About Lightinthebox.com
Launched in 2006, Lightinthebox.com is the best Chinese online retailer of wedding dresses, evening dresses and other special occasion dresses, although wholesale business is also one great part of their revenue sources. The site sells a variety of other products, including faucets, decorative paintings, cell phones, car DVD players and much more. Wedding dresses and wedding party dresses are just one of their top rated product lines.
This company has established a big name on the global market, shadowing all their competitors in the arena of retail foreign trade business while being very competitive in the field of wholesale foreign trade business. Their founder, Quji, Guo, is a famous person who had worked for Google China as an advanced executive before he created the site with his team.
The head offices of Lightinthebox are located in a modern office building. This could be a good sign of how rich or powerful the company is. For instance, as one of the biggest competing sites of Lightinthebox.com, DHgate.com have been running their operation centre in an old building since they were founded.
Manufacturer & Quality Control
In China, it is widely recognized that it is Lightinthebox.com that draws the attention of global buyers to made-in-China wedding dresses and makes China the best place to shop for quality, well-designed and cheap wedding dresses online.
Most of Lightinthebox wedding dresses are produced by their factory based in Suzhou, China, one of the top two (the other one being Guangzhou) manufacturing bases of wedding clothing. Based on the report, the factory had been only a family-own workshop of wedding dresses and other wedding apparel before Lightinthebox invested in them. Now it has become one of the biggest manufacturers that supplies wedding gowns exclusively for foreign trade.
According to my findings, Lightinthebox conducts a very strict quality control procedure to ensure that very dress tailored there meets their quality standards. With 6 years experience in designing, making and selling wedding dresses, the company is very professional in this field. That is why I always believe that they are the best choice when it comes to buying amazing wedding dresses from China at reasonable prices.
Styles & Customization Service
At present, over 620 styles have been added to their category of wedding dresses for brides. Some of them have different color options to select from. Their navigation system is really great and you can easily find the dress that fits your preferences there. You can shop by new arrival date, price, wedding venue, silhouette, hemline/train, neckline, body shape, fabric, season, sleeve length, sleeve style, embellishment, back details or waist, or combine some of the features to narrow down your search for most matching results.
The store highlight their featured collections at the top area of the page of wedding dresses, such as Weekly Deal, Luxury Wedding Dresses, Fall 2012, Top Sellers, Wedding Dresses under $200, Maternity Wedding Dresses, Reception Dresses, etc. In particular, the luxury wedding dresses are mostly inspired by celebrity styles while their prices are much lower.
All wedding dresses for sale at Lightinthebox are tailored based on specific measurements provided by the buyers so that you don’t have to worry about the sizing problem. However, in case some differences occur due to different ways of measuring, do remember to read carefully their sizing chart especially the methods they instruct you to measure your sizes.
Generally, it takes 15-19 working days for the store to tailor a dress while some more elaborate dresses may take longer. The estimated tailoring time is displayed on each product page.
Prices & Discounts
On average, the wedding dresses offered by Lightinthebox are priced at around $200 USD. Overall, their prices are not the lowest on the market. However, based on lots of real customer reviews, as the bridal gowns they carry are superior in quality and exclusive in designs, they are totally worth the prices. As a famous site, Lightinthebox is often imitated or copied by small sites who steal their product images to sell similar items that are poor quality – the store hires real models to showcase their dresses so that you can clearly see how they look.
The site also possesses some cheap wedding dresses that are under $200 or even under $100. If you want to buy a wedding gown at a lower pricing level, you can filter your search results by selecting the pricing range. Meanwhile, there are lots more high-end or luxury wedding dresses which are available at $300 plus or even higher.
Promotions are frequently launched on selected wedding dresses with up to 80% off. If you see an amazing dress there but find it a little bit expensive, you can wait for a few days. The price may be slashed down and you can then take the deal with less cost. If you don’t want to wait, you are encouraged to search for Lightinthebox coupon codes that are redeemable on wedding dresses. Usually you can get 10%-20% off by using a discount code.
Shipping & Payment
The company uses UPS, DHL or TNT to ship your orders and it takes around 3-8 business days for the package to arrive at the destination. Free shipping is seldom honored while discounts on shipping are often provided, usually 50%-60% off.
Payment methods accepted by Lightinthebox include Paypal, credit and debit card, Western Union and wire transfer. The safest option should be credit card. Anyway, as the firm is tested legitimate and reliable, you can be confident in using whatever method to make the payment.
Other Wedding Supplies Available
As a one-stop shop for wedding supplies, Lightinthebox also carries a vast array of other products for a wedding, including wedding party dresses (bridesmaid dresses, junior bridesmaid dresses, flower girl dresses, mother-of-the-bride dresses, etc), wedding favors, wedding invitations, wedding shoes, wedding accessories and more. These minor categories of wedding supplies stand out by unique designs and lovely prices. Take a look now >>
Major Complaints
One particular good thing about Lightinthebox is, the company is one of the few China-based online shopping sites that have only a small number of bad reviews or negative feedback. This at least shows that the site is worth taking into consideration when you are looking for trusted or reliable online Chinese suppliers of the products mentioned above. Nevertheless, the site is not free from complaints and here are the most common negative reviews against their wedding dresses:
1. It takes longer than advertised to receive the dress. The total shipping time of a wedding dress for sale at Lightinthebox includes the tailoring time and the delivery time, which are both indicated on the product page. However, they are just an estimated time and the actual time taken may be longer due to unexpected situations like weather. If the dispatch time is much delayed, you can blame the site for their not tailoring your dress in time; if the delay occurs in the shipping period, then you may have no choice but bear the loss. Anyway, you can try contact ing their after-sale representatives for a better solution.
2. Customs or import duties are not specified in the product descriptions. Some customers claimed that they had to pay extra money for customs clearance, which is not indicated on the product page. Actually the site has stated this policy on their knowledge base that any customs or import duties incurred in the destination are on the customers. Click here for details.
Sites Similar to Lightinthebox
For wedding dresses, there are many sites similar to Lightinthebox.com but most of them are not worth considering as they are either not reliable or offer low-quality products. Among all, Aliexpress.com, Milanoo.com and Dinodirect.com are best alternatives. Note that Aliexpress is a transaction site and sellers there may vary in quality and you should do more research to confirm whether the supplier you want to trade with is trusted or not.
Other Chinese Wedding Dress Supplier Reviewed: