Anyone doing their Xmas shopping on-line

Mink

I'm seriously considering doing the bulk of my Christmas shopping on-line as I can't stomach shopping centres for more than an hour at a time, the parking, throngs of people, the bags cutting the hands off ya... aaaaahhhhhrrrrgggg

Anyway, is there anyone else doing their presents shopping on-line?

I've never actually done it before, just occasional purchases. What do people think of Littlewoods Ireland? I'd like to try keep my money in Ireland and buy off Irish companies.

Did you save any money buying on-line for Xmas in the past?

I'll probably keep one or two pressies that I'll get in town a few days before Christmas just so I can get a little Christmassy buzz

olaola

Amazon FTW. You can get EVERYTHING. And as long as Amazon is selling it themselves, any order over £25 is free shipping.

lucycat

I always do mine online, or I have done for the past few years anyway. I'll be honest, I rarely buy stuff from Irish retailers as I look for the bargain first and foremost. www.truffleshuffle.co.uk is a great site for retro tshirts and novelty gifts, I love www.hairybaby.com and their customer service is unbeatable. AWear have 30% off online today, 20% tomorrow and 10% on Wednesday. Amazon has everything under the sun and as another poster said, you can qualify for free delivery too.

House of Fraser deliver to Ireland and Europe and you can make savings on makeup and perfumes if you buy in sterling. Topshop deliver to Ireland and Europe too and you can also take advantage of the sterling prices there to save a few bob.

I think if you have a bit of patience you can usually get some great bargains online with regards to Christmas shopping and you miss out on the hassle of jammers shops, etc.

Let us know how you get on! I'll stick up some other useful sites for you as and when I think of them too if you'd like

Saoirse333

What about ebay? Is that as good as Amazon?

drunkmonkey

When stores don't reopen in January people will be wondering why. If you can get it local do and maybe save a few jobs in your area while your at it. Just a thought.

Acoshla

I do most of mine online, amazon is great, I don't use ebay so much, thinkgeek.com has good stuff for nerdy guys and others, etsy is great too.

castlepoint

amazon is just so good.try to do a bit local as well.

starlit

Some of it yes. Amazon and play.com are great. Cd wow good value too. Tend to do most of my christmas shopping in the shops but this year haven't had much time for shopping so have bought some stuff online. Easier and cheaper. :cool: Get it out of the way too before impending bad weather.

Shopping online is less hassle and easier and better value too.

Posy

drunkmonkey wrote: »

If you can get it local do and maybe save a few jobs in your area while your at it. Just a thought.

I understand your point, but if I can get something cheaper online I will.

I'll also add another vote to amazon, it's especially great for books and DVD box sets. I don't think I've bought a DVD in an Irish shop for years, they're almost always MUCH better value on amazon!

Ebay really can be hit and miss, it all depends on who you are buying from.

Posy

doovdela wrote: »

Get it out of the way too before impending bad weather.

Yes, I remember the chaos last year of things not being delivered on time due to snow, cancelled flights etc..

ORDER EARLY PEOPLE!!! :eek:

Toto Wolfcastle

I do most of my shopping online. I don't want to battle jammed car parks and long queues if I can just sit at home and shop. Amazon is great for most things. I'm also keeping an eye on Qwertee for a couple of presents.

Captain Chaos

doovdela wrote: »

Some of it yes. Amazon and play.com are great. Cd wow good value too. Tend to do most of my christmas shopping in the shops but this year haven't had much time for shopping so have bought some stuff online. Easier and cheaper. :cool: Get it out of the way too before impending bad weather.

Shopping online is less hassle and easier and better value too.

Avoid play.com, rip off prices as you have to pay in Euro and there is a massive mark up in Euro prices. Also delivery times can be up to two weeks. The amount of orders they have messed up on me too, sending me the wrong games and DVDs a good few times and I had to send them back at my own expense and was not refunded. CD wow are dire for delivery times and order feck ups too. Never ever using either of them again.

Amazon all the way though.

starlit

Captain Chaos wrote: »

Avoid play.com, rip off prices as you have to pay in Euro and there is a massive mark up in Euro prices. Also delivery times can be up to two weeks. The amount of orders they have messed up on me too, sending me the wrong games and DVDs a good few times and I had to send them back at my own expense and was not refunded.

Amazon all the way though.

You serious. Had no problems with them. What I ordered arrived in good time and when I expected. Ordering early before xmas helps. Ya amazon not bad. found play.com better though in terms of delivery time and value for money. I got good value for a set of DVD's and CD's from play.com though. Cost of delivery for both amazon and play.com wasn't bad for me. Good thing about play.com they arrived to my house and I didn't have to sign for them. Came through ordinary post. Which is handy for me.

I didn't realise that about the euro mark up though. I got books, dvd's, and cd's. About 4 or 5 items for under €50 euro plus free delivery! I went with the cheapest new one on offer for the item even if it came from Europe rather than the UK!

That's a pity. Ya amazon is good too so maybe go with that I suppose. Try cd wow they are suppose to be good too.

Daizee

Just went onto site called www.Boyzoys.ie, they have a great selection of stocking fillers and non tech toys.

Have not seen anything like it in town and got my son the fun pack as it has a lot of bits to keep him busy over the xmas.

Here is the link http://www.boyztoys.ie/?0ls:item,c:0,id:1370 plus got 10% off as they doing a special offer.

Mink

Thanks everyone. Anyone else with ideas put them down.
Can anyone tell me is little woods Ireland actually an Irish company? I do want to get some bargains but also want to contribute some dough back into the economy. For that reason I never go up north to shop, just a personal choice.
If anyone knows of Irish online companies as well let me know.
Ah Christmas will be a bit easier this year!

Cherrycola

drunkmonkey wrote: »

When stores don't reopen in January people will be wondering why. If you can get it local do and maybe save a few jobs in your area while your at it. Just a thought.

To be fair, when you can buy a book for 8quid online that cost €25 in the local bookshop(i kid you not), and then add the price of petrol to drive to the shop, parking cost of maybe €2 per hour, and the hassle of beating your way through the crowds, why on earth would anyone buy local?!

We all have to stretch our pennies as much as we can, and its just plain stupid to pay more for something just to, maybe, keep a shop open.

Retailers need to meet us halfway, we've been screwed for long enough, since the euro changeover when they rounded the price of everything up, and through the boom years, time to bring costs back in line with peoples earnings i think!

optimistic_

This year, all shopping has been done online. For everyone from siblings, parents, neices and nephews and the OH.

So little hassle, next day delivery on most things. Everything is bought. Christmas can just roll in whenever it's ready.

websites i recommend:

www.play.com
www.pixmania.ie
and photo jojo, can't remember their address off the top of my head.

camera, media drive, dvds, kindle....all sorted.

(oh and obviously amazon for the kindle - but you'll have to get it posted to someone in the UK, because of weee regulations they won't post here)

Hogzy

Remember if you are buying from Amazon you will pay Irish VAT. WHich means all the VAT goes to Dublin and not London

desolate sun

Mink wrote: »

Can anyone tell me is little woods Ireland actually an Irish company? I do want to get some bargains but also want to contribute some dough back into the economy. For that reason I never go up north to shop, just a personal choice.

But if you start buying from UK websites, you might as well be 'going up north'.

Regarding Littlewoods, I was with them years ago and you pay APR on your purchases, so you would be better off buying from each individual website, e.g. if it's an Oasis dress, buy it from the online store or better again in the shop.

Also Littlewoods is a UK company. They bought over what used to be Family Album years ago. (As far as I know FA was also UK owned)

I do buy online but over the years I have become conscious of buying locally and as another poster said, shops will be closing down and jobs lost. There are bargains to be had, in some local shops.

The Lovely Muffin

I'm doing most of mine online this year for two reasons:

1) It's cheaper

2) I hate going round shops looking for presents 'cause I never get anything (usually cause of the price).

So far there is only two things I am buying in-store, perfume for my mother and a shirt for my boyfriend, everything else is online.

Moonbeam

thebookdepository.com is brilliant and often cheaper then amazon for books.

Hogzy

Moonbeam wrote: »

thebookdepository.com is brilliant and often cheaper then amazon for books.

Free delivery aswell, no matter how cheap the purcahse. Sometimes having to spend £25 on Amazon can be really annoying.

The Lovely Muffin

Moonbeam wrote: »

thebookdepository.com is brilliant and often cheaper then amazon for books.

+1 to this.

My boyfriend wants three books (well, two books and a set of books) for Xmas, so I purchased those books on The Book Depository and saved a fortune.

Eason's wanted €13 for one of the single books, €10 for another books and €40 for the set of books.

I got the set of books for €24 on The Book Depository and the other books for €6 and €7 euros, saving €28 euros.

That €28 would go a long way towards his other presents to be honest.

pencilsharp

I've done a lot of shopping on Asos. They have really good discounts on Benefit sets and at the moment there is 20% off all orders, I think it ends today though!