Best of: Sample sale websites

Like Magnolia cupcakes or Central Park picnics, sample sales usually stay comfortably in the confines of the only island with enough Rag & Bone devotees and Tory Burch aficionados to fill tiny Garment District spaces to the point of frenzy. Even for Manhattanites with access to drastically discounted designer wares, the advent of websites like Gilt Groupe or Swirl is a welcome alternative to the long lines and elbowing shoppers customary at the traditional sample sales downtown.

Gilt Groupe

Gilt Groupe, one of the first and most well known sites, became popular in 2007, when it began to offer coveted big-name lines like Marc by Marc Jacobs and Missoni. Unlike other websites that offer seasonal sales or discounts, Gilt offers 72-hour flash sales of past-season designer stock. The items are sorted into categories either by designer or by theme, and are typically sold for 50 to 70 percent off the original selling price. True to a competitive shopping mentality, Gilt’s daily rounds of sales open for business at 12 p.m. EST and require membership sign-up with an email address to log on to the sale site. The best deals and choicest pieces often go within the first 15 minutes. In addition to mens- and womenswear, Gilt also offers bargains on gifts, vacations, and city food and cultural events.

Rue La La

Rue La La offers two-day “boutiques” of everything from Free People and Current/Elliot to Valentino Prêt-à-Porter, Calvin Klein, and Gant. Each week’s sales can be previewed through online lookbooks. Referring a friend to the site earns a registered member $10 in shopping credit. Countdown tickers to the closure of current sales and the start of upcoming ones make the experience more authentic than casually perusing the sale merchandise on a department store website.

Fashion Vault

Banking on the success of such ventures, eBay has entered the sample sale market with its “Fashion Vault” section. Instead of the typical eBay bidding war, the Fashion Vault works more like an online outlet mall. Shoppers browse flash sales of brands such as French Connection and DKNY at 60 percent or 70 percent off and use the “Buy It Now” feature to instantly purchase from the selection currently available.

Swirl

Swirl, which also offers up to 80 percent-off fashion, is the sample sale affiliate of DailyCandy, a New York-based daily email newsletter that urban fashionistas have subscribed to since the beginning of the aughts. Long a purveyor of insider info on steals and sample sale listings for the NYC area, DailyCandy recently launched its own virtual selling floor, which occasionally houses some of the brands mentioned in its newsletter.