The Joy of Jill
Written: Jan 09 '07
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Finding out about J. Jill and their Online Store :
For Christmas I received a turtle neck sweater, which was not my style nor was it my size. The gift giver was understanding and gave me the receipt so I could return it. The tag read J. Jill, a store I had never heard of before. I called the number on the receipt and told them I lived in Western Massachusetts. The sales clerk said, “How about Natick.” No, Natick is in Eastern Mass. I need something near the Berkshires. I put J. Jill into Google and found the online store instantly. The home page had a woman with a comfy looking cable sweater, but I was not interested in their clothing, I wanted money back so I could go to Ann Taylor Loft or White House Black Market.
From the Online Store’s homepage I found the store locator and proceeded to Canton, Connecticut an hour away to return the unwanted item. Despite having the original receipt, I was told by the sales clerk that I had to accept a store credit and not the money back, unless I had the original credit card that made the purchase. Deeply upset about forgoing my shopping trip to my two desired stores, I accept the gift card and left without giving the clothes at J. Jill a second look.
Upon returning home and calming down about the way the world of retail exchanges work, my husband suggested using the gift card on J. Jill’s Online Store.
How to get to the Online Store:
J. Jill is located at: http://www.jjill.com/
What is at J. Jill:
J. Jill Online is filled with clothing for women in sizes ranging from misses, petite, women, and tall categories. They include sizes from 0-28. A size chart and pants fit guide are available on the J. Jill website to make sure you receive the perfect fit. The range of clothing includes jackets, sweaters, blouses, skirts, dresses, shorts, pants, shoes, scarves, socks, belts, jewelry, purses and other accessories. In my opinion the clothing seems more like casual wear than office wear. Most clothing is slightly oversized to give a warm snuggly feeling. The clothing looks soft and inviting for weekend adventures. Regular priced clothing at the Online store ranges from about fifty dollars to one-hundred and ninety dollars.
Homepage:
The homepage has so many options it is hard to take them all in. At the top of the page, choices include perusing the online catalog, finding a store, ordering quickly from a J. Jill catalog or searching for an item based on type of clothing or item number. Below this section is a item category section including misses, petite, women’s, shoes and accessories, sale, what’s new, and shopping bag. At the bottom of the page one will find how to sign-up for J. Jill email, credit card, catalog mailing. Also there is how to reach customer service, other ways to contact J. Jill, a fabric glossary, how to check on order status, J. Jill’s privacy and security policy and more.
Navigation:
Unlike other Online Clothing Stores where one category such as misses has to be clicked to bring you to another page to find the subcategories for that item, J. Jill has a much easier navigation method. Run the mouse over any category to see details for that category. For example, running the mouse over the misses category shows me that J. Jill favorites, wearever collection, knit tops and tees, camisoles and tanks, shirts, jackets, pants, sweaters and more can be found in this category. Not only does the navigation system show me what to find in the said category, but I am free to select any item without having to be introduced to other items. For example, I can click jackets in the drop menu I just outlined to see just jackets. The site will not try to expose me to other unwanted items such as sweaters or knit tops also found in the misses category. All of the categories mentioned work the same way, each having a separate drop down box displayed by running the mouse over it; such as shoes and accessories displaying jewelry and shawls.
For each page there was a box in the lower right hand corner that said feedback. Clicking on it, I could offer feedback about the set up of any particular page on the site. Clicking on feedback brought up a new window box and did not interfere with the item I was looking at. The feedback box asked me to write comments I had about the page and to rate items such as content, design, usability, and overall opinion of the page. This feature made me think that J. Jill is serious about making their Online Store as customer friendly as possible.
Most Interesting:
The best thing at J. Jill Online is the fabric glossary. Whether you plan to buy from J. Jill or not, this glossary can be helpful to you. Once you click on the fabric glossary all letter A items will be displayed along with all letters of the alphabet at the top of the page. Any letter can be clicked on to show the names and definitions of fabrics starting with that letter. For example, clicking on letter R brings up resin, ribbed velour, rickrack, ruby quartz, rustic cotton and more.
The glossary is helpful to people such as myself that have allergies to fabrics. I find that the only fabric that I can always trust is cotton. Therefore, if I see an item is made of rustic cotton, I may come to this page to find out that rustic cotton is “A cotton fabric that is woven with an irregular surface. Thicker, untwisted bunches of yarn woven into the fabric intervals give the fabric a textured, unique characteristic and a natural appearance.” In knowing this, I can be sure that this fabric item will not cause a reaction for me.
My Experience:
Selecting Items to Purchase:
My gift card was for sixty dollars. Still a little spiteful about not getting the cash to go where I pleased, I decided only to buy items totaling sixty dollars. Sale items ranged from ten to fifty dollars.
From the homepage I clicked on sale, which brought me to a page entitled Season Finale. From this page, I could see all items onsale or click categories petite, misses, women’s, tall, or shoes and accessories to see only those sale items. I chose to view all the sale items together. The items were broken down into categories on the page such as sale knit tops and tees at the top, sale camisoles, sale shirts, and so on.
The set up made it easy to scroll to the items I wanted most, which were shirts and sweaters. At first I thought, I could not search sale items by fabric type. However, from the sale page, I wrote in the search engine cotton and hit enter. This brought me to a screen displaying all sale items made out of cotton. I still had to check each item I liked to make sure it was 100% cotton, but was happy about this search option. Also, after searching cotton in the sale items I was brought to a page that no only displayed all cotton sale items, but had a further navigation bar on the side of the page. This bar broke items into category type of item be it pants or shirts, color white, brown, or whatever, sizes x-small through x-large, and price range from less than $25 to up to $100.
I selected shirts. Each item showed a picture of the shirt, the name of it, original price, and sales price. I clicked on a black soft counterpoint cotton shirt, originally $49 but now $25. This brought me to a page where I could choose whether I wanted this item in misses or petites sizes, what size specifically I wanted, what color, and what quantity.
Shipping Costs:
Before clicking to add this item to my bag there was a link to view shipping and processing fees. This made me happy has I have found many Online Stores that seem to hide this information until you set up an account with them. Delivery options include standard 3 to 5 days in US only, 2-3 days, Express next day service, Standard service to Canada, and Standard worldwide service. J. Jill uses UPS for all deliveries made in the US and for most deliveries made out of US. Standard fees range from $5.95 to $19.95 depending on the total of the order; the more you spend the greater the costs for delivery. I selected a shirt and a sweater coming to $60 and the shipping cost was $9.95.
Purchasing:
Once I selected an item to add to my shopping bag, it was easy to return to the other shirts I was looking at. It was also easy to proceed to the check-out at anytime. Purchasing at J. Jill, unlike purchasing at many women’s online stores, did not involve me having to set up an account. Clicking “proceed to check out” brought me to a page where I entered my billing and shipping information. The information entered required my name, address, and email. I was not asked for my phone number. Also, at the bottom of the page was a chart reminding me of the shipping charge. I selected standard shipping and was brought to a page to verify my shipping and billing address. Once I did this I was asked to enter credit card information, then confirm, and then submit order. On this screen, I was able to click verify sight security to make sure my credit card information was safe.
Order Tracking:
After submitting order, I was invited to print receipt for my records and emailed a copy of my transaction along with an order tracking number. Clicking the tracking link from my email I could watch as my order was confirmed, packed, shipped, in transit, up until when it arrived at my door by UPS 5 days later.
Order Arrival:
My standard shipment arrival of one sweater and one shirt arrived via UPS in 5 days from my Monday purchase, arriving on Saturday. Each item was individually wrapped in a plastic bag with tissue paper between them and inside of a box. The items were in good shape and were the sizes and colors promised.
Return Policy:
A Smart Label is included at time of delivery and can be attached to unwanted item to return item at no shipping cost to you. Unwanted items can also be returned at any J. Jill location or you may choose to return item by personal carrier such as UPS or USPS, which would be cost to you for return. Credits will be received to credit card within 14 days of submission.
Recommendations:
Shopping J. Jill online was an easy and quick experience. The clothes I purchased are very comfortable and I use the shirt and sweater on days I am lounging around the house. The clothes are also nice enough to wear out if something comes up on my days off. The clothes have a relaxed look to them ensuring I will do business with J. Jill Online again in the future. The sales items are very reasonably priced, however, I most likely will not purchase regular priced items at this store because of the cost.
Recommended:
Yes
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? Sweater and Shirt
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Epinions.com ID:
snowflake224
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Member: Theresa
Location: Baltimore
Reviews written: 225
Trusted by: 191 members
About Me:
No two snowflakes are exactly alike
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