Retail Review: Wholesale-dress.net

Wholesale-dress.net is a Chinese-based online purveyor of Asian-made clothing, shoes, and accessories. Their site boasts a plethora of of-the-moment pieces at amazingly low prices. They also offer deals for wholesale and drop-shipping orders, but this review recalls the retail experience only.
I've now ordered from wholesale-dress.net several times, with varying degrees of success. The crux of the issue seems to be that the customer can have a tough time determining which items are in stock -- a difficulty that can lead to severe disappointment.
For example, the first time I ordered from the site, I was absolutely rabid to have this red sweater -- the cat appliques are so sweet they made my teeth hurt. So I swallowed my reservations about ordering from China, added it to my cart, paid, and waited... only to be emailed days later with the news that my beloved sweater was out of stock. I stalked this sweater for a good year, hoping against hope that it would be restocked -- and one day, my prayers were answered. The sweater was back up, and the "add to cart" button was restored. Only the same thing happened: even though I was able to order the item, it was not in stock. I vowed never to order from the site again.





...but the truth is that the allure of cat-themed items always proves too strong for me. This was before the time of the iconic Miu Miu cat print; cats were nowhere to be found in America and entirely overpriced on YesStyle.com. And I fell in love with this quirky sweater dress. This time, the order went through without a hitch, and my sweater arrived! I liked it, but I didn't love it. It was shorter than expected based on the photo and measurements, and the knit was scratchy and of low quality. I figured it wasn't worth it to order from wholesale-dress.net again.





Lo and behold, however, registering for the site signed me up for their email list, and I was eventually drawn in again. This time, my pulse raced for this convertible bag with cheeky, checkerboard pattern in genuine leather. Disclaimers all over the site warned that, because of Chinese New Year, shipping would be delayed. I figured that that was fine with me; I just wanted to place my order good and early so that they wouldn't run out again. So this time I asked customer service if my item was in stock. I was assured it was available. I added it to my cart and checked out. But when I tried to pay, I was unable to! I waited about a month until the holiday was over and tried to pay again - nothing! Finally, I wrote to customer service and was informed that I would have to cancel the first order and create a new one... and you guessed it: after ordering and paying, I was informed that my bag was out of stock. I vowed never to order from the site again - again!

Most recently, I checked back into the site after I saw that Forever21 had done a Miu Miu-inspired dress. I figured that, if they had done it, then the Chinese had likely done it, too - I was right! I found the perfect blouse for about $7. I inquired about availability and was told it was in stock. I ordered, paid via Paypal, and waited. Two days after placing the order, I received an email shipping confirmation and tracking number. Five days after placing the order, my package arrived in California, and my blouse was everything I'd hoped it would be - minus some loose threads and the fact that all the buttons seemed to be sewn on with a single, uncut, unknotted thread. o_0

Pros:
-Insane selection
-Low, low prices
-Cute, quirky, unique items you aren't likely to find in a brick & mortar store
-Shipping can apparently be lightening-fast!


Cons:
-Browsing/Searching is difficult, as you cannot sort your search results by category (clicking on the category erases your search criteria), and your search will also pull up all other words that contain your search word (e.g. a search for "cat" also pulled up listings for "delicate.")

-No system that removes the purchase option once an item is sold out.

-Quality is a toss-up
-Shipping costs can negate what you thought would be an insane deal

The bottom line: Wholesale-dress.net is pretty much like shopping the Chinese equivalent of a Forever21 warehouse - you can score adorable, unique, never-see-it-again-anywhere-else items for a song... but the process might totally kill your shopping buzz. I say go ahead and risk it if you find something you truly can't find anywhere else, but don't count your kittens until they've shipped.

All images except the last two are from the wholesale-dress website.