Online Clothes Shopping

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Walmart primarily carries clothing bearing its own in-house labels, George and Faded Glory, along with several other brands, such as Levi's jeans. Although choice is limited at Walmart, prices are lower on several cheap Christmas gift items. A Faded Glory top for women is $9 at Walmart, for example, and the cheapest comparable top we found while online holiday shopping at Amazon is a Sag Harbor top for $12.41. A generic pair of slippers costs $9 at Walmart compared with Daniel Green slippers for $10.75 at Amazon. A woman's purse and a pair of men's jeans are also cheaper at Walmart. On the other hand, a $9 Faded Glory top for men at Walmart is pricier than a relatively comparable $7.55 men's top by Van Heusen at Amazon. The price for a man's belt is roughly the same -- $12 when you buy it while doing offline holiday shopping and $11.66 if you opt for online holiday shopping.

Online holiday shopping for clothing at Amazon presents you with scores of brand name choices. In the women's category alone, you'll find labels ranging from A Pea in the Pod and A. Byer to Z. Cavaricci and Zobha. And yet, the process for finding the ideal cheap Christmas gift at Amazon can be complicated. The clothing department is broken down by category -- women, men, juniors, kids, baby -- and each is sliced and diced numerous ways. You need both patience and a strategy when searching for cheap gifts at Amazon. For example, when we typed in the simple search term "women's tops," we got more than 130,000 results, including women's top grain goatskin gloves. There's no shortage of filters to narrow your search -- by, for example, size, style, color, or brand -- and you can sort by variables such as price and popularity. But if you don't have something specific in mind, the hunt for the perfect cheap gift could take a very long time. Moreover, it's hard to assess quality and fit from a picture. Technical specs and user reviews (when available) are helpful but may not provide all the information you need. At Walmart, the stock is logically organized and neatly displayed, so you can quickly find what you're looking for or browse without feeling overwhelmed. Plus, you can pick up a shirt or sweater, say, gauge the quality, and get a sense of how it might fit the intended recipient.

Both Amazon and Walmart carry an assortment of perfumes, colognes, jewelry, purses, and belts. Perfumes and colognes are roughly comparable at the offline and online holiday shopping venues -- a one-ounce bottle of Eternity by Calvin Klein sells for $24 at Walmart and a 1.7-ounce bottle goes for $28.75 at Amazon. Jewelry prices diverge, however: Walmart charges $34 for 10K cubic zirconia studs and Amazon prices similar studs at $44. If you're willing to pay up, you'll find much higher-end jewelry at Amazon. Ditto for purses; Amazon carries designer labels.