Before you decide to buy a dress, you will need

Where do you want to buy your Prom Dress, online or offline

When the prom season approaches, many girls start looking for the most beautiful dresses that fit them the best from many different places. It can be retail stores or online dress shopping malls. Which place has the best price and quality for a buyer convenience and budget?

Online shopping is a new trend since 2000. The annual growth rate is 11% every year. Traditionally, all girls have shopped for dresses at wedding shops, dress specialty stores, or department stores. They tried on the dresses and compared prices and styles. However, this traditional trend has rapidly changed. Here, I would like to analyze the merits and weak points of online and offline dress buying with a price comparison.

Before you decide to buy a dress, you will need to know the basic price structure of the dress. The true cost of a dress does not mean anything until all the expenses added before it can be sold to the customer as a retail price. Most physical stores have high extras such as the rent, employees?wages, utilities, insurance, etc. Those sums add up to at a least 30% increase from the original dress cost, which is from either the manufacturer or a wholesale store. For example, if the original dress cost is $100, the expenses would be around $30, so you are paying $130 for a $100 dress. Prom dresses are seasonal products from mid-March to before July, so business activity is confined to about half of the year. We need to add this seasonal factor into the retail prices. So, if the owner wants to pursue a 30% profit, the retail price will be $338 (Original cost $100 ?expenses 30% ?seasonal factor 200% ?profit 30%.) This calculation is totally hypothetical but also realistic. It can be vary per stores by stores. You may feel that retail prices are a bit higher and cannot be justified. However, if we carefully observe the nature of the prom dress business the profit margin is not that much because it is not spread out for the entire year. The pure profit of $338 dress is only about $39.

Compared to the offline dress stores, online dress stores have much less overheads. First of all, they are not physical retail stores, so they do not need to have pay rent. Less space needed, less employees, less burden on liability insurance, less maintenance cost compared to the physical stores add up to less overall expenses. Also, the strong point of an online store is its versatility of inventory. They can carry any product they want to sell, so can be less seasonal and have fewer inventories need to carry. If the dress cost is $100, the final retail price on the Internet mall will be around $220 (Original cost $100 ?expenses 15% ?seasonal factor 50% ?profit 30%.) The pure profit of $220 dress will be $52. Here we do not add extra expenses such as technical outsourcing cost, Internet advertising cost, etc, so the actual profit per dress will be decreased after those expenses are applied.

Everyone agrees that price is cheaper on the Internet. However, there are other factors you need to consider such as the availability of a dress, quality, design, etc. You can verify stock availability at the physical stores and online by simply calling them and asking. The main weakness of dress buying on the Internet is it lacks your immediate inspection on the dress by not allowing you to touch and see in front of you before you buy it. You are the person who must see the dress, and then you drive to the store and buy it. This is a great idea. Conversely, if you want to save time and gas, and would like to pay less money for your dress, you may want to try to buy it online. Many online stores provide you high quality customer services and a reasonable return policy. All transactions can be done by their merchant account. This can protect you from being hacked for your financial information.

You can buy great dresses from any place, but the trend is shifting from traditional dress shopping to the virtual stores that we all agree will continue as long as shoppers are looking for lower prices for their dresses.

Thank you for reading this article.

How To Choose The Right Wedding Dress For Your Body Type

Many brides-to-be spend hours flipping through the pages of bridal magazines in search of the perfect wedding dress. They may find several that they fall in love with, but it could be that none of them are the right dress for the bride. The fact is that not all dresses look great on every bride.

Choosing the best wedding dress is about how the dress looks on your body. All brides even those who are very thin have to keep this in mind. Choosing a dress from a picture is just not a good idea. Instead, you must try on gowns so that you can figure out which style looks best on you. Below are some of the most common styles of wedding dresses.

Sheath

This style of wedding dress typically falls away from the body. It is best suited to brides who are tall and slender.

Empire Waist

An empire waist wedding dress features a waistline that falls just below the bust line. This dress is a good choice for a bride who does not have a large bust. For shorter brides, it can add height.

Ball Gown

This very popular style of wedding dress is what many girls think of when they picture a princess gown. It has a full skirt and evening dresses discount is wonderful for hiding imperfections around the hips or thighs.

Mermaid

A mermaid style wedding dress is very fitted and is a good choice for those Little Black Dress brides who want to accentuate their curves.

There are hundreds of variations within each style of wedding dress. Once you determine the shape that looks best on your body, you will be able to start your search in earnest. For example, you may have to try on a dozen ball gowns before you find the one that is right for you.

Some other tips:

Try It On

Yes, try on that wedding dress even if it is nothing like what you imagined wearing on your big day. You would be surprised at how many brides end up falling in love with a dress that is much different from what they thought short ivory dresses they wanted.

It doesnt hurt or cost anything to just try it on, and you just might find the dress of your dreams.

Dont Settle

Just because you always wanted a wedding dress of a certain style does not mean that you should get that dress even if it does nothing to flatter your body type. Conversely, do not be talked into a wedding dress that everyone else says is great on your body if it is not really what you want.

Keep looking until you find the perfect wedding dress that both flatters your body AND lives up to the picture that you have in your mind of what your wedding dress will look like.