I have really enjoyed shopping on The RealReal this year, and I have developed some serious skills for snagging good deals and not getting burned. I am going to share what is no doubt an evolving list of lessons learned from shopping on The RealReal.
Think long and hard before buying something that’s not returnable
As a novice TRR shopper, I thought this was the key to scoring great deals. And it can be! When you sort by price- low to high- you are going to see some incredible deals. Most of them are final sale. So you have to go into it with your eyes wide open.
Most items on TRR can indeed be returned. So when something is not returnable/final sale, a few things could be going on:
- It’s a unique piece that doesn’t photograph well- hence no love from the shoppers
- It’s not described accurately or the pictures are obscuring something (generally surprising)
- It’s just been hanging around for too long and needs to move out
- It’s been bought, found to be wanting, and returned (maybe even multiple times)- basically, there’s something wrong with it
The first three reasons could mean a good deal. The fourth one- well, that’s where you can get burned. Because then you are stuck with something you can’t return.
A few ways to mitigate the risk: only buy brands that you know fit you with 98% confidence, scrutinize the photo (from all sides! zoom in!), and read the notes on the quality. And perhaps take a deep breath while you say a prayer!
I get it- returns are a huge hassle for retailers. But if you do end up with something you don’t want and it’s final sale, well TRR may have a solution for you!
Get ready to have items sent for consignment rejected
TRR will typically offer to consign any final sale items that you wish you could return. They will offer this option to you when you make an effort to initiate a return.
The tricky part is that this doesn’t always work. Not only do you lose some money is consigning versus returning (this is a business after all!) but they won’t hesitate to reject the item you’ve sent for consignment. It could be that the condition isn’t up to snuff or they no longer sell that particular brand. I know, it’s crazy- but suddenly something that you just bought from them two weeks ago is no longer on their list of permitted items.
And let’s just say that The RealReal is not gentle when returning items they deem to be undesirable. You’ll get a very sternly worded email, along with notification the next time you log into the app, that your undesirable item is being mailed back to you.
Avoid buying anything where the size tag has been removed (and TRR has “estimated” the size)
There are times when a consigning customer has removed the size tag from an item. It might have fallen off, it might have been itchy. Or perhaps that customer didn’t want to be reminded that she/he is a certain size! Whatever the reason, when that happens, TRR will estimate the size. And they are frequently quite wrong.
I now try to avoid ordering anything that doesn’t have a size tag. But if I am determined, I will assume they under-estimated the size. A medium is a small, a large is a medium. And so on.
Same goes for fabric tags. If you are super picky about your fabrics, don’t leave this to chance.
Open the app every day or so- they may offer you a deal on something you’ve been looking at
If you log on every day or so, you may get a surprise- they’ve marked an item down just for you! They are keeping a list of every item you ever had in your cart and when it gets marked down, you’ll get a little notification. If you are stalking an item, it’s worth just taking a quick peek on the app every day or so.
And there’s more!
I realized when writing this that I have more to share… so be on the lookout for another post filled with tips for shopping on The RealReal. And let’s score some deals together 🙂
