Gap

Pros:  Easy to navigate, frequent online coupons and sales, and easy orders and returns.

Cons:  Limited selection.

The Bottom Line:  Gap.com combines the convenience of an excellent website with the quality and style of Gap.

Full review
I have been shopping online for over five years. I buy everything online, including raw goat’s milk. (If you want more info on that, see my review on the subject). At any rate, all these years of dealing with hundreds of merchants, from the home-based to the retail giants, has given me a lot of experience with online shopping and which sites have the best prices, quality, service and last but not least, the fastest load times.

Gap.com is at the top of my list for online clothes shopping. They have long been a leader in traditional retail clothing and their website is an impressive extension of their empire. It is easy to navigate and load times are quite speedy, even when loading several clothing images on one page.

The site is broken down into several departments: Men, Women, GapKids, BabyGap, GapMaternity, and GapBody. As you might imagine, the Men and Women areas offer Gaps traditional clothing while GapKids and BabyGap cater to the younger sect. GapMaternity is only available online and gives expectant mothers a chance to stay true to their sense of style. GapBody is the newest addition and while it really doesn’t give Victoria’s Secret any real competition, it is a great place to find comfy underwear, bras and jammies.

Each of these departments is broken down into smaller sections to make finding what you want a breeze. Titles like Jeans, Sweaters, Pants, and my favorite, Sale make navigating simple and efficient. Once in a category, they are again broken down by type. Jeans, for example, are broken down into Straight Fit, Sleek Fit, Relaxed Fit, and Overalls & Shortalls. One of my favorite options is being able to view all the items as a list or as images. The list view tells you which items are on sale or special, but the image view shows the prices in addition to a picture of the item. Switching to images doesn’t delay load time significantly and allows the shopper to save time and see right away if the item is appealing. Size charts are also available to ensure you get the right fit.

The only real drawback to Gap.com vs. a Gap store is selection. They are increasing their inventory, but you will still find more in the stores themselves. However, there are many items that are only available online, like GapMaternity. Additionally, there are many online specials and sales that can’t be found in the stores and most of their basic line is available through the website sprinkled with a few seasonal and trendy items.

Once you’ve found the item of your dreams, adding it to your cart is a snap. You choose the color, size, quantity and whether you want to ship the item to yourself or as a gift to another address (this option is only available if you are a registered member, but it’s free to join). If an item is out of stock, you are notified and given the option to select from the available listed items. The cart carries over from department to department so you can buy underwear for your husband, jeans for your kids, and a sweater for yourself all at the same time. There is also a wish list function that allows you to earmark items you like without having to purchase them right away.

The checkout process is simple and gives you many options to customize your purchase. Registered users don’t have to re-enter shipping and billing information and sign in using their email address and password they select. Standard gift boxes are free and you can include a message of up to 250 characters. You can ship items from the same purchase to multiple addresses for an additional $3 per address. Standard shipping varies by purchase amount, but is listed prior to purchase so you know what you will have to spend. Overnight shipping is an additional $9. Coupons are usually easy to find on the Internet if you don’t already have one and can save you at least 10%. The code is entered early on in the checkout process. If you forget to enter any information or want to change anything, it can all be easily done from the final checkout page.

Returns can be made by mail or at any Gap location. A return label is included with every order, but only GapMaternity items have prepaid labels. If the item is defective or the wrong item was sent, all shipping charges will be refunded.

With traditional retail, if you wanted to buy clothes for the whole family, you would have to fight traffic, battle for a parking space, navigate through large crowds and visit 3-4 different stores. Unless you can talk your husband into watching the kids all day, you would have to drag them along with you. Gap.com gives you all the quality and style you’ve come to expect from Gap and none of the hassles. It allows you to shop from the comfort of your own home, in your bathrobe, for the entire family, while the kids make mud pies in the backyard and have it all delivered to your front door.