Shopping here bores me to tears! I actually never buy anything at the mall ’cause it’s expensive, poor quality, and there is really no selection.
If you want something “different”, you either hafta pay through the nose or scour through the racks at the thrift store. I do + can only afford the latter option.
So where do the fashion conscious/working gals with moderate budgets shop? H&M (okay, but not the best quality), Forever 21 (yes, even for the 30+ crowd, again fairly bad quality), or Winners (which requires patience to go through the racks). And forget about shoe shopping ’cause that’s particular abysmal!
And since the majority of the female population shop at these stores, I find everyone starts looking alike. There is very little individuality on the streets…in the ‘burbs! Downtowners aren’t quite off the hook either. 
So as this is the current state of affairs, I do do the occasional online binge — especially when it involves sales + free shipping!
Recently, I visited Asos.com to find out that they provide free delivery worldwide which is definitely a plus for deprived Canadians! NO MINIMUM SPENDING REQUIRED. It’s a UK site, so styles are slightly more edgy. (I hate the word “trendy”, btw.) Huge selection of clothing, including accessories, purses, beauty, and men!
Decent prices, deals to be found in clearance section. Prices are listed in £, so be sure to use a currency conversion site before you checkout!
On and offline, where do you do your shopping for clothes+shoes?
P.S. I sure hope the duties aren’t a killer.
I have ordered from ASOS several times! They’ve been offering free worldwide shipping since December. Also spending under $25 or so does not trigger customs, so when i was buying a bunch of tights, underwears etc.. i just did seperate orders and there was no duttttyyyyy
Thanks Kathy for the helpful tip! Good to know…
Does anyone know how the duties work coming from the UK? I’ve never been able to find much information on that.
@yes, through my dealings with Canada Post, the duties are based on the declared value. They take that amount, convert it into CAD, then charge the HST on that, and on top of that add some kind of “handling” fee.
If there’s no declared value, it’s completely arbitrary, i.e. they make up a value and charge you up the ying-yang!
$5 plus taxes generally. Sometimes Canada post will add a “duty” too but not very often.
how much does it cost to return something?
You can change this to the US site and then see the prices in US not UK so you have a much better idea of what something will cost.
I love ASOS!
I ordered 2 hats. Total 10lbs= 16 ish Cdn.
I’ve ordered from ASOS several times, my friends too, in the last few months. We get charged about 50% of the value in duties.
That’s when it’s over 22 CAN or so.
try keeping your purchases under about 15GBP (about 22CAD) or so and there should be no duty/tax. i bought something for 14GBP and was safe. check xe.com if you want the currency exchange rate. it’s about 1.59 (plus your CC rate).. ASOS ships quick, too.
i always just change the currency on the website to show US dollars.. the actual charge on my CCard is pretty close to the US amount.
and so far, I’ve placed about 6 orders from ASOS, and none of them have triggered any customs/duties. : )
Returned a dress, it was painless, shipping by cheapest method, was about 7 dollars and the refund was processed very quickly, they sent me an email to let me know the refund was processed too, so i didn’t have to keep checking to see if a refund was applied.
This has actually made my day! Im from the UK and living in canada, and I love this site. Remember that Uk sizes do not = Canadian sizes. A 12 in the Uk is like a 7 or 8 here.
I’ve ordered from them a few times. Customs charges are hit or miss. I’ve ordered about 5 times and only been charged once. It was about 50% though.
I’ve ordered a bag from them that was ~60 USD. Customs didn’t charge me.
I agree 100% with you and it is even more challenging to find something different/unique if you are plus size. We have 3 major stores to really shop in and they are all owned by the same company.
That is why I started a website for plus size women which just lists any stores that ship to Canada, http://www.plussizefashion.ca
ASOS isn’t on there yet but I will definitely be adding them.
A store that you might want to also check out is eSHAKTI. Right now they are having issues with their courier company and shipping to Canada but they will be resuming shipping to Canada really soon.
They carry regular and plus sizes, but they also offer custom alterations to any design — for an extra $7.50 you can add sleeves to a dress or change the length for petites.
And with the CDN$ it is pretty good exchange rate.
The frustrating thing with ordering online (US or UK) is customs isn’t consistent. Sometimes they charge and others they don’t. My one order was $100 and was charged $27 for customs.
I guess we can look at it as a bonus if we don’t get charged for customs — more $‘s to spend on the next order!
Happy shopping everyone.
I love this store, and I’m currently waiting for a hat I ordered. I try to only order when they’re offering free shipping though, because i ALWAYS get hit with massive customs charges, so I feel that I offset that with the free shipping
I read multiple times that clothes from asos is VERY mediocre in quality.. so I would prob stick to accessories/shoes/bags
How long does it take on average for ASOS to ship to Canada? (specifically Ontario) I recently made a purchase on Feb. 11, it wasn’t a big order just 1 item… and my order still hasn’t come in yet. Was just wondering if this is normal..
I made a order on Feb28, they said it’d be here by now.. and its not. and seeing Angela’s post i am now getting scared that it’s going to take forever!!!
I’d like to know how long it takes for items to arrive in Canada as well. My order was shipped on Feb 16 and it still hasn’t arrived.
my first 2 orders from them came no problem, only 1 day extra ontop of their estimated shipping date(due to where i live) then i made 2 orders in feb, one schedualed to arrive before march and another around march 2nd, both never arrived, had to wait 8 working days ontop of the original shipping. I let them know at 8 extra days i still didnt have my clothing and they had to issue me a refund for both.. find it weird how alot of orders around this date have the same issue :S
I ordered something from Asos over 6 weeks ago and have not rec’d it. Was given a refund but I’m afraid to ever order from there again as it’s a huge problem for them. Check out the discussions on Facebook and you’ll see how many packages go “missing”. Are they just failing to send out the package and hoping no one will notice? Really poorly run company when you consider they are just an online retailer… their entire job is to ship items and they can’t even do that with any certainty!
Thanks for the warning! I haven’t ordered anything from there, have been considering it, but you may have just changed my mind.
Ordered two shirts from there and has now been almost four weeks and no package yet, I have sent numerous emails asking where the heck they were considering i spent $100 on them, emailed me back saying that they no longer have them in stocked and will refund my credit card, I dont even know if I can trust them with this task. Do not order from this site.
I just bought my prom dresa from ASOS yesterday and was wondering if you think it will come on time? This is my first time ordering from them and if this dress don’t come on time. I’m screwed! I live in California and the dress was $41.24. Are they going to charge me duties/more taxes. Will the Canadian post send it on time and not hold it? Anyone from California shop there b4? How did it go?
@Robyn, ASOS is British, so you items will be shipped from there.
If you read most of these comments, they’re notoriously slow on their shipping.
Since you live in California, I have no idea what the duties are like, probably nothing close to what we’re charged here in Canada!
ooooh, I see well i really hope that it comes on time it is not suppose to get to me no later than May 9th, 2011 and I ordered it on April 21st.
how long does it take for asos to deliver to canada, i ordered and it has been shipped it was due to arrive yesterday but no sign of my goods..any idea when i would receive it. thanks
my order was about 700$m, coming to canada, how much duty will i have to pay???
I have been living in Canada for 3 years — a British Citizen from London (the mecca of fashion). Love, Love, Love ASOS even when I lived in the UK, you will have to pay duty in Canada although ASOS offers free shipping. The amount is never the same and always annoys me, when the delivery person knocks on the door it can vary from $20 — $50!
Going back to the initial post; I shop in Joe Fresh (very cutting edge, cheap) however, quality not great you have to be selective. And now, Zara is in Canada I shop in Zara (not too expensive) reasonable price, good for work. And finally, if I have to, I will shop in Club Monaco (a bit expensive). Zara kids is also a great place to shop for kids -(good price) I really don’t like the children shops in Canada they all sell checked shirts, sweat type pants, expensive short shorts. Trying to get my 11 year old to be an individual and not select these items — anyway.…
I lived in the UK for 3 years… Now back in Canada.. I do miss the high street shopping, maybe ASOS is not a bad alternative. Or maybe one day Top Shop will ship to Canada. I went to their store in Soho, NYC a couple months ago, it was not as I remembered… Anyway, if you ever come to Quebec, you MUST try the Simons chain! I live by it, You can also order online. Canadian, no duty! And they have everything from their trendy home brands to luxury brand names! Check it out! http://www.simons.ca/
Ordered from ASOS for the first time in September. I received an email saying that my order has shipped about 5 days later. I didn’t receive my order for another 4 weeks or so — you have to remember as well that Canadian customs sometimes take a while to clear your package — it wouldn’t surprise me if my package was sitting somewhere at the border for 2 weeks… Anyway I did end up getting charged duties — on an order of $92, about $28 in duties, ouch! But I’m quite happy with the stuff I received — it was all stuff from their house label, so the quality isn’t anything to rave about, but it fits, doesn’t look cheap, and overall wasn’t expensive. I was also worried because I had placed two of the dresses in my cart while I continued to browse for another two hours or so (the site is so addictive!!), and while I was still deliberating whether or not to buy them, I went back to the product pages and my size in both items were marked as Unavailable… I promptly went through the checkout, paid, and hoped that I would still get my items — and I did! There’s nothing worse than buying and paying for something online, and then later finding out that they were out of stock (*cough cough, La Senza, and Beyond the Rack, cough cough*). Overall I was pleased with my shopping experience with them — free shipping to Canada is a huge plus, and I will continue to shop with them again.
Oh I forgot to mention — once they’re out of stock, that’s pretty much it. They might receive some unused/undamaged returns that they might put back up for sale, but I don’t think that happens very often. Found this out the hard way — had my eye on a purse for the last week or so, looked at it last night again and finally decided to buy it. Decided to wait until this morning when I had more time to browse the rest of the site to purchase it, but it is now out of stock! I emailed Customer Service and they told me they don’t restock so that they can keep the latest fashions possible… still bummed!
I have been ordering from ASOS for over a year now, and I am reading some of the reviews. True, if you spend under $20CDN there are no duty charges at the Canadian borders(trust me I know
…) out of 15 or so dressed I have ordered from them over the past year, I have only acquired duties twice! Recently I sent something back due to size and the return process was very easy as well. Oh, and I agree with the Author of the article, they clothes are definitely more edgy, Oh! The free delivery is a complete bonus!!!…
P.S. although the prices are in UK pounds, at the top of the page you can choose to show the prices in CDN $$, and your credit card will be charged as such as well… Happy Shopping Ladies!
WATCH OUT FOR DUTY!!! I also thought my order was duty free… until a month passed and I was sent my customs bill also passed on through DHL delivery. I love ASOS, but if you do your homework, Canada customs is notorious for alientating foriegn stores from shipping to Canada as they more then often upset costumers with outragious duty fees. Yes ASOS might offer free worldwide shipping, but the amount of duty you may pay on your order can be worse then ordering from a U.S store and paying those international fees. If you order from ASOS do not exceed $100-$150 amount. I have placed over 10 orders and have never escaped duty, the bill comes eventually.. just takes up to 3 months, I asked DHL how long after an order could Canada customs still send me a bill, he replied UP TO 6 MONTHS LATER! rediculous right? you think you got a greeeat deal.. not so much, keep your orders small. I just speak from experience, I do love the clothing, North America is in desperate need of a european edge and size for clothing. Topshop and TopMan are available online and in store now here in North America if you want a lil u.k flare in ur wardrobe without breaking the bank on international fees!!
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Thanks for all this advice. I have done plenty of internet shopping and up till now have never been charged duty tax. I think all my purchases have been small — i certainly received nothing with Asos, it was a clean and simple transaction and i was so happy with what i received (though the cotton Asos t-shirts are pretty crappy quality). BUT I just got a bill for $95 (duty tax) for a purchase made at Topshop — so be careful, i don’t think it’s worth paying an extra 100 bucks on your purchase!!!
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I just bought three dresses around $100 dollars and had to pay $40 for Duty…It was ridiculous having to almost pay 50% in duties on a $100 order. In the future, I’ll try keeping my order under $20 to avoid duty charges, but I do think that ASOS’s delivering variety and edge at a good price is tempting.
If you know someone living in the US I suggest you have it shipped to them and then have it shipped it you. US doesn’t have the crazy custom charges like us
Haven’t tried this with Asos but it works AMAZING for American companies. Recently I got a $90 order from urban outfitters shipped to my friend for FREE, it would have cost $20 for the cheapest slowest shipping on their website to canada plus there’s custom fees!! It only cost them $11 to ship it to me and since they said it was a gift (which it technically was hehe) I got no duty charges.