Beyond Amazon.com

August 17, 2012

Photograph courtesy of Rachel McGinn Photography

Written by Marykate Wurster, mother of 3 wonderful children, Gladwyne, PA

There is the fallout, the ripple effect – a pebble is tossed into a pool of water and the orbs flow out touching everything in their serene path. That is how moving feels to me. There is the obvious and immediate tasks such as unpacking and lining up household services. And then there are the things I wasn’t anticipating but thoroughly enjoying, such as redecorating and shopping for the house. And the best kind of shopping – guilt free and necessary. With summer still upon us, and my young ones around, on-line shopping has been a gift.

In general as a busy mom, I try to do as much shopping as I can on-line. I love to take my daughters shopping occasionally for some mother daughter time but otherwise we go one line and make selections together. A good site for children’s clothes is tada shop. It acts as a search engine and pulls multiple brands onto one website. I also sign up for email alerts from my favorite kid sites such as Mini Boden so I can get a running start when they are having their fabulous sales.

For the home, I love all things Serena and Lily. Etsy is simply sublime. I just purchases some happy and fun pillows from here.

For back to school shopping, my go to place is Lands End. They always seem to be having a sale and offer free shipping. I just ordered the backpacks and lunch bags last night (30 % off ladies!) and didn’t leave the house. My children love seeing all the choices, and picking out the small personalized touches themselves.

I just found some adorable bedding on Pottery Barn Kids. My son and daughter are sharing a room, something they came up with on their own, so how could I say no to that! She is a girly girl and he is all boy. I had in my head navy / white and hot pink / white striped bedding for them. And I found exactly what I had in mind on Pottery Barn Kid’s website. I love it when that happens.

Some of my favorite on line discount sites are:

Retail Me Not – visit this website and punch in a store and coupon codes pop up – how wonderful.

Groupon – it is specific to your city, sign up for special offers and discounts.

Living Social - also specific to your city and also has some great travel deals.

Bloomspot is another one that offers luxury trips and deals at a reduced price.

A good friend loves Rue La La and is always finding fantastic discounted designer clothes on line. It is an auction style website. For me personally, I like to try things on, because well, I like it.

Others that I frequent are:

I love zappos for shoes. I tend to order my children’s sneakers here. I find it frustrating and a waste of time to take all 3 children to a store and find they are out of the colors or sizes we need. Since I know their size and what brands work for them, ordering on line works so well. Zappos usually arrives the next day.

I even shop Target on line. They too offer free shipping on most orders over $50. And again, I know I am not wasting a trip to a store for them to be out of an item. My sister loves diapers.com for diapers and baby needs and the free shipping. My sister in law loves Crazy 8 for unique and creative children’s clothes. When I had three children under the age of three, I used peapod weekly. Now I use it so that when I am returning home from vacation, or arriving at a destination that offers it, I have a full inventory waiting for us.

With the holiday season frenzy approaching in only a few months, I will certainly be doing a lot of shopping on amazon. Although I love to shop, I am not a mall girl. There is something about the enclosed space and maze of stores that is most unappealing to me. I love perusing shop after shop on a quaint or city street and also enjoy outdoor courtyard shopping. On amazon I can get my children what is on their list, guaranteed and don’t have to step foot in a mall, or even worse, a Toys R Us. Thankfully, my children are never interested in what is arriving at the house so it is easy for me to hide boxes of Christmas gifts.

That is all I have! Who else has websites to share? Wishing you all happy shopping, free of returns!