The safest and lowest cost Italian and foreign online shopping sites!

Online shopping is a "satisfying, and sometimes even cheaper, alternative to traditional in-store shopping: you can do it from the comfort of your home, from the office during lunch break or from your mobile phone on the subway, without having to deal with the stress of gathering in stores for the same clothes, the queue for the dressing rooms and, subsequently, the queue at the cash desk. On online stores, it's a whole different story. It's just you and that pair of shoes you've been craving for a long time. In short, just select the items you want, add them to your cart, make the payment and wait for them to be delivered directly to your home within a few days. Of course, by shopping online you could lose golden opportunities such as the possibility of losing calories thanks to compulsive shopping. Have you no idea what we are talking about? Watch this video and find out:

Is shopping online safe?

A problem that always arises every time we decide to make an online purchase is the question of security: is the site we want to shop on really reliable? How many do we have available and how can they satisfy all our needs? Depending on the type of purchases we have to make, whether it be books, shoes or other fashion accessories, we have a lot of e-commerce available, some of which can actually disorient us, discouraging us from shopping, but don't worry, because we have thought of everything. Yes, to eliminate any fear, we have compiled a mini guide to online shopping. So, after this reading, the only detail you will need to pay attention to will be the availability of your bank account!

See also

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Compulsive shopping: from the pleasure of buying to the obsession with buying

How to open an online store: costs, platforms and all there is to know

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Chinese Online Shopping Sites: Which Are Truly Reliable?

As for online shopping outside the borders of Italy, there are several particularly popular Chinese shops such as Wish, Shein, Zaful and Alibaba. They are different sites because they offer different products, from "electronics to" furniture up to clothing and accessories. Wish and Shein have a greater degree of reliability, albeit not very high, also in terms of delivery times that however on average, and compared to other platforms for online shopping, they are rather dilated. Zaful, apparently, remains the one that can give more problems in terms of final yield than what is promised in photos. More often the discrepancies between the product offered online and what is actually delivered to the end customer have made this site one of the least satisfactory. Alibaba, on the other hand, is a truly huge Chinese online shopping site, where you can find everything, but, before proceeding with the purchases, it must be taken into account that delivery times are really long. In general, the main problem with these stores is that a reduced price does not correspond to a maximum yield, a confirming what we actually expect from fast-fashion products, whose quality notoriously leaves something to be desired.

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The best Italian online shopping sites

To have more certainty about the quality of the products and the reliability of the site, we can opt for a reality closer to ours, both in terms of ethics and kilometers. In Italy there are several online shopping sites where you can take advantage of of the same services provided by traditional shops, purchasing 100% Made in Italy: quality items, selected according to the trends or offers of the moment; punctual delivery ranging from a minimum of 48h to a maximum of 5 working days; discounts and offers advantageous throughout the year; a taste and a choice of garments in which we Italians, so attentive to manufacturing and fashion, are able to reflect ourselves. Unfortunately, there are not many Italian stores for online shopping, but among these we can undoubtedly include a super cool example, namely Ventis.it, an e-commerce site with great attention to Made in Italy or to the products of major brands, from fashion, to beauty, to food travel autonomy, which offers you the opportunity to purchase them with discounts of up to 70% for a limited period of time.

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The best online shopping sites dedicated to clothing

If you want to focus your online shopping only on clothing and accessories such as shoes and jewelry, the sites to opt for are varied. Ventis.it, as we have said, also offers a section dedicated to fashion and big brands. Or you can do various searches on Amazon, which has a section dedicated to fashion and whose advantages are extreme reliability and short delivery times, but also on Ebay which, despite what one might believe, not only sells used products but also brand new. Other online shopping sites dedicated only to clothing are, for example, Zalando, Asos and BonPrix, which sell clothing from the most varied brands; or if you are passionate about luxury brands, from Gucci to Miu Miu, you can opt for sites of online shopping such as Net-a-porter or MyTheresa. Of course there are all the e-commerce of the most famous brands such as Zara, Mango, Bershka, Pull & Bear and the like, on which you can also buy clothing items present in collections not strictly dedicated to the Italian market.

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How to recognize safe online shopping sites?

To recognize safe online shopping sites, we need to pay attention to some parameters. Surely we can rely on the reviews left by users like us, which generally give us information on: quality of the product purchased, shipping times, type of package received and compliance of the product with the characteristics mentioned on the site. Already in this way we can realize how that site is perceived by ordinary people like us, looking for any product that is accessible to everyone.

Secondly, the brands proposed by the site often represent a guarantee of quality: if we recognize famous brands, which fall within the price categories to which we associate them, we can generally trust (instead beware of those sites that pretend to be official e-commerce big brands but then they have strange URLs, full of numbers or letters placed at random, or on which we find luxury brands at really too low prices!).

Another factor to consider is the method of payment: PayPal is one of the best solutions, because it allows us to make payments in complete safety, but also using a prepaid card, which we top up according to our needs, can represent a " excellent alternative. In principle, the most famous sites also accept credit cards which no longer represent a problem. In short, always keep these features in mind to avoid unpleasant surprises!

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List of online shopping site names (and categories)

To recap, here is a list of the names of the major online shopping sites, divided by categories:

Various product categories

  • Ventis.it >> Italian site that includes fashion, food and wine, home, city experiences, hotels.
  • Amazon >> from electronics to fashion, including beauty products, children's products, accessories, music, books and films.
  • Ebay >> presents various product categories such as Amazon, but also offers the possibility of purchasing products at auction or used.
  • Alibaba >> the Chinese version of Amazon.
  • Privalia >> various product categories with products available on sale for a limited period.
  • Etsy >> gives ample space to artisans, artists and vintage boutiques who make their creations or DIY products available.
  • Subito.it >> shopping site for used goods par excellence.
  • Vinted >> site where you can buy and sell (without commission) new and used garments.


Clothing online shopping sites

  • Zalando
  • Asos
  • BonPrix
  • Net-a-porter
  • MyTheresa
  • Forever21


Group shopping sites

  • Groupon
  • Groupalia

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Low-cost sites to spend little

The best low cost online shopping sites in circulation are the sites on which we can find quality garments or accessories at affordable prices compared to the current ones on the market. Zalando, Asos and BonPrix offer clothing and accessories at reasonable prices, which become super affordable thanks to the periodic promotions that stores like these offer. On Ebay and on Amazon you can find great discounts and, more generally, products at affordable prices given the great variety of price ranges on these sites. But before we start shopping, we challenge you to ask yourself if you really need that pair of shoes or is it just a whim!

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