Anine Bing is a self-titled women fashion brand from Anine Bing, the former model and current fashion blogger and entrepreneur. The fashion house says its mission is to create clothes that are easy to wear.
Yes, Anine Bing is a legit fashion store. It is not a scam because you will receive what you purchased from the store. And also they will never try to steal your money or credit card detail.
The big question is whether Anine Bing delivers on that and really provides functional essentials that all women will want in their wardrobes. Another question will be whether the emphasis on easy to wear clothing affect the quality of Anine Bing’s products. Also, if Anine Bing does have the promised product (easy clothing + quality clothing), do they also provide the top services that we’ll want from the go-to fashion destination (such as competitive pricing, easy ordering and payment, fast delivery, easy returns, effective customer support service, etc)? In the first place, is Anine Bing a genuine platform?
This Anine Bing review will examine Anine Bing in order to provide the information that will help you answer these questions and more.
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Anine Bing is a women-focused fashion store headquartered in Los Angeles CA. The store was founded in 2012 by Anine Bing who still actively serves as its Chief Creative Officer. The former model cum fashion blogger cum entrepreneur brings her vast experience into Anine Bing (the brand).
The brand started from the living room of Anine Bing (the person). After gaining a good following from showcasing her outfit on Instagram, the then blogger launched the online site and started providing her clothing to her followers. She started with about 15 items consisting of basic essentials such as women Jackets, Jeans, T-Shirt, and dresses. Not long after, Shoes were added to their selection. According to Anine Bing (the person), the Charlie Boots that started their shoe selection put Anine Bing (the brand) on the map of the fashion industry. Just recently, (2018) Anine Bing added kids’ collection to their product offering. Anine Bing Kids is a unisex line offering clothing and accessories for kids aged between 2 and 10.
After its success, online Anine Bing quickly started opening retail outlets to be closer to its customers. As a result, the fashion house now boasts of retail outlets in many cities of the world which includes Barcelona, Berlin, Los Angeles, London, Madrid, New York, and Paris.
You’ll want the fashion store you enter for your purchases to hold a variety of fashion products. Even when the store focuses on a niche, you’ll the store to offer a variety of products within the niche. Thus, the ideal online fashion store should have a wide product range.
Anine Bing does relatively okay in this regards. The store focuses on women fashion; and so offers the whole gamut of women clothing. Getting to the Anine Bing website, the product categories you’ll find in the menu (and the items you’ll find in each category) are as follows:
There’s also the “Current” category where you can shop new arrivals, back in stocks, special summer collections, and special picks by Team Bing. Lastly, there’s a kids category, where you can shop kids’ clothing, shoes, and accessories.
A look at the product offering shows that Anine Bing lives up to their promise of providing everyday basics. You’ll find all apparel in Anine Bing as functional clothing that is easy to wear, from their casual pieces to their outing pieces.
It’s not enough that the ideal store holds a variety of products; it’s also important that it holds a large inventory of each product type. With a large inventory, customers will have a large collection to choose from when shopping; and they’ll be more likely to find something that they like.
Anine Bing does well in this regards. In most of the product sections, you’ll find hundreds of items to choose from. This is by no means close to the inventory leaders in the industry, but it is a sizeable enough collection to satisfy the selection needs of most customers.
However, we observe that Anine Bing does the opposite of what many fashion retailers do. Most fashion stores have apparel as their primary product offering and this category usually have the highest numbers in term of inventory while other categories like shoes and accessories have fewer inventory counts that reflect their only secondary status. However, in Anine Bing, while apparel is their primary offering, the shoe category has the largest inventory.
Anine Bing (the person) has been quoted as saying that the fit together with the quality is the two most important factors in a good piece of clothing. Thus, the focus on providing easy to wear clothing does not lead to the relegation of quality.
As a luxury store, you’ll expect items to meet high-quality standards, which include good materials (fabrics), good tailoring, and more. Thankfully, the items of Anine Bing are large of fine quality. Thus, when you pick the functional Anine Bing piece that’ll soothe your body whether when going for an outing or for everyday use, you can be sure that the piece will be durable.
However, it should be said that there are some reviews of Anine Bing where customers have complaints about the quality of their orders. However, these are not prominent as to form a theme; and can be considered as the exception rather than the norm.
The prices of items in a store are some of the first things buyers look at. Thus, stores should feature items whose prices are deemed reasonable. The only way to determine the reasonableness of prices is to compare what’s being offered with that of the competition.
When that is done, Anine Bing features somewhere in the top half. It’s was all too surprising given that Anine Bing advertises as a luxury store for everyday basics. Luxury stores are not particularly known to be focused on providing the best prices.
For example, at the time of writing this review, on the European online store of Anine Bing, you’ll find graphics Tees starting around €89; a lot of shirts and sweatshirts were easily above the €100 mark; jackets easily crossed €200 and into the high hundreds; while Blazers easily crossed €300 and into the high hundreds. Some items could also be found with prices in four figures.
The prices in Anine Bing were not in the expensive ranges of Chanel or Louis Vuitton; thus, Anine Bing can be considered a fair player amongst luxury shops. However, when the whole market is considered, the prices of Anine Bing can definitely be considered expensive in their own right.
To put these prices in perspective; while you’ll struggle to find anything priced around €50 in Anine Bing, many of the price leaders in the industry (such as H&M, Boohoo, and Topshop) hold hundreds of exquisite articles under €50.
One feature you’ll find in the price friendly stores is price matching, where the store’s commitment to giving you the best price will make them sell their item to you for less than it is listed, if you can prove that a similar item (same spec and of equal quality) is listed somewhere else at a lower price.
That said; Anine is definitely not the place to be looking at if you want an online fashion store to shop affordable clothes. However, you’ll find the store a good destination, if you want relatively fair prices for luxury items.
Customers look around for promotions, and the reason is not farfetched. Promotions represent cost-saving offers with which you can get items for free or for less than their full prices. Thus, the ideal store should run plenty of promotions.
The website of Anine Bing does not show the company as one that’s generous with promotions. It does not announce any price slashing discounts or any of the other promotional deals that we’ve come to associated with the websites of the promotion-generous fashion retailers.
We didn’t find popular like student discounts, military discounts, or even the oft-seen newsletter subscription discounts. Also, though Anine Bing offers sales items, we couldn’t find any separate sales section on the website.
Though the Anine Bing website was largely silent, we found the store occasionally run some promotions, albeit not the huge cost saving offers of promotion centric stores. That said; it’s safe to say that Anine Bing is not generous with promotions.
Included in the smooth service that an online store promise is a hassle-free payment. That starts from finding a banking option supported by the store that you can use to conveniently pay for your order no matter where you are resident.
Anine Bing also does so-so in this regards. You can pay for your Anine Bing order using PayPal or any of the popular credit/ debit cards such as Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover card. Granted, PayPal and the cards are worldwide options ensuring that you’ll find a means to pay for your order anywhere. However, the supported payment methods come out as limited. You’ll find fashion stores that support PayPal the cards as well as different web wallets, bank transfer options, and even alternative methods like COD (cash on delivery) payments.
Shipping is an important consideration in the online purchase because your order has to be moved to where you’ll take delivery of it (the shipping address). The most important things to consider about shipping are: shipping destinations, shipping times, and shipping costs
You can’t use an online store if you are resident (and will want your order shipped to) point A, but the store only ships to point B. Thus, you’ll want to consider the locations that the online store ships before any other consideration. In this regard, you’ll want a store that ships to many worldwide locations so that your location is more likely to be served.
Anine Bing does well in this regards. Unlike most stores that serve only their domestic market, Anine Bing ships to many worldwide locations. Anine Bing ships worldwide using two online stores. The US store (www.aninebing.com) serves North America, South America, Asia, Australia, Africa, and the Middle East; while the European store (www.eu.aninebing.com) serves Europe and Israel.
You’ll want a store with fast delivery else you’ll find yourself waiting endlessly to receive delivery of orders placed online.
Anine Bing does so-so in this regards. First, there is a relatively long order processing time of 3 – 5 business days. That is, after submitting your order, it may take up to five business days before the order will leave the fulfilment centre of Anine Bing and start its journey to your shipping address. Needless to say, this is a long time. Even if shipment time is one day, the long processing time will mean that delivery will take 4 – 6 business days. As a result, you’ll find that Anine Bing does not offer the fast delivery we’ll want.
Shipping costs can easily make an item that is reasonably priced expensive to acquire. This is because shipping costs add to purchase price in determining the total acquisition cost of any item purchased online. As a result, you’ll want stores that feature shipping cost that is as low as possible.
Anine Bing does well in this regards because the fashion store offers the lowest possible shipping cost, which is $0 (in order words, free shipping). Interestingly, free shipping is available to all locations served. However, for free shipping to apply, you have to buy from the appropriate website of Anine Bing (that is, the website that serves your market). For example, if your shipping address is in the US, you have to buy from the “US” site; and if your shipping address is in Europe, you have to buy from the “European site”. Buying from the Anine website that does not serve your market will attract a shipping and handling fee that is up to €100 (according to the “shipping page” of the website).
Where free shipping does not apply, you’ll find the applicable shipping cost published during checkout. It should be said that from the numerous reviews online, it can be gleaned that shipping charges when free shipping does not apply are relatively high.
There are many factors that may cause you to be unsatisfied with your order when the item is delivered to you. There is the issue of the size difference, where a size that does not fit has been ordered; there’s also the issue of the item delivered not meeting certain quality expectation, and it is even possible that an entirely wrong item is delivered. That said; you’ll want to be able to return the order to the store and get a replacement or refund.
Every serious fashion retailer accepts returns, and it’s not surprising that Anine Bing does. The real question is what’s contained in the return policy.
Retailers will only accept the items that are returned to them within an allowed time frame usually from the time of delivery. That said; you’ll want an extended period, which will greatly reduce the risk of your returns getting to the fulfilment centre of the retailer late.
In this regards, Anine Bing only does so-so with a return window of 14 days. That is, any Anine Bing order you must return to the store must get to their fulfilment centre within 14 days of the item being delivered to you. Returns getting to them later than 14 days from delivery date will be rejected and sent back to you (at a cost to you).
If you’ve seen reviews of other online fashion stores, you’ll find that the “14 days from delivery date” return window of Anine Bing is relatively short. In fact, it is less than half the “30 days from delivery date” return window that is oft seen offered by many stores in the industry. That said; if you have to return any item in your Anine Bing order, you’ll have to act fast after receiving the item.
Also, the policy of Anine Bing to reject and send back returns that are received late is stricter than some fashion stores who accept late returns but issue store credits for them instead of cash refunds.
However, not all items can be returned to Anine Bing. The headliner here is Sales items. All orders placed on sales items are final, and cannot be returned to Anime Bing. The store’s hard stance on sales items can easily be seen on the “Returns and Exchanges” page of their website; one line reads: “No returns, exchanges, or store credits. No exceptions”.
Because sales items are discounted, and because customers want value for money when shopping, shopping Sales items is the norm rather than the exception. Thus, it puts customer between a rock and a hard place when return policies make Sales Items final sales (non-returnable). Customers will have to choose between two unwanted choices – buying at the usually expensive full prices and being eligible for returns, or buying the usually low-priced sales items and not being eligible for returns. With the Sales Items return policy of Anine Bing, customers will be faced with this conundrum.
In must be said that generally stores put a line on returns of sales items. However, some fashion stores in the industry have more relaxed policies in this regard. For example, there are stores that allow returns of sale items but only for items that were not heavily discounted; while there are others that accept returns of all sales items but with a reduced return window. We’ll like to see Anine Bing adopt one of these.
In addition to Sales Items, Personalized items cannot also be returned or exchanged. However, this is what’s obtainable across the industry; and you’ll expect nothing more give the nature of personalized items.
Items that are not final sale and can be returned to Anine Bing must meet certain conditions to be accepted by the store. Returns must be in the same conditions they were when delivered. Where items are returned for being defective, it’s important to know that material deterioration that occur with use are not considered defect.
It frustrating enough that you have to returns an item to a retailer, so you won’t want to meet a cumbersome return process. Thus, the ideal store should offer easy returns.
Anine Bing does so-so in this regards. First, in-store purchases can only be returned in-store, while online purchases must be returned by mail to the fulfillment center of Anine Bing. Some fashion retailers with physical outlets allow returns of online purchases to their stores, affording customers the convenience that such in-store gives. Given that Anine Bing has some physical outlets and talks of affording “seamless returns”, we’d expected them to permit in-store returns of online purchases. However, it should be said that Anine Bing is not alone in not allowing in-store returns of online purchases. In fact, in the fashion industry, “in-store returns of online purchases” is the exception rather than the norm.
Also, to return merchandise to Anine Bing by mail (all online purchases) you must first contact the customer care department of the store (via email at info@aninebing.com). This is not bad in itself, as it informs the store of your decision, and with exchanges, it facilitate the receipt of the replacement item. However, what’s not good about this process is that, it may take Anine Bing up to 2 business days to get back to you with confirmation. Given that their return window is already a relatively short 14 days, any time waiting to get return authorization further increases the risk of your return getting to their warehouse late and being rejected.
After getting authorization, you may proceed to fill out the Return Form included in your order, package the item appropriately, and include your purchase receipt, and ship then send the return package to the carrier. You may use a carrier of choice; in that case, the return shipping address to mail the package to is: US Warehouse, Pixor c/o ANINE BING RETURNS, 5901 Eastern Ave., Commerce, CA 90040.
Also, you don’t want to be dithered from returning an unwanted item because of high cost of returning it. Thus, you’ll want the store you use to have cost of returns that are as low as possible.
In this regards, Anine Bing advertises “free returns and exchanges on all orders”. This should put Anine Bing on top of many stores, because you’ll find many stores where customers bear the cost of return shipping; some stores will even charge you restocking fees when you make a return.
After returning an item to a store for a refund of your payment, you’ll want to get cash payment to your account instead of store credits. This is because, store credits will tie you to the particular store, and you’ll have to use the funds for future purchases in the store. But with cash refunds, you can choose to go to another store for your future purchases.
Thankfully, unlike stores that issue only store credits, Anine Bing issue refunds as cash payment via the original purchase method.
Also, you won’t want to wait endlessly to receive the said refund. Thus, you’ll want stores that process returns and issue refunds quickly. Anine Bing pulls in at average in this regards. All returns to the store are processed within 2 – 3 weeks, after which the refunds are issued. You’ll have to allow some time for the said refund to be reflected in your account. Thus, overall, you’ll have a waiting time of about 3 – 4 weeks.
Granted, many fashion stores in the industry take about a month to process and issue refunds; but this is not the fast refund processing time we’ll want from a modern customer-focused fashion retailer.
The ideal online fashion retailer should have a robust system for assisting customers. Whether it is simple questions or issues with orders, customers will always need assistance. The effective of the support service is measured by how many channels are supported, the response time, as well as the helpfulness of responses.
In most online platforms, the first place to get answers is the self help articles in an FAQ page or Knowledge base in the company’s website. Anine Bing does have an FAQ page on their website which answers questions on such topics as accepted payment methods, ordering, final sales items and more. However, we found the FAQ to be inadequate. First, it is not as detailed as we’ll want it; and secondly, answers are not grouped by topics to aid navigation.
If the assistance you need require you to directly contact a rep of the company, Anine Bing support email service for that. Interestingly, they provide a couple of email address to direct different types of enquires. This is nice as it automatically sorts enquiries and channels them to particular departments that will handle them. The email addresses are: concierge@aninebing.com – for general customer care issues, as well as styling and fit enquiries; buying@aninebing.com – for enquiries about wholesale purchases; and press@aninebing.com – for the press.
However, it’s disappointing that Anine Bing supports only one direct contact channel. It also doesn’t help that the supported channel is the email service that’ll require customers to wait for some while to get a response to their submission. These days, online platforms support a host of instant feedback channels such as telephone service, live chat, and even video technology such as Skype.
It also does not help that the email service is not available round the clock. Agents only man the service to respond to customers between 8:00am – 5:0pm, Mondays – Saturdays. For a world facing platform, we’ll want to see 24/ 7 customer support so that there’ll be no problem of customers’ uptime being the service’s downtime.
However, it must be said that Anine Bing has received many sticks in the independent customers’ review platforms online for poor customer support. In platforms such as Trust Pilot and its like, you’ll find customers’ review about Anine Bing reporting basic customer service failures such as long response time, not responding at all, etc.
That said, with a less than adequate FAQ page, no instant feedback channel supported, and too many reports of long/ no response or unhelpful service; it’s safe to say that the customer support service of Anine Bing needs fixing.
Anine Bing is a safe and legit fashion store. In the retailing world, the safety of a platform is simply its ability to safeguard the sensitive information that customers share with it; and preventing such information from leaking to unauthorized third parties.
Anine Bing says all the usuals; that is committed to the safety and security of customers’ personal information and transaction data. They back up that statement by employing technical measures such as SSL (secure sockets layer) technology. SSL ensures that data transfer between the buyer’s device and seller’s servers is private. Since SSL also encrypts data using bank-grade encryption protocol, even if it is intercepted, it will be unreadable to the hackers.
With the use of that technical measure as well as other administrative stops, it’s safe to say that Anine Bing is safe.
As a former model and still fashion blogger, few will know more about functional women clothing than Anine Bing, the owner of the self-titled fashion house Anine Bing. Thus, when Anine Bing (the person) pulls her experience into a mission to provide easy to wear and quality fashion styles for women, you can be sure of what you’ll get.
Anime Bing (the brand) lives up to its promise and provides a range of simple easy to wear women essentials that include tops, bottoms, dresses, lingerie. Shoes and fashion accessories are also available to complete the easy look; while kids’ wears have been added lately.
However, Anime Bing is a luxury store and prices reflect that luxury status. Items are a bit expensively priced, and there are little to no price slashing promotions on offer. Anine Bing tries to help by offering free shipping; and to ensure a happy customer, they also offer free returns. However, apart from being free, you might find nothing more to like about the return policy. The return window is only 14 days, and you’ll have to wait for return authorization that may eat up to 2 days from the return window. You’ll also have to make do with email when contacting customer support service, as instant feedback channels are not supported.
The bottom line is that, Anine Bing is a strong contender for the best provider of simple everyday women wears. If you won’t mind paying a little extra and won’t have to return an item from your order, you’ll find the fashion house to be excellent.
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I am so sorry i ever ordered from their EU website. I order an item on 30th March and heard nothing until i contacted them on 7th April [ie 9 days later] - they said they had just changed from UPS to DPD and i had been sent the wrong tracking details. My item was apparently shipped on 7th April after I contacted them but has not moved from its original destination in Belgium in 3 days. They are refusing to refund me the cost but have no idea when or if i will receive the order. The concierge keeps asking me to be patient but this is a total joke given the advertised 3-5 days for shipping advertised and the so called 'free' shipping. There is a reason it is free - it doesn't exist. NEVER ORDER FROM THIS WEBSITE!
Below is the message from Anine Bing Concierge for other customers info
'Clara here to follow up. We apologize for any delays regarding your order and following up with you. Thank you so much for reaching out. I am so sorry for any confusion. Your order actually shipped via DPD, our new shipping carrier servicing Germany and Ireland to offer a more seamless experience for our customers. The number is correct, you were just prompted to visit an incorrect carrier’s site'
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