Clearance: how to find real good deals on Yoox?

Two ABCL Garments chinos at 30 euros each. Incotex flannel pants for less than 60 euros.

A Massimo Alba yak cardigan under 150 euros.

You immediately think of buying second-hand, and yet no, all these items are indeed new, in blister packs, and represent only a tiny minority of the deals awaiting the courageous and motivated bargain hunter on Yoox, the largest clothing clearance site in the world.

However, such things are worth it. Yoox is a jungle, with its obscure pricing policy, constant promotions, blurry product images and automatically translated information. This guide will help you find your way.

What is Yoox?

Yoox is above all a destocker : it is a store that will buy the end of stock from other stores or brands in bulk and resell them at retail.

Which explains the low number of sizes per reference.

Let's say you are a small independent store located in Calais. On a whim you bought a container of Our Legacy yellow vests.

Only disaster, events mean that these vests are unsaleable even after the sales period. You get rid of them in bulk at Yoox.

Unfortunately that's not enough, you have stored your stock in England. Brexit happens and you have to shut down.

Here again Yoox is ready to buy back your stock.

Yoox therefore produces tons and tons of clothes from more or less old collections and from active or defunct brands. This explains the poverty of the product sheets: the objective is to make a margin on clothes purchased at a discount, so they cannot invest in long photo sessions with multiple models. , take measurements of each item or even inquire to find out which collection the item originally came from.

Each item has a price: the “yoox price”, which is the starting price of any new item. Yoox estimates that this price represents 50% of the original price of the item. And this is generally false. The truth is much more nuanced, it can be 50% or 10%.

This Yoox price is sometimes crossed out, in which case a new reduction compared to the reduced price applies.

Here, the crossed out price of €89 is therefore already discounted.

Finally you can have a third level of promotion, for example via a code or a temporary offer, such as “- 20% on the products indicated in the basket. »

Below, on the beautiful Isaia linen pants, the Yoox price is 310 euros. It is crossed out at 182 euros and the yellow frame indicates an additional 15% promotion applied to your basket. That is a final price of 155 euros for pants generally sold between 450 and 550 euros.

If you have made it this far, you may be feeling suspicious. Clearance, unrepresentative photos, random prices... I want to reassure you: Yoox is part of the same group as MrPorter, and the latter is half-owned by the luxury giant Richemont.
So you don't have to deal with a street seller but with serious people: there are no second-hand clothes or counterfeits on Yoox.

One clarification, however: we are talking about items that have not been sold in stores. So often it is a test model or the item had a slight defect which explain why it didn't sell. Fortunately this remains quite rare and is immediately visible at reception. The problem is strictly identical at the end of the sales.

My four rules for buying on Yoox

1. Only buy when shipping is free

Yoox's delivery policy changes according to periods and promotions. Half the time, shipping is free. The rest of the time, it is payable up to a certain amount.

Buying with free delivery ensures free returns. The site allows you to validate the items to be returned. A UPS label is provided in the package. You can drop it off directly at an Access Point. From experience, allow five to seven working days to be reimbursed from the deposit.

Why this rule?

The return rate of a traditional online store is estimated to be between 25 and 40%. Between the photos that don't always look the same depending on the screen, the vagaries of sizing, impulsive purchases... on Yoox, all of this is amplified. I return three out of four items and am relatively “sure” of what I buy. It is therefore essential to be sure that the operation will not cost you anything.

2. Only buy on promotion

We saw that the Yoox price was a starting price which decreases over time. It is then crossed out. In addition to this first level of promotion, you have temporary operations. I only buy during one of these temporary operations.

Why this rule?

This Monitaly parka sold for more than €700 during the winter of 2017-18. The Yoox price is already very interesting.

There's at least one per week! A small -10% if ordering via the application, a small -15% on an item list, a small -20% on the items on your wish list... it's still a shame not to wait one to buy.

However, certain items are rarely oversold. It's up to you whether you give in or wait for the exception.

Yoox tells you “limited availability” when there are less than three items left and specifies it when it is the last one.

You therefore have the cards in hand to assess the risk taken to wait, which varies greatly depending on the type of item. , the brand , etc.

And of course, for really good deals, go for it, even at the Yoox price.

3. Do not hover over the product sheet

This rule should apply to any online purchase, but it is even more important on Yoox.

These magnificent navy Incotex pants that will catch your eye. Zoom in on the product photo. Look carefully. Oh, surprise, you realize it has a subtle tone-on-tone skull pattern that you hadn't guessed.

The description is also important. You have to know how to understand it but she can just tip you off about this “patterned print” that you don’t see in the photo.

Some measurements are also present, such as the leg opening of the pants. Don't count on it too much, the accuracy is not that of NASA.

Why this rule?

Protect the planet, avoid making these skull pants travel a thousand kilometers and find a home in Spain.

4. Don’t linger on product photos

This rule may seem to contradict the previous one. It's actually about not giving too much importance to fit, colors, in short, anything that is not 100% objective.

You will only know the true effect of these blue pants once you have them in hand.

The item was hastily put on by a model whose size was potentially not the right size. The photo was taken in a minute, front, back, then retouched very quickly. You will not see the richness of a texture, the finesse of a heather, the reflections of a color... any purchase on Yoox is a gamble on the reality of the product.

Why this rule?

To avoid deep despair when you see on a forum the richness of the Fortela selvedge chinos purchased by your friend, chinos which seemed worthy of Celio in the photo.

My purchasing method

1. Use the Dreambox

It is in fact the Yoox wishlist linked to your customer account. This functionality is often found on large e-shops, and these tips are also valid for the latter.

The Dreambox is, however, even more important on Yoox. If I display all the clothes available, there are more than 100,000, spread over 520 pages, each page including 140 items. If I try to count brands starting only with the letter A, I'm at over a hundred. Yoox is a jungle, and it's the Amazon jungle that I'm talking about because of its size.

Suffice it to say that if you spot an article that tempts you and don't save it in your Dreambox, I guarantee you won't find it again.

Yoox regularly carries out promotional operations. They are displayed in your Dreambox. You can see at first glance which item is eligible for these “-15% extra” which lasts until the end of the week.

Some operations are specific to the Dreambox and the promotion only applies if the item was in your Dreambox when it was launched.

2. Use the first

The first is a specific search for which you have saved the parameters.

When you consult the product lists, you have filters on your left: sizes, brands, colors, etc. You can save this search at the top of the column and give it a name.

Each premiere can then be viewed in your customer account.

The advice is therefore to list the brands that you like the most. To filter on the sizes that suit you without hesitating to be large on them. To record this first and consult it regularly, classifying the articles by new features. You see at a glance the new arrivals that concern you directly.

3. Choose brands

Faced with the abundance of brands offered by Yoox, it is impossible to follow them all or even know the tenth of them. You must therefore clearly define which ones interest you. Here is the most relevant typology in my opinion:

• Your favorite brands. Go to your closet. Look at what you own most. If it's on Yoox, add it to your premiere, whatever it is. You like the brand enough to instantly spot good deals.
• The few brands that make you dream. By looking at Boras's Instagram, you dream of Visvim at night. Just the prices... add these brands, you never know.
• “Confidential” French brands. De Bonne Facture, Officine Generale, Commune de Paris... names which are familiar but which are not necessarily so to the foreign buyer. You will therefore have much weaker competition than with a juggernaut like Burberry. .
• Italian brands. Yoox is an Italian site. It is therefore not surprising that there are hundreds of Italian brands more or less known internationally. Even well-known brands can have a substantial stock which justifies exploration, I am thinking for example of Incotex and the hundreds of references available on the site. Others are confidential even in Italy, and that is where you will do the best business, I am thinking here at Fortela .

If you're short of ideas, don't hesitate to go to Mr Porter. All end of stock of the latter now ends on Yoox. There is therefore a good chance that you will find ideas there, the list of brands being more restricted.

Otherwise it's a reflex to take: when you discover a new brand on Bonnegueule or elsewhere, go to Yoox to check if it is listed.

4. My list of brands

Very personal and not exhaustive, but which will give you ideas:

• French. AMI , Officine Générale , De Bonne Facture , Melinda Gloss, now Editions MR , Commune de Paris , Maison Kitsuné , APC , Husbands , Majestic Filatures, Holiday Boileau.
• Japanese. Edwin , OrSlow , Ts(s), Engineered Garments , Remi Relief, Visvim, Blue Blue Japan , Sage de Crêt, Sacai, Camishita United Arrow, Kapital, Nanamica , Monitaly.
• Italians. Fortela , Incotex, ABCL Garments , Bakuto, Presidents , Aspesi , Marni, Massimo Alba, Altea, LBM 1911, Lubiam, Isaia, Caruso, Kired, Ten C, Stone Island, CP Company, Rota, PT01, Myths, Eidos, Finamore 1925 , The Gigi, MCR, Barena, Boglioli.
• Others : Our Legacy , Norse Project , Maison Margiela, Stutterheim, A Kind of Guise, Arc'Teryx Veillance , The Lost Explorer, Private White VC , Barbour , Grenson, Margaret Howell, Inis Meain , Howlin', Man 1924, Velva Sheen , Sunspel , Folk, Saturday Surf NYC.

5. Analyze the product and understand the displayed size

You followed this guide religiously. You are in front of a product sheet. You took a good look at the product image without dwelling too much on the cut which seems baggy .

And you are lost. This is completely normal.

First step: do you like the article?

The first question you need to ask yourself is “do I know this article.” » This may be a brand you follow. Try to remember past collections. To extrapolate the image.

Yes, this sweater that seems shapeless and ugly green is in fact the magnificent green Shetland sweater that caught your eye at the Officine Générale fashion show last season.

If the article doesn't mean anything to you, you can, if you are motivated, look for it elsewhere. No guarantee, but in particular with items from MrPorter or brands with non-plethoric collections, a good Google image search can give excellent results.

Don’t be afraid to dwell on details. The shape of a pocket. A seam. A label. So many clues that can help you gain certainty about the match between the magnificent lookbook photo you have in front of you on Google and the horrible product photo from Yoox.

Even if you don't find the product, maybe you will have its brother or cousin. It's a clue, and it's better than nothing.

Second question: is the item a good deal?

Because certainly this Yoox price + the crossed out reduction + the over-promotion of -10% would mean that you are paying 100 euros for an item worth 500 euros new. Mistrust ! Here again, a Google search can give you the retail prices of the items on the one hand, and the sale prices of these items on the other hand when they sold.

Let’s take a look at the Officine Générale sweater mentioned above. It is currently sold at 140 euros, Yoox price. A quick search shows that the brand sells it for 285 euros new, and that it has a sale of up to -50%, or... the Yoox price. It's hard to call it a great deal, especially since a quick browse through the forums would tell you that the manufacturer of this same sweater sells it for 100 euros.

Conversely, I have just ordered pants in 100% Donegal Incotex wool for 99 euros. Pants from this brand are rarely worth less than 250 euros and are rarely sold at more than 50%. Well-made wool pants from brands with a very aggressive margin structure very rarely go below 150 euros. Definitely a great deal if it fits me.

Third question: will the item suit me?

Order and you will see. Quite honestly, even someone who knows the brands very, very well, who knows the research very well, who knows the worst tricks will have great difficulty acquiring any certainty on this subject. Better to order a return than to spend the afternoon on Rakuten tracking down the coveted item.

However, it is necessary to mention a very delicate point of Yoox: the displayed size. It is the subject of a number of questions, of hesitation, of considerable incomprehension even though it is not that complicated, just irregular.

One of the store's problems is the use of an infinite number of size systems. You know this well in the world of shoes, with European, English, American and even Japanese sizes.

It's the same in clothing, although it's less common, but Yoox offers brands from all over the world. They therefore want to offer a common standard for everyone and “translate” the sizes... unfortunately not always well.

Concretely, when you select the size of the article, you can read:

• The size corresponds to that indicated on the label. No worries, you buy what you think you are buying.
• The size you have selected corresponds approximately to a 44 (French size). Ignore this information. The size is the one you selected.
  
• The size indicated on the label is 50 (Italian size). Ignore the size you have selected, the true size of the item is indeed the size on the label.
  In their defense, the equivalence of sizes is far from being systematic or scientific.

No worries for the 100% cashmere Massimo Alba turtleneck below, I selected an M and the size on the label is indeed an M. Yoox informs me that the model is large . Such cashmere sells for 600 euros new but can easily be found at 50% off, so it's better to wait before buying.

Trap on these De Bonne Facture corduroy pants: I think I selected a size 46 from the brand, but it is actually a size 50 which is indicated on the label. Yoox has made the conversion to French sizes that are rarely used these days. These pants were sold for 320 euros, so the price is already quite good for those who don't have access to the brand's Parisian clearance sales.

Finally, on these rather original Prince of Wales pattern pants from Fortela, I selected a 32. Yoox informs me that it is the equivalent of a French 44, which gives me a nice leg . 350 euros retail for these pants, the crossed out price is starting to be interesting.

Two pieces of information can help you make your choice: on the one hand the “small size” or “large size” that Yoox sometimes displays and on the other hand the measurements when they are present. Their reliability is relative, don't focus on it. Especially if the article announces a leg opening of 15 cm but the photo seems baggy.

6. Work around bugs

For some time now, some brands have only appeared on the market except the French Yoox. This problem will undoubtedly be resolved one day, but in the meantime you can check the Belgian Yoox which does not suffer from this problem. Once you are on a product sheet for a brand unavailable on the French Yoox, copy the URL, modify the .be with a .fr and you will have the product on the right site.

My selection of pieces

Of course by the time you read these lines it is very likely that the products will be sold out, or at least at a different price or in smaller sizes. However, it is above all a question of illustrating the approach explained in these lines rather than of offering you real good plans. Practical work in a way.

1. Fortela beige chinos

Fortela is a brand launched by an Italian influencer, Alessandro Squarzi. It offers a complete wardrobe inspired by vintage pieces with often Japanese materials. Manufacturing is done between Italy and Romania depending on the pieces.

Here we have a classic, heavily discounted beige chino.

If the Yoox price of 264 euros is generous to say the least , successive discounts bring the pants to 76 euros, a very fair price for a piece of this quality. Now, it costs 118 euros for a Yoox price of 234 euros, available in three sizes: 31, 32 and 36.

The size guide on the official site isn't very informative, but Elevation Store suggests taking your usual size.

Comparing product photo details with the different models on the website allows you to locate the model: a Pence. Yoox announces a leg opening at 18 cm, so it is either a Pence AMF19 or a Pence AMF17. The photos rather suggest the latter.

Overpriced items from the brand to put in your Dreambox: green, blue or beige cotton chinos , green or dark blue virgin wool/cotton chinos .

2. Incotex pants

The Incotex pants that I mentioned above. An over-promotion on the items in my Dreambox allowed me to order it for 99 euros. It is displayed today at 93 euros, after having been sold at 124 euros.

Incotex is a pants specialist belonging to the Slowear group. The majority of pants are made in Romania but the manufacturing is excellent, it is truly a high quality product. It's a well-established Italian brand, so it's very present on Yoox, with some magnificent models and others... questionable.

Here the brand's official website and main retailers like Frans Boone or MrPorter indicate a price of around 300 euros for pants. A search gives sale prices around 175 euros, 200 euros. A nice pair of donegal pants from a brand with good value for money is easily worth 150 euros. This is therefore a more than fair Yoox price even without a discount, especially since the size availability is quite wide and there are even two color variants.

This article clearly illustrates the random side of the site's descriptions: the photos evoke a Donegal tweed, the description gives the material as a flannel. The confusion is understandable. The leg opening is given at 15.5cm, which seems very low to me given what the brand does and the photos.

Sizing is easy: Incotex cuts either in traditional Italian sizes (48.50, 52, etc.) or in American sizes like here. Frans Boone offers many measurements that give a good idea of ​​how pants fit. Incotex offers many cuts, it is difficult to determine this one even if the low leg opening orients towards a cut rather close to the body.

Finally, anyone with a little experience with Yoox and this brand will recognize a “slack” model at first glance. to its fifth pocket located under the back pocket and its side metal logo.

Too expensive item from the brand to put in your Dreambox: gray pants.

3. Officine Générale shirt

A fancy shirt with a Cuban collar from Officine Générale , a Parisian brand well known to Bonnegueule readers. Here it is the material which explains the difficulty it has in selling, lyocell is poorly known and inspires distrust like any artificial or synthetic material. However, it is a very good quality blend from Japan.

The brand has a very complete e-shop, so it is easy to see at a glance the price of a shirt and the sale price. At 69 euros this shirt is significantly cheaper than the cheapest sale models.

This year, we find the first shirts from the brand's SS20 collection at €190.

Identifying the model and seeing it in a more flattering context is just as easy: the spring/summer 2017 show shows it in second place. We notice a slight transparency, which also perhaps explains the presence of the shirt on a clearance sale: it may not have pleased a Mr Porter customer who returned it too late to be put back on sale.

Why Mr Porter? The number of photos is a good indicator. Compare this sheet with the previous ones. Yoox owns Mr Porter, they now tend to recover the latter's photos to save money.

Here, we recognize a typical silhouette of the e-shop.

The official e-shop has a size guide. No worries on that side.

Too expensive item from the brand to put in your Dreambox: blue round neck sweater ,

The final word

Like any treasure hunt, buying on Yoox will make you experience immense frustrations, the impression of wasting your time, the disappointment of receiving ugly items or, even worse, beautiful items that don't suit you.

Like any treasure hunt, the journey is important, and if you are passionate about clothes there are worse ways to pass the time than scrolling through hundreds of pieces.

And what a pleasure to find the good deal, when only you recognize this nugget from an old collection and wait for the right moment to buy it with a maximum discount. The satisfaction of wearing a piece that you have found, whether second-hand or on Yoox, is greater than purchasing it at full price.