When I first heard of Rue La La back in November of 2008, I thought I had died on gone to heaven. Then Gilt came along and my wallet just straight up died. As you have likely noticed (if you are a member of those sites and, you know, actually care), a large portion of the purchases on here have arrived at my doorstep via their shopping carts. My rabid fandom hit a fever pitch in January of 2010 when I went nutso from cabin fever and purchased the lion’s share of what you are now seeing come onto these pages as ‘purchases’. But…around a year ago this time, the love affair began to fade.
The business side of me wonders what has gone on behind the scenes at Gilt, mainly wondering if their sales numbers have gone down and if customer usage has dropped. I know my purchases are now few and far between since they changed their sales approach. Touting themselves as a ‘members only’ site (which is a massive joke because anyone and everyone can join), their sales used to be, well, sales. Like the kind you’d fight your own Mother for. And I got some good deals in my time – I bought this Alexander McQueen dress for $199, this Alexander McQueen scarf for $50, and this Fendi watch for $199. OK OK…I’m seeing somewhat of a pattern here – I can attest that the Alexander McQueen has skyrocketed on Gilt and to find even a shirt for less than $200 is going to be tough (since his untimely death left everyone wanting more.) But even the lower-high-end brands are only listing at around 50 percent off retail. And there are next to zero final sales to be found. Which his such a shame, because the scores were awesome! Now they just have hundreds of these variety-type sales where everything is just the same sale price as before because they’ve come down to one item of each in stock because someone returned it from the original sale. Lame. Where is the good sales? BRING BACK THE FINAL SALES and cheaper McQueen!
End rant.
Gratuitous and appropriate Tim Walker photo to break up the text:
ps - HAH! I'm not alone. Just read this comment by MargaretS on another site in response to the changes Gilt has been making to their sales:
Ugh. I'd wondered why Gilt's boutiques had gone so downhill lately. Now the reason is clear: the plebeians only are permitted to access the sloppy seconds (i.e., the "contemporary" or "up-and-coming" designers). Oh, and in the event that Gilt does have a boutique featuring a designer that you've actually heard of, the clothing is seasons' old and has been featured on the site at least three times before. In the past year, I've down scaled my Gilt purchases drastically because the boutiques are sub-par. Now, I'm going to curtail my shopping all together.
--Posted at 2/10/2011
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