Online Shopping during Pandemic (season?), my honest review on ROMWE.
That’s right! I call it a season, because all seasons pass and so will this one. Let us hold on to this idea and we will make it through. In the meantime, life goes on and European summer has been brewing hot, so a wardrobe boost was considered. I decided to do this one with my sister. I like giving presents and my sister is a summer child, just like me so I decided to give her a postponed birthday present: a shopping experience with Romwe.
It is the first time for both of us to shop at Romwe. I never heard of it but I was asked to give my honest opinion about the brand and the shopping experience. Romwe is an apparel company with low prices that is focused on a younger audience. The fast fashion formula is very obvious here and definitely makes me quite uncomfortable.
Myself, I just turned 30 and my sister 32… . Maybe on the edge of the younger audience, but who cares? The older you get, the more critical. That makes me think we are the perfect team to give this an honest opinion based on a long stretch of online shopping experience.
I am not one to shop on fast fashion websites. When I was younger I tried it maybe once or twice and it never really ended up being the best purchase in my shopping experiences. I was young and on a low budget, so those companies seemed appealing. If I look back, those clothes ended up in the closet and stayed there until I did a clear up, a year or so later. I did not care that much about quality and quantity. My closet was piled up and during that time, it did not bother me and looking back at this I see I was quite ignorant.
Now things are different though. I traveled the world with only a backpack and was confined to wearing the same over and over again. Which honestly felt pretty good and changed my outlook. It made me realize how I stacked up on clothing in the years prior. I am in the fashion industry myself as a designer and upon graduation I did a thesis on the fast fashion industry.
Romwe review begin here!
The discoveries were pretty shocking and it changed my point of view on buying cheap clothing from far away places. That is a different topic though, however not be ignored when you are interested in shopping on a website like Romwe (which is the reason I decided to write a Romwe review).
First things first: the website. Next to designing fashion, I am also a graphic designer and when I see a website, I will link it immediately to the experience I will get. The website’s home page is quite `busy`. There is a lot going on. The pop ups and discount codes are flying over the screen and it seems you can scroll down till eternity.
One can choose a category, style, size (going from XS to XL). You can even choose how long you want your shirt to be (cropped – midi – regular), which i think is very handy. It definitely makes it easier to choose and probably less items are sent back. Once decided on everything, you get the garments that fit your criteria.
Our purchase: My sister ordered three garments, one dress and two tops. We wanted to start with 3 garments and not go overboard with the amount, as this was our first time shopping at Romwe. We bought:
- Self Belted Asymmetrical Hem Top – $11.95
- Plants Print Shirred Lettuce Frill A-line Dress $17.95
- Floral Off Shoulder Crop Top $6.95
With an additional $10.98 fee, it totaled to $47.80, which is really cheap (something I was so eager to mention in my Romwe review).
There are websites for every area, so make sure you are on the one that fits your region. We first arrived on the US web- site, to then realize once the items where in the basket, shipping to Belgium was not possible. This meant we had to start all over again as the same items were not always available on the European website.
We also decided not to buy too daring garments. With my beliefs in being anti-fast fashion, I wanted to avoid my sister did not wear these items and that they had to be send back. Which is perfectly possible, but the world is messed up enough already so I wanted to buy as consciously as possible. Being conscious and fast fashion are not to be combined though, but I at least wanted to put in the effort to do so.
Romwe Review: my honest experience on clothing items
Let’s head over to what we bought and what the end result:
The first dress has a rusty color with printed elements, a closed neckline, ruched hem and loose sleeves gathered at the wrist. It is comfortable to wear and has the correct sizing. The material feels soft and has the quality you would expect according to the price point. The finishing is done nicely. Only thing I would mention would be the length, although the size fits very well, it could have been a little longer. This dress is perfect for warmer weather but also for autumn. I am imagining wearing this with black nylons and a nice ankle boot, in the same color tone.
The material is 100% synthetic which makes me cringe. I avoid material that makes you sweat and feels like you are wearing plastic at all costs. But that is just me, my sister was content and said it was feeling nicely on her skin. It also makes sense that these garments will be synthetic cheap materials, if you look at the price. Polyester can be made from recycled material, which is good, but I doubt this is the case with Romwe.
The second garment is a blue printed top with puff sleeves and cropped till the waistline. After trying on the garment we concluded that the material is ok and finishing has been done properly. The only downside of this top is that this is quite short. But that is obviously the point, it is a cropped top and if you feel comfortable wearing this, then this is perfect. When buying this item, we thought it would be longer. This one is a bit tricky and the decision on your size will depend on your body shape. If you have a bigger chest, I would recommend you to buy a Large when wearing a Medium.
Then finally the red top. This can be worn on an evening out or for work. It has a beautiful cut as the hem is longer on the back and a belt to accentuate the waistline. The material is ok quality and the sleeves are reaching the correct length. Upon arrival we noticed that the hem was unfinished, I assume this is the design, however that was not that clear on the website. This one also fits nicely and is accurate to the chosen size.
Shipping: the shipping was faster then mentioned on the website, once the purchase was done. This is a good tactic of the company. You accept you will receive your order at some point in time and it arrives at your door way earlier. The result: happy customer. We did not have to pay any shipment fee, which obviously is always a great feeling.
Overall, my conclusion about this experience: I feel you get what you pay for. As mentioned before, I am critical on how material feels and fits, and this is all reasonable according to the price. For an untrained and unknowing eye, this is fine.
However, I want to accentuate the following: understand that what you buy might feel good for your wallet and you probably believe you did a great deal. Which in the short term, you did. But in the long term, you will want to buy more because the quality is not that desirable, so it gets old fast and the idea that it is cheap makes you believe you are not spending much and getting a lot. That is what this company sells, together with many others.
This is the psychology of the fast fashion industry. That same industry also creates pollution, child labor and makes the client connect their worth to cheap items, ending up in a pile to be devalued sooner then later.
And I know this, because I was one of those people and sometimes I still catch myself getting in a shopping binge mode. Even though your budget is low, buy more quality items that you know you will wear longer and have good quality. Cherish what you buy and how hard you worked for it.
Think of where the items come from and how far that is from your doorstep. Think of who worked on these items in less desirable conditions then you can even imagine. Be conscious and understand you are part of this chain when clicking on PURCHASE ITEMS. This small change can make a big one, try to be part of it.
Romwe reviews and online reputation
During my online research I found out that that most of the customers had one of the two issues – product delivery and quality. Honestly, as I said, you get what you pay for.
The clothing quality is average, but I really liked the cute trendy design collection they offer.
Better Business Bureau shows around 47 complaints by customers regarding bad Romwe support, wrong product, and even no product delivery. However, these complaints are in three years and are still much less when you compare it to sites like Zaful. Here are the ratings from other platforms:
| S.no. | Review website | Rating | Total reviews |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Trustpilot | 2.3/5 | 2,817 |
| 2 | Sitejabber | 3.0/5 | 2,111 |
| 3 | REVIEWS | 2.1/10 | 197 |
Romwe shipping and delivery time
Romwe offers a free Standard Shipping on orders over $19.00. Their shipment takes 7 to 14 days and it does not include the production time of 3 to 5 days. My order was supposed to take 15-19 days, but it took them 30 days to fulfill the products.
I ordered from their US based warehouse to Europe which means the shipment could have been quick. Also, the customer support is really slow, so that’s another downside. Other than that my experience was almost good.
Romwe return policy
Romwe offers help finding the misplaced product if you reach out to the customer support within 180 days after ordering the product. They have a 45 days return policy on pre-paid orders. You can know more about their refund policy on their official page.
Conclusion: Is Romwe legit?
After placing my first order on Romwe, I can confidently say – Yes, Romwe is legit.
But, they do have slow support and their shipment time is really a lot. Next time I’d rather choose to buy their products for Amazon, so I can at-least get the fulfillment and support by Amazon. If I were to recommend an alternative to Romwe website, I’d recommend you to go for-
Romwe Amazon – For obvious reason, I can Amazon is much more trustworthy and so even for buying a cheap product, I’d go to their Amazon.com storefront rather than the site. But that’s just my two cents.
Reviewed by Elze Lambrecht
