courtesy PhotoMix
For many designers, seamstresses and artisans alike, there is something reassuring to be found in shopping for fabric at brick-n-mortar shops where one can actually touch and feel the material. An experience often lost when buying fabric online, but one that textile companies and their marketing teams strive continuously to innovate and virtualize in order to mirror a similar hands-on experience. By capturing high res images of their fabrics, specific filters, consumer friendly navigational tools, and detailed textile information in their descriptions, many top online fabric stores have been able to offer just that. With such bases covered, along with the benefit of direct mail based promotions and FREE shipping oftentimes, fabric shoppers are discovering more and more confidence, comfort and convenience in the notion of online fabric shopping.
With this in mind, here are 5 additional tips for buying fabric online. Put them in your mental pocket along with the new found tools mentioned above for the most successful shopping experience.
TIP #1 / Use the website’s search and filter categories to your advantage. What will you be using your fabric for? What colors are you looking for? What kind of material? While the amount of options online can be overwhelming, most online fabric stores have menus and search functions that will allow you to pare down and filter results so you can find what you’re looking for without having to browse through thousands of different types of fabrics.
COLOR
While the color of your fabric choice may appear to be apparent in the fabric image on your monitor, because every computer screen is slightly different, concrete color accuracy can be off. Most retail sights know this and provide a written confirmation of the color in their description to prevent ordering confusion.
CONTENT
The fabric’s content will tell you what the fabric is made of: cotton, polyester, wool, nylon, etc. This should give you an idea of the feel or ‘hand’ of the fabric, as well as its characteristics. Is it a synthetic or natural fiber? Organic or non-organic? New man-made fabrics are continually being created so if you are unfamiliar with the content listed on a fabric, look for a website that offers industry fabric guides to help quickly identify a wide array of fabrics. Knowing what kind of fabric you are purchasing is imperative towards the success of your project.
WEIGHT
The weight of the fabric tells you how heavy it is. Heavier fabric is thicker and useful for curtains, upholstery, and other home decor projects, while lighter fabrics are thinner and can be used for quilting and apparel. Often times fabric sights will categorize their heavier fabrics under decorative, upholstery, and tapestry sections while their lighter weights can often be found in their drapery, dress, novelty and netting sections.
WIDTH
The width of a fabric tells you how wide the fabric is. This is important to make sure you will have enough fabric to complete your project. Fabrics can be anywhere from 35-108+ inches wide, so take note of the width before you buy. The width of the fabric will often be in the description along with price, available yardage inventory, item number and fabric content. Standard width sizes are 45″, 52″, 60″. The length cut of your fabric will be determined by the number of yards you require. Each yard is 36″. Therefore a yard of 45″ fabric measures 36″x 45″.
Tip #2 / Be aware of the online fabric store’s shipping policy. What is the expected turn-around time between order placement and actual shipment? Where are they shipping from? How are they shipping to you? And what are their shipping rates? When you need fabric in a hurry or are on a limited budget, the answers to these processing / shipping questions can make the difference between placing your order with one store or another. A good online fabric store will have a link to their shipping policy and customer service visibly located at the foot or front page of their website for quick reference.
Tip #3 / Review their online store policy. Just like in a brick n mortar store, issues requiring adjustments or compensation can occur requiring written policies in place that help assist and /or accommodate. These could be issues surrounding such aspects as yardage discrepancy, specialized pricing on wholesale orders, or order processing concerns. Knowing your online fabric store’s policies on such issues offers an added layer of confidence that you can stand on should the need occur.
Tip #4 / Customer Service is key. How many times have you went fabric shopping online and needed to confirm actual yardage availability or get a clearer description of a fabric on the site, only to be met by dead end answers because they had no sufficient customer service? Though some online fabric stores only provide email addresses for connecting purposes, many post a phone number, email, and often times even a ‘live chat’ option to address customer inquiries in a timely manner. Finding a site that offers good customer service in return for your patronage is one worth shopping on. We may be in the computer age, but good customer servicing never grows old. Without you as their customer, online fabric sites loose business, just like brick and mortars.
Tip #5 / Subscribe to their FREE newsletter. Almost all online retail businesses offer their visitors the opportunity to subscribe to their website. By doing so, it offers a win-win situation for both merchant and consumer. For the consumer, there are often special promotions, exclusive offers, DIY tutorials, textile information and cool tid-bits all for FREE straight to your inbox that those who aren’t signed up are usually not privy to. As for the merchant, the opportunity to share such offerings with you in exchange for your patronage allows them to offer even more. And what more could a fabricaholic want?
