For Her

I am addicted to buying shoes, jewelry and handbags. They are clothing accessories that I spend the most money on monthly.

Accessories like shoes, jewelry, and handbags help to create a unique fashion statement for their wearers. Keeping up with the latest fashion trend can be expensive for shoppers, especially working moms who have to put their kids’ clothing need before theirs.

To satisfy my own need, I always look for affordable fashion accessories at ShopWiki. Like Google and Yahoo, ShopWiki is also a search engine that crawls the Internet, pulls more than 120 million product listings directly from 180,000 online stores to find the best deals for shopper.

By comparing the prices of accessories from various online stores, I am able to pick the most affordable ones. Take handbags as examples. If I am tight on budget for a particular month but still want to buy a handbag to reward myself, I will consider a designer inspired handbag. Designer inspired handbags are as chic and sturdy as designer handbags.

You can find good quality designer inspired handbags if you spend some time reading ShopWiki’s Accessories Resources to find out the tips and secrets .

I am addicted to buying shoes, jewelery and handbags. Hubby doesn’t understand why I still want to buy shoes, jewelery or handbags even though there are dozens of them scattered everywhere in the house. Well, women will never have enough when it comes to shoes, jewelery and handbags.

Buying shoes online is easier now than ever. By remembering a few pointers such as finding my true shoe size, and availability of various styles and colors, checking return policy and shipping policy, and recognizing good quality shoes, I always get the right pair of shoes online.

To make online shopping for shoes even easier, I use ShopWiki as my search engine. ShopWiki is like Google or Yahoo that crawls the Internet, pulls more than 120 million product listings directly from over 180,000 online stores. More stores mean I have better selection and have the satisfaction of always finding the right shoes.

Of course I don’t buy shoes every time I am at ShopWiki. Sometimes I only use ShopWiki’s Shoes Buying Guide and read useful buying tips.

Handbag lovers who can’t afford designer handbags can buy replica handbags to achieve the latest fashion look without paying thousands of dollars for original designer handbags. Computer users can opt for compatible ink cartridges that are cheaper and produce same quality results as their newer counterparts.

As a designer handbag lover and computer user, I am suspicious of the quality of replica handbags and also compatible ink cartridges.

Compatible ink cartridges are not branded with a well-known name, so I feel that compatible ink cartridges could damage my printer. However, it has been proven that compatible ink cartridges can be just as good as branded cartridges. They also do not cause damages to the printers.

Computer users are able to save almost 60% to 80% of general printing costs by using compatible ink cartridges. Compatible ink cartridges are definitely more cost-effective as they print equal number of pages as that of branded ink cartridges.

Another fact is that compatible ink does not affect warranty of the printers.

Whether it’s adulterated medicine that can kill, bogus batteries that can burn or wannabe Guccis that simply wear out fast (though they may look stylish for a while), counterfeit merchandise is almost impossible to avoid.

Among the phonies are some typical suspects: handbags, clothes, watches and amusingly renamed colognes such as Essey Miyami instead of Issey Miyake. But there are also surprising fakes, including golf balls, oil filters and baby formula. With some, the low price is a giveaway, such as a $2,000 Prada purse for $35. Others are priced close to retail to fool shoppers.

Vendors still peddle fakes on city streets, flea markets, salons, swap meets, college campuses, libraries and “purse parties” in private homes, at which a dealer shows merchandise.

The easiest way to avoid counterfeits is to deal with reputable retailers authorized to sell a manufacturer’s products. Be suspicious of third-party Web sites that offer deep discounts for products that are usually pricey.

Here are some other tips to avoid counterfeits:

• Think twice before buying at deep-discount and dollar stores, which have sold fake handbags, holiday lights, extension cords, toothpaste and batteries.

• Avoid no-name products. A manufacturer’s name and address lets people contact the company to try to remedy problems.

• Don’t buy if the seller won’t provide a receipt or if warranty data is missing.

• Missing or expired “use by” dates, broken or missing safety seals, misspellings or unfamiliar or flimsy packaging for big-name brands should send up a warning flag.

• For electrical goods, look for the UL safety mark. A silver holographic seal is required on decorative lighting made worldwide and on fans, other lighting and similar products made in China.

• Shoppers who suspect that they purchased a counterfeit product should contact the manufacturer.