Consumer Review of www.agneselle.com
Agneselle.com (or AE as fans call it) is a local online shop started in 2007. AE started out as a livejournal shop, where they sold apparel sourced from various local wholesalers. Over the years, they gradually moved on to manufacturing their own designs. The move to a dot.com website has also made online shopping easier. Gone are the days when customers need to leave a comment on the livejournal page to indicate the items they wish to purchase and their email address for contact purposes. Commenting may also not secure you an item as it is sold on a first-to-comment basis. Thus many a times, customers spent the whole night waiting for an invoice that may never come. With the new website, customers cart out their items and invoices are automatically sent to the email address indicated by them. They also have more modes of payment now, by internet banking, credit card payment, or Paypal.
All the apparels are "designed" by the owners. While they are not actual fashion design designs, they get their inspirations from other more established overseas shops and designers, such as Victoria Secrets, ASOS, Lipsy, Chanel and many more. While some may call it uncreative or even theft of intellectual property, I feel that we should not be so quick to judge. The apparels are not carbon copies of those that you may find on international fashion shows, but similar ones that have been tweaked for the Asian women. In this way, AE brings to the local females an Asian version of a designer apparel that is suitable for us and yet at a very affordable price.
The prices of the clothes and accessories sold at AE ranges from $11 for a simple leather belt to $39 for a blazer. Prices are kept affordable to appeal to the working adults and the young teenagers who may not have a bottomless wallet. As online shops need not pay overhead bills required by a brick-and-mortar shop, the savings are translated to cheaper prices for the customers.
AE launches about once every fortnight with at least 5 different apparels in the collection ranging from work wear to casual wear. Each item may then come in 3-4 colors for the customers to choose from. Sizes may also be available, especially for skirts, work dresses and blouses which require a better fitting. Currently, AE offers sizes S and M only and thus their clothing only fits girls who are a uk 4-8. Every once in awhile, AE would also launch belts, shoes and bags to compliment the apparels sold at their website.
AE has accumulated a many fans over the years. Fans of the shop would "camp" at the website at the start of the launch to furiously click and cart-out the items which they wish to purchase. This means that the items get sold out very fast and leaves many potential buyers who didn’t get to purchase frustrated. AE overcomes this problem by opening Back Orders for items which were sold out. Customers can choose to wait 1-2 months for the factories to manufacture the items again.
To become a successful online shopping website, the personal touch cannot be ignored. Good customer service is expected from these shops. Trust needs to be built up between customers and the shop as there is a leap of faith required by the customers when they purchase things by looking at pictures on the website. AE does this by being friendly in their emails, providing correct measurements of the apparels, putting up many pictures of how the item looks from different angles, and answering any queries from the customers. The owners even created Formspring accounts so that customers can post questions for them to answer.
Of course there is a downside to shopping on AE. Besides the small sizes which alienate the bigger girls, the fitting may also be a problem. As the items are manufactured based on AE's owners' sizes, people who do not have their body shape may not look as good in the apparel as the model in the pictures. Alteration is not provided or subsidized by AE unlike brick-and-mortar shops. Also, the quality of the material may not be up to expectations since photos are unable to tell us what the actual quality of the item is. Shipping may also be a problem as sometimes the parcels get lost in transit and neither Singpost nor AE will take responsibility for the items if you had chosen normal mailing.
Overall, I feel that AE is one of the better local online shopping websites. I can trust them to deliver my items to me and the fitting is good on me. The quality of the items has been mostly satisfactory so far. Also, the variety and convenience of being able to shop with the mere click of buttons overrides any negative points about AE.
Based on the type of fabric used to make particular clothing, students can also learnt to gauge the price of an item. Students will be taught about the cost that and effort that goes into making a particular type of fabric. For example, if a dress is made of silk, then you would expect it to be of higher price than a dress made from cotton. From this, students can then determine if that particular clothing is worth buying for the price quoted by the shop.
Image 4: Scallop Bandage Skirt in black
Students can be taught what types of clothing would suit each body shape. For example, the Scallop Bandage Skirt in image 4 would suit a slim girl with relatively flat buttocks as it is body hugging and would create the illusion of curves (Ash, 2010) . They can also be taught how to match and match clothing to look presentable and fashionable. This means that teachers would have to follow the latest trends and adapt them to suit age group of the students. For example, a loose blouse can be paired with the bandage skirt. A tight-fitting blouse would not be recommended as the outfit would seem to tight not much is left to the imagination.
Different occasions call for different types of dressing. For a presentation, you would be expected to dress in formal attire, which usually comprises of a fitting knee-length skirt with a white blouse and a blazer. Students can be taught the type to clothing to wear for different occasions by looking at the outfits pout together on the website and determining if the outfit is suitable for formal or casual events. Using the outfit in image 4 should be seen as casual and what they can wear on a weekend out with friends. The skirt is too short to be used for formal occasions and students should be told of what kind of clothing would suit a formal situation to prepare them for such situations that they would inevitably face in the future.
Students should be taught how to care for their clothes. The most important thing that they should learn is how to read the labels on their clothes. Labels would usually state the size, the country of manufacture, types of fabrics used, as well as washing and ironing instructions. By learning how to decipher the instructions on the labels, students can then take better care of their clothes so that they last longer. However, for clothes bought from online shops such as Agneselle, there is usually no such care label on the clothing. But it would still be good for students to get a general idea of how the washing instructions that are recommended for certain fabrics. For example, a blouse made from chiffon should be hand washed as the fabric is delicate and may not last fray if thrown into the washing machine for washing.
I think it would also be good to teach students about money management and consumer rights. Agneselle and other local online shops launch quite frequently this may tempt students to buy items which they may not need. Students usually have low-spending power and they should not spend all of their money shopping online. Some students may also skip meals so as to save up enough money to buy things from online shops. Thus it is important to teach students about budgeting and deciding if the item they wish to buy is a need or a want. Consumer rights are also important as students should be told of their rights as a paying customer. If the quality of the clothing is not up to expectations or what is shown on the website, students should know that they have a right to have the item exchanged or to get a refund. This would ensure that students do not get cheated while shopping online. They should also be informed of how they should go about getting their complaints heard. In the case of Agneselle, customers can write in to the owners via the "Contact Us" tab. They can also air their grievances though online forums to alert and warn other people who may want to buy from that particular website.
Bibliography
Agneselle. (2011). Agneselle. Retrieved August 20, 2011, from Agneselle: http://www.agneselle.com/
All images taken from http://www.agneselle.com/
Ash, A. (2010, August 23). Skirt styles to best suit different body shapes . Retrieved August 20, 2011, from Helium: http://www.helium.com/items/1930858-which-skirt-style-best-suits-your-body
Chiffon (fabric). (2011, August 15). Retrieved August 20, 2011, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiffon_%28fabric%29
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