How to buy a sewing machine online wisely. All the tips and tricks I used to choose the best sewing machine that suited my requirements.
Online shopping is huge in US. In fact, United States was the first country that stepped into online shopping in the whole world. Online shopping in US is set to reach a worth of $279 billion in 2015. Even though, that is the case, certain product categories are still lagging behind in online sales. Sewing machine is one such product, which could not replicate the success of electronic and digital products. The main reason is because most people are still not convinced about buying a sewing machine without having a physical feel of it.
People like me would always love to have a hands on experience with the sewing machine. I always had an irresistible feeling to touch the buttons of sewing machines in a shop. I don’t know how that came to me. I can’t resist it.
Why Buying Sewing Machines Online Is A Better Option ?
Like many sewers, I too was a little shy about buying sewing machines online. It all changed when I bought my Brother CS6000i online. It was the first machine I bought online. I was forced to buy it online as I saw a price difference of $20 between Amazon and local dealer. To be honest, I was on a strict budget at that time, even $20 mattered so much to me. I hate wasting money, even if it is $1. I don’t mind donating money to charity, but I would not waste it as an unfair profit to a greedy local dealer.
At times when you approach a local sewing machine dealer and ask him which one is the best sewing machine. He will direct you to the machine for which he will receive the maximum margin of profit. Believe me, that is the case with most sewing machine dealers unless you know the person really well. Even the staff are given special commissions to promote certain brands. Just, pretty clever marketing is going on there. it is very unlikely that you will get an impartial recommendation from them.
I personally had an experience with one such dealer. I was looking for a sewing machine under $100. I asked him which one was the best (by that time I already made up my mind to buy a particular model which I knew was good and the same model was there for sale). As expected, he introduced me to a sewing machine model that I didn’t hear of and started talking about its quality and performance. I asked him about the machine in my mind. I asked ‘Why aren’t you recommending this xyz machine, I think it’s really good’. He said, ‘Yes, mam it’s good but not as good as this one’. It was pretty clear that he was going to get better profit on the machine he was talking about.
The advantage of buying sewing machine online is that you are not influenced by what dealers say. You are all on your own and you make the decisions. There is no one to compel you to buy a particular model. You do the search, you make the decisions. The best part is that, most sewing machines are at least $20-$30 cheaper online. You get the same warranty cover as you get from a local dealer. Most online shopping sites have very good return policy as well, so you can return the machine if it is not working as expected. The physical effort needed to visit each and every dealer searching for the best deal can also be saved.
How To Choose The Best Sewing Machine Online?
This is the biggest challenge for a person looking to buy a sewing machine online.My first advice will be to read a lot of reviews. It is not about reading sewing machine reviews randomly. There is an order to it. First you need to find a sewing machine that suits your budget and requirements. You can use the ‘search’ options on online shopping sites to narrow down your results according to budget and features. The best tool for this is the ‘search’ provided by Amazon. You can narrow down your results according to price, features, brand and ratings. I am not trying to promote amazon here, you can use any other online shopping site.
The second step is to narrow down your research to couple of models. Select 3 sewing machines that, you feel will satisfy your requirements. Now start reading reviews and compare each machine to the others. While googling for sewing machine reviews, you will see a lot of websites that try to sell products as affiliates. They will hide the negatives of the machine and promote its better face. You must avoid such review websites. Find a website that gives you a honest and impartial sewing machine review. This website does have an affiliate partnership, so I will never ask you to read my website. If it is good you will come and read it, I am sure. If you decide to read my sewing machine reviews, I have a couple of tips for you. I have tried to keep my reviews as honest as possible on this website, if you find Sewing Machine Reviews Recommendation Level as LOW or MODERATE, you will be better of going with another machine. Because, I rated that machine LOW as I felt that the particular sewing machine wasn’t good enough to keep up with the quality standards that I personally follow.
Once you decide on a sewing machine model, go ahead and buy it. If you are not really interested in reading the user manual, you can watch the instructional DVD that comes with the machine. You can also watch YouTube videos, there are hundreds of videos there. You can learn how to make beautiful looking designs, patterns, learn how to use different features on the machine etc etc.