Buying clothes online

Ratings of 39 Web sites, plus tips to ensure a good buy

Most people still buy clothes in stores, but the tide might be turning. Last year, Americans ordered more apparel, accessories, and shoes online—almost $23 billion worth—than any other category of merchandise, even computers and other electronics.

High gas prices and a dread of holiday-shopping crowds will no doubt spur shoppers to buy clothes online. And that trend makes sense.

In a new survey by the Consumer Reports National Research Center, 85 percent of the more than 25,000 respondents were very or completely satisfied with their online clothes-shopping experience. That's a higher satisfaction score than that for most other services we've measured recently. Only 3 percent expressed any dissatisfaction. People over age 40 were generally more satisfied than younger respondents.

There were no real dogs among the 39 clothiers we've rated. Standouts, including L.L.Bean, Zappos, and Lands' End, tended to provide superior clothing quality, the most accurate descriptions and sizing information, an informative Web site, and an easy way to order and return items. They also gave customers who buy clothes online a big bang for their buck. For example, respondents said that the value at L.L.Bean was excellent for almost two-thirds of their buys. Just 27 percent said the same for Victoria's Secret.

Overall, respondents called clothing quality excellent for 59 percent of their buys; they were dissatisfied with quality just 5 percent of the time.

Shoppers encountered relatively few problems, and most of those were resolved quickly. In fact, in an earlier poll we conducted, billing errors and incorrectly filled orders were so rarely reported that we didn't need to ask about them for this survey.

Here's what else we learned:

A big name is no guarantee

At Old Navy, readers called the quality of clothing excellent for only 32 percent of purchases; at Sears, just 29 percent. Victoria's Secret, the Gap, JCPenney, and Kohl's fared about the same. Shoppers at Haband described its clothes as fair or poor in quality 33 percent of the time.

Clothes fit, usually

Overall, clothes proved too big or too small just 7 percent of the time. There were more problems with size accuracy at Sears, Woman Within, Chadwick's, Haband, and Newport News.

Accurate photos and text are crucial

Other pluses include virtual models that let you "try on" merchandise, sizing guides, 360-degree and zoom views, and buyer reviews. The Web sites of L.L.Bean, Zappos, and Lands' End led the way; those of Sears, Lane Bryant, King Size, Roaman's, Woman Within, Chadwick's, Haband, and Newport News were notably below average.

Ordering was easy

Finding out shipping costs wasn't. Most sites were diligent about confirming orders and providing e-mail alerts and tracking information. But for 28 percent of purchases, respondents who buy clothes online said that sites didn't divulge shipping costs until they had ordered and checked out. Stores that were especially open in revealing shipping costs were Zappos, QVC, Banana Republic, Old Navy, and L.L.Bean.

For 7 percent of buys overall, there were gripes about shipping fees. Victoria's Secret, J. Jill, and QVC were among the worst offenders. On the plus side, shipping was free one-third of the time.

There were many happy returns

Respondents sought a refund or exchange for one in four purchases. They were unhappy with the result only 3 percent of the time, though 15 percent said the cost of returning items was high. No site was especially egregious, but one stood out as excellent: Zappos, which focuses on shoes and offers free delivery and free return shipping. It provides prepaid UPS or U.S. Postal Service labels.

Check the catalog

For a dozen stores, we collected enough data to rate the experiences of readers who used a catalog and phoned in an order. Differences in satisfaction between them and those who buy clothes online were minimal. One drawback: The catalog might not reflect real-time inventory, so you could miss clearance items.

Shoe buying was mainly trouble-free

In a separate survey, we rated readers' online shoe-shopping experiences, and satisfaction scores were as impressive as for clothes. Because people are more apt to return shoes, sellers tend to offer free two-way shipping. We'll be reporting our shoe-shopping findings in the next month.

Bottom line

You'll save gas and avoid crowds by shopping online, and you needn't be nervous about the outcome. The Ratings (available to subscribers) include a wide range of stores with high marks across the board.