Alpine Swiss Review : Is Legit or Scam? 2024

Alpine Swiss is a full-blooded American lifestyle brand that advertises as “always working to bring you the most sought after looks in clothing, footwear and accessories”.

In its branding and advert blurbs, Alpine Swiss leaves more questions than usual. For example, what is the “Swiss” doing in the brand’s name if the brand is full blooded American? Also, what is the quality of the sought-after fashion products that the brand provides?

Alpine Swiss is a legit fashion store. It is not a scam because you will get your product without a problem. And they will never steal your money or credit card details.

What about the quality of their services; does Alpine Swiss offer the services that we’ll expect of an ideal fashion retailer (such as smooth ordering, fast delivery, easy returns, effective customer support service, etc). In the first place, is Alpine Swiss product genuine or just another fake store?

This Alpine Swiss review will examine Alpine Swiss in order to provide the information that will help you answer these questions and more.

Alpine Swiss review at a glance

• Website is www.alpineswiss.com
• Is an American clothing and lifestyle brand founded in 2010
• Provides clothing, shoes, and accessories for both men and women
• Better known for its shoes and leather products (wallets, belts, and bags)
• Offers some of the most competitive prices around
• Stands behind its product with a one-year quality warranty
• Ships merchandise to only locations in the US
• Free shipping is offered to all locations
• There is no minimum order requirement to qualify for free shipping
• Supports all the popular credit cards as well as Amazon Pay
• Returns are accepted for a full refund if made within 30 days of the delivery date
• Product exchanges are not allowed
• Customer support is available via the contact form, email (service@alpineswissusa.com) and telephone (516-262-3656)

What is Alpine Swiss? Background

Alpine Swiss screams Switzerland (at least in the name). However, the Company is actually American (and proudly so). Its roots cannot be traced beyond GFX Marketing Corp and Lanceberg Holdings LLC, both of which are based in Los Angeles. Alpine Swiss was founded in 2010 and also based in Los Angeles, California. Alpine Swiss is a clothing and lifestyle brand that provides clothing, footwear and accessories.

While the Company advertises that the products it focuses on providing are the “most sought after” products; it adds that many of its items transcend particular times making the items “what you’re going to enjoy wearing for a long time”.

Alpine Swiss is passionate not only about providing quality fashion products but also about giving back to society. Their strong social responsibility focus has seen them partner with a lot of organizations to support causes with significant societal impacts. For example, they’re helping to fight child poverty through their partnership with the Children’s Hunger Fund; and with their support of the Friends & Helpers Foundation, they are providing help to the victims of domestic violence. That said; Alpine Swiss will also appeal to that customer who’ll want his/ her “regular purchases” to have a far greater impact.

The store’s official website is www.alpineswiss.com. It’s available only in the English Language. You’ll find that signing up is a simple process that entails only submitting certain information in the required fields.

Is Alpine Swiss legit?

There are just too many fraudsters in cyberspace not to worry about being ripped off when making a purchase from an online store. To avoid being ripped off, you’ll have to make sure to use only the legit stores and not one of the many scams.

Identifying the legit stores from the online scams is fairly easy if you know what to look out for. One of the first things to look out for when determining the legitimacy of a store is legality. In this regards, Alpine Store ticks the box. Though there is nothing on their website about the legality of the company, we found that Alpine Swiss is a registered trademark of two corporations – GFX Marketing Corp. and Lanceberg Holdings LLC. These are robust and 100% legal companies based in the US. That said; in the very least, Alpine Swiss is also 100% legal.

By far the most important legitimacy check is the fulfilment of orders (and with functional products). After all, it doesn’t matter that a retailer is 100% legal if it does not deliver orders or if the items it delivers are not fit for purpose. Thankfully, Alpine Swiss tick the box in this all-important legitimacy check. The brand was founded in 2010, which means it has been operating for about 9 years. Suffice it to say that stores that do not fulfil orders cannot stay in operation for almost a decade. Scams stores are identified and called out in a short while (especially since social media has eased communication) and with such exposure, they’ll disappear. On the other hand, Alpine Swiss has only known growth since its founding and continues to push as a lifestyle brand to reckon with.

Alpine Swiss also delivers products that are largely fit for purpose. Suffice it to say that a store with less than functional products will not stand by these products with a one year warranty. Also, you only need to visit the only space and you’ll find different positive reviews of Alpine Swiss products.

That said; that Alpine Swiss is 100% legal and fulfil orders with functional products is enough evidence that the fashion and lifestyle retail brand is legit.

Is Alpine Swiss safe?

Alpine Swiss is a safe store. A legit store may still leave you exposed to online fraudsters if it cannot adequately protect the sensitive information that customers share with it. If information such as personal data and payment card details (think: credit card data) leaks to unauthorized third parties, being ripped off may be the less of your concerns. Thus, the ideal online platform should not only be legit but also safe.

Alpine Swiss comes out as a safe store. The store says in its privacy policy that it adopt appropriate security measures to protect all customers’ data. Though the details of these “security measures” are not provided, we can take confidence from the fact that Alpine Swiss has not suffered a data breach. “Secure Shopping” is also advertised right on the landing page of their website as one of the advantages of Alpine Swiss. That said; it’s safe to say that Alpine Swiss is a safe online shopping platform.

Stores similar to  Alpine Swiss are:

• Zappos.com
• Overstock.com
• Prettylittlething.com
• Rotita.com

Products

Product Range

You’ll want to be able to get all your related products in one place instead of having to visit multiple stores. First, getting products in one place is more convenient; also, it comes with cost savings from big order discounts and one order shipment. So as not to hop from store to store for different products, you’ll want a store that holds a variety of products.

In this regards, the different product categories in Alpine Swiss, and the items you’ll find in each category are:

Men’s

• Accessories – Men’s Belts, Men’s Gloves, Socks, Toiletry Bags
• Apparel – Outerwear, Shirts, Shorts
• Double Diamond
• Shoes – Boots, Dress Shoes, Sneakers and Casuals
• Wallets – Bifold, RFID Blocking, Minimalist Front Pocket, Money Clip, Trifold

Women’s

• Accessories – Gloves
• Apparel – Coats and Jackets
• Shoes – Boots, Flats, Sandals

Travel and Business

• Accessories – Waist bags, Toiletry Bags, Laptop Bags, ID/ Passport Cover safe, and more
• Backpacks – Back to School, Tech Backpacks
• Briefcases – Leather Briefcases, Notebook Case, Wheeled Briefcases

There is also a “gift” category, which houses a selection of some of the most popular gift items, in the “for him” and “for her” sections.

That said; though Alpine Swiss provides different products, the range is relatively limited. Looking at their apparel offering, you can easily see that the store is not much of an apparel retailer. For example, at the time of writing this review, in the women’s category, you’ll only find Coats/ Jackets in the apparel section. Thus, you cannot shop dresses, women tops, bottoms, intimates, or any other women clothing in Alpine Swiss. The men’s apparel section was also limited to outerwear, shirts and shorts. For items like men’s Blazers, T-Shirts, Pants, activewear, and more, you’ll simply have to visit another store.

The accessories section of the Travel and Business Category was the most robust of the product sections of Alpine Swiss. It’s therefore not hard to see why Alpine Swiss is better known for its leather products such as shoes, belts, and leather bags.

Inventory Size

While a wide product range is important, it’s also important to have a large inventory of each product offered. That way, customers will have a large selection to choose from when shopping, and they’ll be more likely to find something appealing.

Alpine Swiss also does not do well in this regard, as their inventory is small in terms of the different styles provided. For example, at the time of writing this review, there were only 10 items in the whole women apparel section. Other sections did not fare better; the women shoe section had only: 3 styles of boots, 12 styles of flats, and 5 styles of Sandals.

There was no difference in the men’s category either; men’s apparel section had only 13 styles of outerwear, 1 style of shirt, and 2 styles of shorts. The shoe section was also poorly stocked; it had 8 styles of boots, 11 styles of casual shoes and sneakers, and 24 styles of dress shoes.

However, it should be said that Alpine Swiss provides particular styles in different colours. Thus, while you’ll find only a few styles to choose from in any particular product section, the limited styles are provided in a range of colours, so the actual inventory count is large. Thus, Alpine Swiss comes out as a retailer that mass-produces and offers a few styles of products.

Quality

You’ll want a store that provides only quality merchandise. Alpine Swiss does very well in this regards. One of the many blurbs you’ll find on their website is: “we strive to create good looking products without compromising customer service and value”. Moving on from the self-proclamations; you’ll find that the customer reviews of Alpine Swiss in independent online platforms are largely positive. Comments include that articles are made from quality materials and feature excellent craftsmanship/ tailoring. Thus, articles are timeless and long lasting.

It is even suggested that given that the company has no connection to Switzerland, the Swiss in its branding is in reference to the quality of its product offerings. This is because the Swiss name has become synonymous with top quality and excellent craftsmanship.

You’ll find that Alpine Swiss stand by their products with a one year warranty. They undertake to repair or replace any item that fails unexpectedly during use. However, the product failure has to be as a result of manufacturer defect, because the warranty does not cover damage resulting from abuse or resulting from normal wear and tear.

In our experience, only retailers that offer top quality stand by their product with such warranties. This is because, with poor quality products and a warranty like this, sales can never be completed as there’ll be lots of returns. That said; it’s safe to say that Alpine Swiss largely provides quality merchandise.

Prices, Promotions, and Related Policies

Pricing

Even if you have a money bag, you won’t want to pay what is deemed as unreasonable for a product. Thus, you’ll want a store that offers competitive pricing.

Alpine Swiss does relatively well in this regards. You’ll find that items in Alpine Swiss are marked 50% – 100% lower than you’ll find them in many other fashion stores. For example, at the time of writing this review, women Jackets were priced at $29.99 – $49.99; while the men’s were priced at $19.99 – $54.99. Men’s shirt was $14.99, and shorts were priced at $9.99 – $14.99. The shoes were similarly priced; women Boots were up to $34.99, flats were priced at $8.99 – $39.99, and Sandals were priced at $9.99 – $14.99. In the men’s category, boots were priced $34.99 – $44.99, while dress shoes were priced up to $34.99.

You’ll be hard pressed to find any item in the whole men and women category that is over $50. You’ll have to enter the Travel category to find $50+ items, and these are only a few Aluminum and Wheeled Briefcases. To put this in perspective; stores that list apparel below the $50 mark are usually considered affordable stores. While the expensive store usually has items with prices mostly in three figures.

That said; Alpine Swiss comes out as a cheap and affordable store.

Promotion

Customers are able to take advantage of promotions to get products for free or for less than their regular prices. Thus, promotions are cost-saving opportunities that customers earnestly seek. As a result, the ideal online store should run a lot or promotions.

Most often than not, the expensively priced stores run many price slashing offers that bring their prices to reasonably low levels; while the low-priced stores are not as generous with promotions. However, once in a while, we are gladdened to find a low-priced store that bucks that trend and floats a lot of promotions. Alpine Swiss was not to give us that joy.

Alpine Swiss did not come out as a store that’s generous with the promotions. At the time of writing this review, none of the huge price slashing offers was to be found on their website.  We also couldn’t find the regular clearance or sales page. The only promotion-looking blurb on the landing page of the website was an offer (as a new member) to sign-up for their newsletter and get 10% knocked off your first purchase. The only other promotion we could find from their official channels was a “Graduation Promo” with the promo code GRAD19. The offer also promises to take 10% off Briefcases and Bags gift purchases (for the Graduates). However, like every offer, it was time-specific and applied only to items purchased until 6/30/2019.

Some promotion-centric stores also price-match. That is, they offer to meet a lower price that is being offered for an item in any other store. Unfortunately, Alpine Swiss does not price-match. Thus, if you can find that an item in Alpine Swiss is priced higher than it is priced in another store, you’ll have to buy from the other store to get the best value for money. However, since the prices in Alpine Swiss are very low and affordable, there’s really less need to seek price matching.

Payment Method

Though an easy ordering process starts from an intuitive website, it ends in the supported banking options. You’ll want an ideal online store to support a wide range of convenient payment methods. When it’s time to pay for your order you’ll not want to be left scratching your head for inability to find a supported payment method in your territory.

In this regards, Alpine Swiss accepts payments from all the popular credit cards such as Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, Discover Card, American Express, as well as from Amazon Pay. These options come out as limited. For example, there is no support for the web wallets, bank transfer options, or alternative methods such as COD (cash on delivery) payments. However, the supported options are readily available and can be conveniently used in the US which alpineswiss.com serves exclusively. Thus, making payment for your Alpine Swiss orders will not be an issue.

Shipping

Unlike a brick and mortar store, when you visit an online store, you cannot simply walk out with your purchases. Rather, the store will move the order from its warehouse/fulfilment centre to the shipping address supplied by you. Thus, shipping is an important consideration in online purchases. The most important shipping considerations are shipping destinations, shipping times, and shipping costs.

Shipping Destinations:

If a store does not ship to your territory, you shouldn’t even bother using it for your online purchases. If somehow you manage to place an order in such a store, it will be difficult to receive the package. Thus, one of the first things to check in a store is the locations it ships to. You’ll want a store that ships to many worldwide locations so that your territory is more likely to be covered.

In this regards, Alpine Swiss is a US-facing fashion retailer, which means that it ships to only locations within the US. Customers outside the US cannot place orders in www.alpineswiss.com. However, you can still get Alpine Swiss products as an international (outside the US) shopper; but you’ll have to use the workaround of Amazon. Alpine Swiss operates a store in the marketplace, which is www.amazon.com/alpineswiss; and from this store, merchandise can be shipped to worldwide locations.

Shipping Times

No customer will want to wait forever to receive orders placed in an online store. Thus, the ideal online retailer should offer fast delivery.

In this regards, Alpine Swiss does not provide the details especially about how long it’ll take the store to process orders and dispatch them for shipping. However, Alpine Swiss advertises that you should expect delivery in 2 – 6 days depending on your shipping address in the US.

Apart from this standard 2 – 6 days delivery, Alpine does not offer any other delivery option. This is a big con because there are times when customers will want to receive their orders faster, and there are many fashion retailers that serve such customers with different expedited delivery options like Next Day delivery, and even Same Day delivery. Some retailers in the market also offer special delivery options such as Saturday Delivery, and Particular Day delivery (where you can choose a particular day which coincides with a special event for the delivery of your order).

That said; in Alpine Swiss, you can only make do with standard 2 – 6 business days delivery.

Shipping Costs

No customer will want to pay more than is reasonable to acquire an item. However, the acquisition cost of an online order consists of its purchase cost and its shipping cost. That means high shipping costs can easily shoot up the acquisition cost and make the item too expensive to acquire. Thus, the ideal online retailer should offer shipping costs that are as low as possible.

Alpine Swiss aces it in this regard. The fashion store charges the very lowest shipping cost, which is $0.00. That is, orders are shipped free of charge. What is more, there are no minimum order requirements. All orders no matter the amount is shipped to all locations free of charge.

This is a better performance than most of the fashion retailers around who also offer free shipping. This is because most of these stores with free shipping will require you to spend up to a certain amount to get free shipping. Thus, in pursuit of free shipping, some customers will be pressured to spend more than intended.

With the free shipping offer of Alpine Swiss, there will be no such pressure.

Returns

There are so many reasons why you may have to return an item purchased online to the retailer. This ranges from retailer’s errors to buyer’s remorse. An example of a retailer’s errors is where a wrong or defective item has been sent to you; while the buyer’s remorse includes changing your mind about the purchase or having issues with the sizes ordered. Whatever the case, if what is delivered to you is an item that you’re not totally satisfied with, you’ll want that the store allows you to return it for a replacement or a refund.

In this regards, Alpine Swiss does allow returns. Like any serious fashion retailer, the store will accept back items that you choose to return. What follows is a look at their return policy.

Return Process

If the process of returning an item is difficult, customers may be forced to keep the unwanted item. Thus, you’ll want the return process to be as easy as it can be. 

Alpine Swiss does relatively well in this regards. If you choose to return an order to Alpine Swiss, you’ll have to contact the store via email (service@alpineswissusa.com). You’ll supply them with the details about the return (order number, items you wish to return, reasons for return, etc) and request a return label.

Alpine Swiss promises to respond to such submissions within one business day. After receiving your return label, you can then proceed to package the unwanted item appropriately, attach the pre-printed return label, and mail the return package to the return address.

On the whole, the return process is relatively easy. However, having to contact the retailer to request a return label takes away some easy points. There are retailers that include a return label in the order, which eliminate having to contact the retailer for it and printing it.

Return Window

You don’t have forever to return an unwanted item to a store, because retailers only accept returned items that get back to them within a fixed timeframe. You’ll want an extended time period so that you’ll not have to race against time when you have to return an item to Alpine Swiss.

Alpine Swiss allows customers to return any unwanted item in their orders within 30 days of delivery of said order. This return window is one of the most generous ones you’ll find in the industry; as there are fashion retailers that allow only 14 days from delivery for returns.

Exchanges

Most times, customers return items to its retailer, not for a refund but to get a replacement in its place. Product exchanges are usually desired because it facilitates getting the new item, as you won’t have to wait to be refunded before proceeding to order the desired item.

However, Alpine Swiss does not offer product exchanges. You’ll have to return the unwanted item, get refunded, and place a new order.

Return Processing and Refunds

You don’t want to wait forever to be refunded after returning an unwanted item. Thus, you’ll want a store that processes returns and issues refunds very fast. Alpine Swiss comes out as one such retailer. The online fashion store processes returns within 3 – 5 days of receiving the return package in their facility. The refunds are issued immediately following return processing; and depending on your financial institution, the funds should reflect in your balance in a week or two.

Suffice it to say that Alpine Swiss has one of the fastest return processing times in the industry. In many of the competing fashion stores, customers have to wait for a month or longer to get refunds.

Also, refunds in Alpine Swiss are issued through the original means of payment. This is a good one that’s preferred to having refunds as store credits. With cash issued to your original payment means, you can choose to visit another store for your future purchases; but store credits would have tied you to use the funds in the particular store.

Customer Support Service

While checking out any online store, consideration of customer support service is very important. Apart from needing answers to questions that you may have, there’s the possibility of having issues with your order, and you’ll need them resolved. For example, you cannot return an item to Alpine Swiss without having to contact the support service. That said; you’ll want a store that has an effective customer support service.

The effectiveness of support service is measured by the number of channels supported for getting help, the responsiveness of the channels, and the helpfulness of responses given.

In terms of support channels, Alpine Swiss supports an online contact form, an email service and a telephone service. The contact form can be accessed from the “Contact Us” page of their website. Alternatively, on most pages of their site, you’ll find a link (Ask an Expert) that you can click to open up the contact form. It’s styled like a live chat, but it’s just a contact form. We liked that, unlike most stores that’ll respond via email, on the form Alpine Swiss contact form you’ll indicate how you wish to be contacted (email or telephone). For the email support, you can send your inquiries/ queries to service@alpineswissusa.com. For both services, you’ll have to wait to get for Alpine Swiss to get back you with the needed assistance; and that waiting may take 24 – 48 hours. The response time is something that Alpine Swiss can do well to improve upon, because having to wait for 48 hours may be unbearable for many customers. However, if you’ll rather not wait that long you can use the instant feedback service of the telephone. The phone number 516-262-3656.

Summary

Alpine Swiss is an emerging clothing and lifestyle brand. The brand advertises that it provides men and women clothing, shoes and accessories. However, you’ll find that their selection is very limited. For example, except you’ll be shopping for jackets, there’s really no other apparel you can get in the store. (Unless you feel that the one style of men’s shirt and a few men’s swim trunk should count for something). However, you’ll fare better shopping accessories especially leather products such as wallets, belts, and bags.

Given the few styles in almost every product sections, finding what you like might be a problem in Alpine Swiss. However, if you nail down a particular product, you’ll also find that Alpine Swiss gives you value for money – their quality is largely very good, and prices are easily some of the lowest you’ll find. 

You’ll have to be in the US, as alpineswiss.com only ships to the US. Thankfully, if you do decide to purchase from Alpine Swiss, you’ll have A-level service all the way; which include an easy ordering process, free shipping, and easy returns backed with a generous return window.

Pros:

• Provide men and women articles
• Quality of product offerings is very good and backed by a one year warranty
• Offers some of the lowest prices in the industry
• Free shipping is offered to all locations
• There is no minimum purchase requirement to qualify for free shipping
• Provides return labels which make for a relatively easy return process
• Offers a generous return window of 30 days from delivery
• Offers a very fast return processing time of 3 – 5 days of receipt of returns
• A wide range of options is available for contacting customer support service (contact form, email, and telephone)

Cons:

• Ships to only locations within the US
• Their selection is limited; both in terms of the different product types, and the different styles within each product type
• Supported payment methods are limited
• Not very many promotions and price slashing offers are available
• Expedited delivery options are not provided
• Does not allow product exchanges