Reviews posted by other consumers, particularly those that offer feedback on the particular clothing items you’re considering, can provide valuable insight. At Amazon you will find a large variety of feedback, especially if you want to know whether others believe the garment is true to size because children’s clothing sizes aren’t always uniform. For example, a size 6 at one retailer may be wider, slimmer, shorter or longer than a size 6 at another.
Remember, however, that a user review posted on a retail site is just one person’s opinion. For the best results, you’ll want to look for multiple reviews written about the same item. For the most part, you can disregard the best and the worst reviews; the truth is often in the middle. For example, if one reviewer assigned a stellar five-star value to a boy’s wool sweater and one reviewer gave it a poor one-star rating but 20 reviewers found it to be of 4-star quality, trusting the majority of the reviewers should yield reliable results.
There’s one downside to shopping for children’s clothing online: You can’t have your kid try the clothes on to see how they fit. However, if you shop at online stores with terrific return policies, you’ll never have to regret purchasing clothing that doesn’t fit your child’s size or style. Many retailers post the details of their return policies on their Web sites; otherwise, you can call for details before making a purchase.
The best online return policies don’t have time limits on when you can make a return or exchange, and don’t require extensive documentation. Not all retailers take a “no questions asked” approach to returns, which may leave you without recourse if you didn’t keep the packing form and online receipt or failed to make the return during the acceptable time limit, which can vary by retailer.
You can grab great bargains online, but you’ll want to make sure the shipping costs don’t put you in the poorhouse. You can do this by only making purchases from retailers that offer free or low-cost shipping. Some retailers offer a flat-rate, such as $5, for shipping any number of items. Others, like Zappos, offer free shipping all the time, as well as free shipping for returns.
