The big question is whether Aspesi really offers high-quality timeless fashion pieces. What about their service; do they offer easy payment system, fast delivery, easy returns, effective customer support service, and other services that we’ll expect of a modern fashion retailer? In the first place, is Aspesi fashion product genuine?
Yes, Aspesi is a legitimate fashion store. It is not a scam because customers do receive their ordered dresses without a problem. And there has never been a complaint about stolen money or credit card details against Aspesi.
But does Aspesi offer quality materials?
This Aspesi review will examine Aspesi in order to provide the information that will help you answer these questions and more.
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Have you ever seen clothes in the fashion runways and wondered whether someone is really going to wear them in real life? If so, you are not alone.
The usefulness and functionality of what comes off the fashion runways is becoming questioned more than ever. That said it’s good to see a fashion brand that produce styles not just to appease the glitz of the runways, but one that produce styles that are functional classics.
Aspesi is one fashion brand that has stayed off the runways. You’ll find blurbs that Aspesi offers “normal” clothes or “minimal and sophisticated collections”. With simple styles made from best quality materials, Aspesi advertises as “made for clients in search of timeless garments”.
Aspesi review at a glance
- Aspesi is an Italian fashion retailing brand founded by Alberto Aspesi in 1969
- The brand is owned by Armonia SGR since 2017
- Aspesi offers women’s and men’s clothing and accessories
- Aspesi distinctively stands out as a “no-logo” brand
- Aspesi is popularly known for pursuing innovation in fabrics
- Aspesi is a luxury wears shop so prices are on the high side
- Ships to over 100 countries around the world
- Returns are accepted if made within 14 days of notifying Aspesi of cancelling a contract
- Accepted payment methods include Visa, Mastercard, Klarna, and Cash on Delivery
- Customer support is available via post, email (support@aspesi.com), live chat and telephone (+39 02 94756439)
What is Aspesi?
Aspesi was founded by Alberto Aspesi in Italy in 1969. This means that the fashion retailing brand has been providing fashion products for about 50 years. The company started off producing shirts, and quickly transitioned into producing casual wears. Today, the brand stands as a go-to brand for luxury men and women clothing and accessories, holding styles that range from formal to casual.
Typically fashion brands emblazon their brand name and/ or logo on their products. However, Aspesi stands out in being a “no-logo” brand; you’ll not find the name (Aspesi) anywhere on their item. Aspesi is also widely known for a commitment to sourcing and using quality materials.
Aspesi has been owned by Armonia SGR since 2017 after the Italian private equity company completed acquisition of the company. The online store can be found at www.aspesi.com. The website is available in English Language, Deutsch, Espanol, and Italiano.
Is Aspesi legit?
Aspesi is a legit fashion store. They are not a scam because they deliver exactly what you order from the site. This store also has lots of positive feedback about their products and services. It’s a no-brainer that you should make purchases from only legit online stores. Except a store is legit, you may find yourself being ripped off when you place orders online and make payment.
Determining that an online store is legit is no easy task since the scam stores are styled as the legit stores. However, there are a few things to look out for to tell the difference. The first is legality. Usually, legit stores are backed by companies with full legal credentials. In this regards, Aspesi ticks the box.
Aspesi.com is operated by “Alberto Aspesi & C. SpA”, an Italian company whose registered office is located at Via Salvatore Quasimodo 53, 20025 Legnano (MI), having 02683610139 as its business register number, tax code and VAT number. This shows that Aspesi is a 100% legal online platform. Suffice it to say that scam stores do not seek legal registrations.
Another check of legitimacy is the test of time. In this regards, Aspesi also ticks the box because the company has been operating for about 50 years. It should be said that in any online retailing business, only a company that fulfills orders can operate for that long. Scam stores do not fulfill orders; their scamming operation come to light after a short time, and with such exposure the stores close shops and disappear. However, Aspesi has been fulfilling orders since 1969; and in that time the store has transitioned into a go-to destination for luxury men and women wear.
Another check of a store’s legitimacy is its physical presence. Most often than not, the scam stores operate only virtually, and has no physical presence or visibility. In this regards, Aspesi ticks the box. Other than their registered office in Milan, they have other stores in Italy, Spain Germany, South Korea and Japan. Also, though the brand does organize fashion week or other fashion events, the brand is famous for its collaborations with designers and photographers. Suffice it to say that a scam stores will not have multiple retail outlets or risk the visibility that such high end collaborations entails.
That said; with Aspesi being 100% legal, having a robust physical presence, earning the partnership of the creative minds of the industry, and having a 50 years track record of fulfilling orders, there is no doubt that the fashion brand is legit. Visit similar site at PrettyLittleThing.
Is Aspesi safe?
Seeking a legit store is so as not to be ripped off. However, except the store is also safe, you may still be ripped off even when using a legit store. Safety in this regard is the ability of the store to protect the sensitive data that customers share with them, and prevent such data from getting into the wrong hands. To use an online store, you’ll share information such as your personal data and your credit card details; this is sensitive information that you won’t want leaking to online fraudsters. Thus, where a legit store itself will not rip you off; if it is not safe, information you pass to them will leak out, and you’ll be exposed to other fraudsters. Therefore, the ideal online store must not only be legit but also safe.
In this regards, when you make purchases in Aspesi, the security of online transactions is guaranteed thanks to a DigiCert-certified system based on SSL 128 bit encryption protocol. SSL (secure socket layer) is the industry standard for creating a private connection between two devices communicating in the internet. Any data transmitted between your device and the servers of Aspesi goes through the private channel and is shielded from third parties; the data is also encrypted with the bank-grade unbreakable 128 bit encryption so that even if it is captured, it will be unreadable to the hackers. With this technical measure, it’s safe to say that Aspesi is safe.
Products
Product Range
You‘ll want the fashion shop you visit to have a wide product range so that you can get all you need in one place. A store with a wide product range offers convenience as it saves you the time and effort of checking other stores for some other items. It also offers cost savings; first, you’ll be able to get discounts for bulk purchases, and you’ll only pay to ship one order instead of paying different shipping fees to get your different orders from multiple stores. Thus, a wide product range is a plus for any online store.
In this regard, Aspesi does relatively well. The brand provides both men and women clothing, and you’ll find different clothing types listed. You’ll also find a host of fashion accessories to complete your dressing. The different product categories (and the different items you’ll find in each category) include:
- Women
Clothing – Coats and Raincoats, Vests, Jackets, Blazers, Knitwear & Sweats, Dresses, Shirts & Tops, Skirts, and Trousers
Highlights – You can get “Mix and Match” which are simply matching sets (Top and trouser, top and Short or Top and Skirt combos); you can also shop sneakers in this section
- Men
Clothing – Coats and Raincoats, Vests, Jackets, Blazers, Knitwear & sweats, Shirts, T – Shirts, Trousers, and Beachwear
Highlights – Mix and Match and Sneakers
- Accessories
Belts, Scarves & Silk Scarves, Bags, Sneakers
The product categories (and items) shows that Aspesi does relatively well in terms of product range. Aspesi has the hard styles that you can rock to your formal events as well as the casual styles for the simple times. However, you’ll find Aspesi wanting if you’re in the market for intimates (Bras, Panties, Lingerie, Boxers, etc), activewear, or swimwear. Except you’re shopping Sneakers, Aspesi will also not be the ideal place to come to for your foot wears. Also, the Accessories category is seriously lacking products. This is because the store does not provide sunglasses, jewelry, socks and tights, caps and hats, and many other fashion accessories that should put the stardust on a great look.
Inventory Size
You wouldn’t want to find only a few items to choose from when you enter a product section to shop. Thus, while having a wide product range is important, it’s equally important that a fashion store holds a large inventory of each fashion product.
Aspesi does not overwhelm you with the size of their inventory. Their inventory size bothers on small; and they really can do well to increase the choices available in most of their product sections. For example, at the time of writing this review, in the women shop, Aspesi had: 70 styles in the dresses section, 98 styles in the Shirts and Blouses section, but only 49 styles of trousers, 10 styles of Jackets, and only 5 sneakers. It was no different in the men shop. For example, there were only 44 styles of trousers, 34 T – Shirts, 27 Blazers, and so on.
When a store has a large inventory size of each product type, you’ll have a large pool to choose from when making any purchase; and you’ll be more likely to find something that matches your taste/ preferences and budget. While Aspesi’s inventory size may not be as robust as we’ll like, it still affords selection.
Product Quality
An even more important product consideration is product quality. You’ll want that an online store offers good quality pieces so that any item that is purchased there will be of the finest quality. In this regards, Aspesi ticks the box. Though quality is largely subjective; customers converge that good quality fashion items should be well made, should be of good materials, and should be durable. Customers’ reviews of Aspesi show that customers are largely satisfied with the quality of items obtained from the store. First, Aspesi is known for using exclusive and avant-garde fabrics. Aspesi is also known for collaborating with top creative minds in designers and photographers. These collaborations marry art and fashion, and the end product is beautiful fashion styles.
The functionality of Aspsi’s pieces is something that has also been heralded. Where some stores produce styles for the runways, Aspesi produces superb styles featuring minimal designs. And lastly, Aspesi’s pieces are timeless.
Price, Promotions and Related Policies
Price
One of the first things you’ll see when looking at the listed items in a store is the prices of the items. No matter the utility that an item promises, you’ll be unwilling to buy it if you perceive that it is unreasonably priced. That means every buyer wants a fashion store that offers low and affordable fashion pieces.
In this regard, Aspesi is regarded as a luxury fashion brand. The luxury in the description means that they offer premium items, and also that the items are on the expensive side. For example, at the time of writing, dresses in the store were priced at £252 – £1,125. This says much about the pricing of Aspesi; stores with dresses starting from three figures (100+) are considered expensive, but the dresses in Aspesi started from £252. In the same vein, the women Jackets were priced at £329 – £495. Also, the only women Tops you’ll find under £100 are Tees priced at £63, £77, and £90; Shirt Tops and other Blouses were in three figures, getting to as much as £567. Also, women Trousers were priced at £167 – £545.
It was no different in the Aspesi Men shop. For example, there was also no men trouser listed for less than £100; they were in the £167 – £243 range. The T – Shirts started out at £63 and got to £189; while you’ll need about £250 to get a Blazer in the shop.
That said, Aspesi is not by any means a cheap store. If you’ll be shopping on a budget, you’ll want to look beyond Aspesi, but if you’re okay with spending some top bills, then Aspesi is a good place to check for top quality sophisticated but simple styles.
Promotions
The ideal fashion store will have a lot of cost saving offers. These offers come in the form of promotions; where customers have the opportunity to get items for free or for less than the full prices. Given that the prices of items in Aspesi are on the high side, you’ll expect to see many promotional offers.
However, we did not find many cost saving offers in Aspesi. It wasn’t all too surprising because we’ve come to know that the “luxury” wears stores are not usually generous with promotions. Once you are stepping into any such store, you’ll already know that you’ll be spending some good bills.
However, it doesn’t mean that Aspesi doesn’t run any promo. There are occasional offers, but not the huge price slashing offers that we’ll like. There are also occasional free shipping offers. At the time of writing this review, one offer we did find was one to subscribe for newsletters and get 10% of the next order.
Newsletter offer
Payment Methods
You won’t want to make purchase in an online store only to find that none of the payment methods the store supports is available in your territory for making payments. Thus, the ideal store will support a wide range of payment methods so that no matter where you are located, you’ll easily find one of the supported methods for paying for your orders.
In this regards, Aspesi accepts payments made with Credit cards and debits cards such as Visa and Mastercard. The store also accepts payment with Klarna in certain countries. Typical of online fashion stores, Aspesi does not accept checks (cheques). There is also no support for the web wallets or bank transfer options. However, in a move that is rarely seen amongst the fashion retailing stores, Aspesi accepts COD (cash on delivery) payments. However, COD payment is only available in the EU and in Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Norway, San Marino, Switzerland, and Vatican City. It’s a good one that COD is accepted at all, because it is one form of payment that we don’t see often used by the online fashion stores. However, in some of the countries where COD is allowed, it comes with minimum order requirement. These are: Italy = €3000; Belgium = €3000; Spain = €2499; Greece = €500; Portugal = €1000; France = €750; Sweden = SEK 3000.
Aspesi also had a financing plan, but it is for customers in Germany paying via Klarna. The offer allows you to shop now and pay later in month installments at least €6.95. However, there’s a €0.45 monthly fee associated with every monthly payment.
Shipping
After placing an order in any online store, the package has to be shipped to where you’ll take delivery of it. Thus, shipping is an important consideration when looking at online stores. The most important shipping elements will include: shipping destinations, shipping cost and shipping times.
Shipping Destinations
If an online store does not ship to where you are resident and will like to receive the package, there’s no point ordering from the store. Thus, you’ll want an online store to ship to many worldwide locations so that your location will more likely be covered.
In this regards, Aspesi does relatively well. The luxury fashion store ships to over 100 countries around the world. This covers locations in Asia, Africa, Europe, Oceania and the Americas.
Shipping Times
After placing your order, you won’t want the package to take forever before it is delivered to you. Thus, the ideal online store is one that offers fast delivery. Total delivery time is determined by order processing time and package transit time. Thus, fast delivery is determined by fast order processing and fast moving of the package.
Aspesi does very well on the former. The store endeavors to process all orders within 24 hours; and any order placed (and accepted) before 12:00 A.M CET will be dispatched on the same day. This is relatively fine, as there are stores that take up to 3 days or more to process orders.
With respect to the latter (transit times), Aspesi also does relatively fine. There are different delivery options; and the chosen option as well as the country the order is shipping to determine how long delivery takes.
Standard delivery to most European Countries takes 3 – 4 working days, while it takes 4 – 6 working days to others such as Sweden, Norway, Andorra, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Romania, and Portugal. There is also Express delivery, which to some European Countries takes 2 working days, but for countries such as Norway, Sweden, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia, the Express Delivery is Next Day delivery.
There is only one delivery option for Russia, South Korea, the US, and the rest of the world. Delivery to South Korea takes 2 – 3 days; delivery to Russia takes 20 – 25 working days; while delivery to the US and the rest of the world takes 3 – 4 working days.
Except for delivery to Russia, you’ll be hard pressed to find another online fashion store that will better the delivery times of Aspesi. These advertised times commence from date of dispatch; and since Aspesi dispatches orders quickly because of their relatively fast order processing time, the store is able to offer fast delivery.
It should also be said that Aspesi makes several attempts to deliver the package. If the Courier does not find anyone at the indicated address, it will take back the package; but it will try to deliver the package three more times, leaving a card with instructions on each occasion. You’ll also be contacted by email if delivering the package proves unsuccessful (because of not at home) after three days.
If you’ve seen customers’ reviews of other stores, you’ll find that one of the reasons for lost packages is not-at-home deliveries. That said; Aspesi’s policy of delivering the package to someone at home is a welcome development, which will go a long way go reducing incidences of lost packages because of not-at-homes.
Also, Aspesi orders are delivered Monday to Friday between 9am and 5pm. If you want Saturday delivery, evening delivery or Special/ Designated Day delivery, Aspesi cannot serve you, and you’ll have to check another online fashion store.
Shipping Cost
Since shipping costs are added to the item purchase costs in getting the total spend on any item; high shipping costs can easily make an item that is acceptably priced too expensive to acquire. Thus the ideal online fashion store should offer shipping costs that are as low as possible.
The lowest possible shipping cost is zero; that is free shipping. Unfortunately, Aspesi was not offering free shipping at the time of writing this review. However, it was stated in their “Shipping Information” page that the store run free shipping promotions from time to time. A shipping promotion was actually running at the time of writing; but it was a 50% discount on shipping to 66 of the over 100 countries that the store delivers to.
Also the applicable shipping rates are flat rates which mean that you will not pay more for shipping as your order increases in size or weight. Standard shipping cost €8.00 to locations in Italy and £13.00 to the UK, while it cost €15 – €22.00 to the other European Countries served. The exception is Standard Shipping to Denmark (kr 135.00), Sweden (kr 226.00), and Norway (kr 144.00). Express Shipping cost €12.00 to Italy, £22.00 to the UK; and €25.00 – €48.00 to the other European Countries served except Denmark (which is kr 186.00), Sweden (which is kr 257.00) and Norway (which is kr 241.00). For the other locations that the store ships to where only one shipping option is available; shipping cost: € 30.00 (to South Korea), € 55.00 (to Russia), $ 25.00 (to the US), and € 55.00 (to the rest of the world).
Customers in the US will find that they are faced with higher shipping cost than they are used to. This is because many of the online fashion stores are US based; thus, shipping rates within the domestic market is low. However, Aspesi’s orders will be shipping from Milan (Italy).
Return Policy
A review of an online store is not complete without considering its return policy. This is because there is the possibility that a customer may not be satisfied with his/ her purchase and will want to return it to the online store. Some important considerations are return window, ease of return process, and cost of return.
Return Process
Returning an Aspesi item to the store is quite straight forward. When you choose to return any item from an Aspesi order, you’ll have to first cancel the contract for that item. This is simply notifying the company in writing (via post or email) of your wish to cancel and return a particular item. Upon receipt of your notice of contract cancellation, you’ll be mailed a Return Authorization Number (RAN) number. You’ll have to put this (RAN) on the Returns Proforma Invoice that comes with the order, and include it with the item in the return package.
Aspesi includes Return Labels with orders. You’ll have to attach the Return Label to the return package, after which you’ll mail the package to Aspesi. Where the return label is not with the order, you’ll get a ‘Waybill’ from the Courier and fill it with the following details:
The Level Group Srl
Aspesi Online Store
c/o Geodis Logistics S.p.A.
Via Dogana Po, 2/A
29015 Castel San Giovanni (PC)
Piacenza
Return Window
Online fashion stores do not allow forever for the return of unwanted items. They give a specific time period, and only returns received within the period will be accepted. Thus, you’ll want an extended period so that your return package will not go in late and be rejected.
In this regards, Aspesi allows up to 14 days from the day of receiving the item for you to cancel the order; and after cancelling your order, Aspesi gives another 14 days within which the item should be returned to the company. However, this should not be interpreted that the total return window is 28 days; because after cancelling the contract and receiving the Return Authorization Number (RAN), there is actually only 14 days to return the item. This is a relatively smaller window than most fashion stores give. Thus, after receiving the RAN, you’ll have to act fast in mailing Aspesi the return package so that the returned items will not be received late.
Refund
After returning an item to a store, you won’t want to wait forever before getting your refund. Thus, the ideal online store will be one that offers fast refund processing. In this regard, Aspesi makes refunds within 30 days after receiving the returned items. This is relatively long, as there are stores that process returns and dispatch refunds in less time.
Refunds are made via the original payment method. However, for COD payments, you’ll have to provide a bank account that will be credited. It’s a good thing that refunds are made as cash to the bank account, and not as store credits. As cash in your account, you may go to another store for your purchase, whereas the store credits would have restricted you to making your purchases from the particular store.
Customer Support Service
The ideal online store will have an effective customer support department. This is important because customers will always have questions about the store and its offering, and there should be provisions for answering these questions. Also, no matter how effectively a store runs, there will be customers who’ll have issues with their orders, and there should be provision for quickly resolving these. So except you’ll want to be left hanging when you have question or issues, you’ll want a store with a effective customer support service.
The effectiveness of the customer support service is measured by the variety of support channels available, and the responsiveness of the channels. With regard to the first, Aspesi does relatively well. The first stop to getting answers from Aspesi is an FAQ section of their website. The section answers some of the questions that customers have asked in the past, such as how to make a purchase, account creation, how to return orders, tracking orders etc. However, you may find the FAQ section to be not exhaustive.
If that’s the case there are the contact support channels that allow you to deal with a support agent of the company. Aspesi supports an e-mail service, a live chat service, and a telephone service. In certain situations (cancelling orders), you may write the customer service a letter using the address:
The Level Group s.r.l.
Order Cancellation
Piazza Arcole 4
20143
Milano
Italy
To use the email service, you may send a mail using a “contact us” form in their website or you may send the company a mail directly from your mail box using the email address: support@aspesi.com. With either method, you’ll get a response in your inbox within a few hours of dropping your submission.
However, if you’ll rather want instant response, you may use the live chat or the telephone service. The live chat can be accessed from the Aspesi website; while the phone line to call is: +39 02 94756439.
It’s good to see support for a wide range of contact options. However, the support service is not available 24/ 7. The live chat and the telephone service are active only between 10am – 6pm (GMT+1) from Monday to Friday. We like that a world facing platform have a round the clock support service so that there will be no problem of the support service being available only in the downtime of customers in another time zone. Thus, it was a little disappointing that Aspesi’s support service is only available in the weekdays, and in the working hours of the local time.
Summary
Aspesi comes out as a luxury fashion shop, holding not many but high end quality items. That says much about prices; luxury items means that prices are not “low and affordable”, and it doesn’t help that there are not many cost saving offers. However, Aspesi have the product – timeless, sophisticated but simple styles, made from literally the best materials. They also provide good service to boot. Aspesi process orders within 24 hours and are able to offer fast delivery, and returns are relatively easy albeit with a relatively short window. If you meet a roadblock in the Aspesi journey, they have an effective customer support service that you can reach via multiple channels.
Pros:
- Delivers to over 100 countries around the world
- Several attempts are made to deliver to someone instead of simply leaving the package at the door when no one is at home
- In most cases, order processing is done within 24 hours
- Offers fast delivery because of relatively fast order processing and quick movement of packages
- Accept C.O.D (Cash on Delivery) payments
- There is a variety of channels for contacting the support department (telephone, live chat, email, and post)
Cons:
- Prices of items are on the high side
- Inventory size is relatively small
- There is no free shipping
- Have a relatively long refund processing time (30 days)
- Customer support service is not available 24/ 7
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