We’ve all heard of ASOS – the UK’s largest independent online fashion and beauty retailer that features over 60,000 branded and own label products across both menswear and womenswear (incidentally, I once spent my life savings on 1,000 penny shares in ASOS, and then lost my nerve and sold them at 1p… aaaagghhhh!).
But, while ASOS is known worldwide and experiencing incredible success, it isn’t the only platform for online shopping.
As record numbers of us are using the Internet to shop from the comfort of our own homes and on-the-go, is it any surprise that more and more ecommerce shops are opening up over high street stores. While people are avoiding the inevitable fight around the clothes rail with other shoppers and long queues for both the fitting rooms and tills, these stores benefit from the fact consumers can click straight through to their store from the pages of online magazines and social media.
So, with that in mind, here are a few up and coming online fashion retailers you should be looking out for:
Clues
Menswear store, Clues, first opened its doors back in 1988 and has been a pioneer in the young fashion shopping experience. In keeping with the times and to make the shopping experience as pleasurable and easy as possible, they have now opened the virtual doors to their online store.
Their buying team travels the world to source new brands to improve the range of men’s clothing that they offer, regularly adding new stock and new brands to the site – across everything from streetwear to more formal attire.
They also still have stores in Peterborough too, a city located just an hours train journey from London – so you can search through actual clothes rails, as well as virtual ones, if you wish.
Stylect
This app, launched in November 2013, has been described as Tinder for shoes. Exclusively targeted at the female market, here you can find more than 350,000 shoes, 10,000 brands, across hundreds of retailers – including the likes of Louboutin, Jimmy Choo, Nike, Topshop and Zara.
This app has been downloaded almost one million times and is racking up more than 60 million swipes each month.
The Chapar
This personal styling service and eCommerce site for men, was started by father-son entrepreneurial duo Joe and Sam Middleton. But, this isn’t any old online fashion retailer; this site brings something completely new and will change the way you shop. So, how does it work?
Firstly, register with The Chaper and complete your profile, then a stylist will call you to learn about your tastes. Next you will receive your trunk to your home or workplace so you can try on your new clothes and decide what you want to keep. Finally, the trunk is collected containing the clothes you don’t want and you only pay for those that you do.
Brands included in the service include Ted Baker, Ralph Lauren, Gant and Hackett London so it’s great if you like to wear something designer every now and then.
Oki-ni.com
Oki-ni is the brand new shopping destination of choice for something a little bit different. Here you can find a selection of pieces, from established menswear designers as well as a whole host of new names.
Established in 2001, Oki-ni initially started as a gallery space and store in London’s Savile Row, offering unique collaborative pieces made with Adidas, Levi’s, Paul Smith and Porter. Today it has evolved and is now focused solely online.
Young British Designers
Launched in 2010, this website is the place for home-grown talent at the beginning of their career. Designers include NewGen winner, JW Anderson and you can discover and explore the UK’s up and coming designers, while shopping for quintessentially British pieces.
Featured image by «Slava Zaitsev» Moscow Fashion House (Provided via email by) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons