha ha, I got those shoes before that other girl.’ Gilt Groupe is smart to capitalize on our need to do that.”
This survival-of-the-fittest jungle is so intense that many staunch Gilt Groupies say that they will no longer schedule or attend meetings at noon if a particularly toothsome sale is going up. “You only have five minutes to get what you want and then you’re ****ed,” says Hilary Rowland, CEO of talent agency New Faces, who says she drops everything for one of Gilt’s Dolce and Gabbana sales. “If you look at the clock and it’s 12:10, you’re like, forget it, there’s no point in even looking.”
Copycat enterprises will long examine Gilt’s business plan to see what makes it so successful. Ms. Wilson points out that—beyond the adrenaline rush of “winning” an item—the recession has simply made better merchandise and deeper quantities available to the site, and that consumers are in the mood to take advantage of bargains while they last.
“If the economy hadn’t taken the turn that it did, certain luxury brands and designers might not have pursued an offline channel,” she says.
Yet for many, it just comes down to this: Gilt Groupe is ridiculously easy to use. Two clicks (if you’re luckyone on the product, one on the "purchase" button—and lo! That gratifying, slim Gilt Groupe box arrives on your doorstep practically the next day.Far easier than picking up your dry cleaning, as one Gilt Groupie points out. “They make it really painless to spend a lot of money,” says Rowland. "That is, until you look at your bank account.”
Look for a Gilt Groupe Anonymous in your neighborhood soon.
Gainsbourg
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I really like Gilt but there customer service isn't the best. I sent them 3 emails about canceling an order and I ended up receiving what I wanted to cancel. I like it though and I'm kind of glad it got sent but come on, 3 emails and no response?
i think gilt tends to have better styling and selection than a lot of the other sample sale sites...
and you can return stuff within an allotted amount of time, right?
i don't think you can return at most of the other sample sale sites...
and you can return stuff within an allotted amount of time, right?
i don't think you can return at most of the other sample sale sites...
porkchopgirl
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i like it. i've bought two things from here and haven't had any issues. also, they make it very easy for you to buy things. after you put stuff in your cart, you pretty much just press purchase and that's it, packages arrive in two days flat. i'm still deciding if the input-less checkout is a blessing or a curse...
http://nymag.com/daily/fashion/2009/09/gilt_groupe_accused_of_phony_m.html#comments
personally, i'm pretty skeptical about gilt. on more than one occasion, i've heard of items being found other places like loehmann's or even at department stores for much cheaper than at gilt. they're completely based on hype. it's like the ebay auction limited time offer mentality that gets people. i also had a pretty unimpressive experience with them. i bought a rogan button up shirt in a women's small, but i was sent a shirt that was huge! it looked like it was cut for men, and in fact, it fit my boyfriend perfectly. i emailed them 4 times, and the only response i got was that they do not accept returns. pretty lame.
personally, i'm pretty skeptical about gilt. on more than one occasion, i've heard of items being found other places like loehmann's or even at department stores for much cheaper than at gilt. they're completely based on hype. it's like the ebay auction limited time offer mentality that gets people. i also had a pretty unimpressive experience with them. i bought a rogan button up shirt in a women's small, but i was sent a shirt that was huge! it looked like it was cut for men, and in fact, it fit my boyfriend perfectly. i emailed them 4 times, and the only response i got was that they do not accept returns. pretty lame.
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PinkPrincess113
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chrissym- you can return stuff within an allotted time, but you don't get a refund. you only get gilt store credit.
i bought a chaiken wool long sleeve dress on gilt... definitely love it! i'm really sad that i missed the rag & bone leggings i wanted more recently. i almost put it in my cart and then all of a sudden it was in someone else's cart. it's pretty cut throat out there...
so if anyone wants an invite, pm me with ur email addy!
i bought a chaiken wool long sleeve dress on gilt... definitely love it! i'm really sad that i missed the rag & bone leggings i wanted more recently. i almost put it in my cart and then all of a sudden it was in someone else's cart. it's pretty cut throat out there...
so if anyone wants an invite, pm me with ur email addy!
ETROsexualJ
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I would imagine that buying a dress for $85 on Gilt vs. paying $80 and having to go and schelp and dig through the racks and deal with the people at Loehmann's that it is money well spent.
softgrey
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i got a few things recently and was perfectly happy...
my fave new purchase from there is a cashmere knit scarf in a light beige...
but i did try to buy some shoes and someone got them before i could!
it's good, but you do have to decide quickly and grab something if you really want it...
if you need an invite you can use the link in my sig...
my fave new purchase from there is a cashmere knit scarf in a light beige...
but i did try to buy some shoes and someone got them before i could!
it's good, but you do have to decide quickly and grab something if you really want it...
if you need an invite you can use the link in my sig...
porkchopgirl
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trying to buy something right now and use my credit i got from returns. has anyone successfully done this? when i click 'checkout' the only payment option is my credit card.
porkchopgirl
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^thanks for the reply. i did eventually figure it out before the sale went away!
Gainsbourg
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I usually check Gilt every day but lately I've kind of been slacking and of course with my wonderful luck I missed the Alexander Wang accessories sale. I'm still mad about missing that ugh! Of all the days not to check the site EVERYTHING was gone by the time I saw it
EVERYTHING was gone by the time I saw it
