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Marie Claire recently published tips on avoiding online sample sale disappointment. Among our favorite points of advice was tip number five:
Work your way up the page: “Go from the bottom up. Most people start at the top, so you’re likely to have less competition if you shop the last items first.”
That’s clever. I also liked this tip, for less obvious reasons:
Get on the wait list: “If we’re out of an item you want, we’ll try to get in more of the product, then contact you.”
I’ve had good luck being contacted by Gilt about in-stock items from my wait list, often to realize, however, that with time to think about the item, I didn’t really want it anymore. In those cases, getting on the wait list actually worked out better than having the product in stock when I first thought I wanted it.
Of course, when it comes to online sample sale-ing, planning ahead is really the best strategy. Know the sales you want to hit up and check the sites in advance for start times (Gilt, for instance, always begins its sales at noon EST, but other sites sometimes vary.) We’ve got the daily listing and everything for the week to help you score designer duds without the stress.
