Boden Review : Is Legit or Scam? 2024

Boden is a British Brand that advertises as “adding colour and fun to the world”. If colour and fun are not the key words you’ll want the go-to fashion destination to shout, the brand also claims to be quality-obsessed.

The big question is whether these are just advert blurbs, or whether Boden really stands as a fashion place that features quality yet functional styles. If they do have the product, what about the service? Does Boden offer the service that we’ll expect of the go-to fashion destination (such as easy ordering, fast delivery, easy returns, effective customer support service, etc)? In the first place, is Boden legit?

This Boden review will examine Boden in order to provide the information that’ll help you answer these questions and more.

Boden is a legit fashion store. It is not a scam because we have witnessed many customers that received the products they purchased from the store. And your money and credit card details are safe on the platform as well.

Boden review at a glance

• Website is www.boden.co.uk
• Is a British fashion brand that started in 1991
• Provides clothing and accessories for Women, Men, Children, and Babies
• Ships to every location in the UK as well as 73 other international locations
• Free shipping is offered (albeit to UK orders over £30)
• Free returns is offered (albeit for UK orders)
• Accept returns of unwanted items if made within 3 months of the delivery date
• Supports PayPal and the credit/ debit cards (Visa, Mastercard, Maestro, and AMEX)
• Offers a “365 days Quality Guarantee”
• Customer support is available via post email (cservices@boden.co.uk) and telephone (0330 333 0000 and +44 208 328 7000)

What is Boden? – Background

Boden was started by Johnie Boden, with an 8 piece men’s wear collection, in 1991. The site was not born at the time, so sales were via mail order catalogue.  Within a year, women’s wear was added; and true to Boden’s “adding colour and fun to the world” mantra, the stylish women’s wear featured distinctive bold colours and vibrant prints. Children’s wear followed soon after; and in 1999 the Boden website was launched.

The launch of the site caused the Boden brand to grow further. Before long their first retail outlet was opened in London. Boden started serving the internationally markets; starting with the US, then moving to Germany, Austria, France, Australia, and most recently China. The baby collection was added sometime in 2004; and 10 years later, Boden launched a collection of jewels embellished flats.

Boden currently operates three stores in London; and as part of a partnership with John Lewis made in 2017, you can also see a limited edition of Boden’s women’s wears in selected John Lewis concessions. You can visit the intuitive website to place your orders. The website is available in English Language only. If you’ll rather not use the website, Boden also support placement of orders via Telephone.

Is Boden safe?

Except the online store you use for your purchases is safe, your sensitive data (such as personal data and transaction data) will leak out to the third parties, and you’ll be exposed to cyber fraudsters. Thus, using a safe store is a no-brainer.

Boden also ticks the box in this regards. In their own words, they “don’t use a lock and key”, but “sophisticated technology designed to protect everything you share with [them]”. One such technology is the SSL (Secure Socket Layer) technology, which is the industry standard for creating a private connection between devices and web servers communicating in the internet. SSL also comes with data encryption, so your credit card information is encrypted before it travels over the internet. The nigh-unbreakable encryption standard used means that anyone without permission cannot read customers’ sensitive data.

That customers personal and transaction data with Boden are private and protected means that Boden is a safe online fashion store.

Product

Product Range

The ideal online fashion store should offer a wide product range. This in no way means that the store should be a hold-it-all. Even when there is a focus on a particular niche, the store should provide a variety of products within the niche.

Boden does relatively well in this regard. The store provides clothing and accessories for men, women, and kids, as well as babies. The clothing products range from occasion wear to activewear to swimwear, and more. The various product categories, and the items you’ll find in each category, are as follows:

• Women

Accessories, Coats & Jackets, Dresses, Handbags, Jeans, Jumpsuits, Knitwear, Nightwear & Loungewear, Occasion wear, Petite Range, Shirts & Blouses, Shoes & Boots, Shorts, Skirts, Swimwear, Tops & T-Shirts, Trousers, Tunics & Kaftans, Workwear Range

• Men

Accessories, Coats & Jackets, Knitwear, Nightwear & Loungewear, Shirts, Shoes & Boots, Shorts, Sweats, Tops & Polos, Trousers & Jeans, Underwear & Socks

• Girls (0 – 16 Yrs)

Accessories, Activewear, Coats & Jackets, Dresses, Essentials, Knitwear, Leggings, Nightwear, Occasion wear, Playsuits and Jumpsuits, Shoes & Boots, Shorts, Skirts, Swimwear, Tops & T-Shirts, Trousers & Jeans, Underwear

• Boys (0 – 16 Yrs)

Accessories, Activewear, Coats & Jackets, Essentials, Knitwear, Nightwear, Occasion wear, Shirts, Shoes & Boots, Shorts, Sweatshirts & Fleeces, Swimwear, Tops & T-Shirts, Trousers & Jeans, Underwear

• Baby (0 – 4 Yrs)

Accessories, Bodysuits, Coats & Jackets, Essentials, Gifting, Dresses, Knitwear, Newborns, Playsets & Outfits, Rompers & Dungarees, Sleepsuits & Baby Grows, Shoes & Boots, Shorts, Swimwear, Tops & T-Shirts, Trousers & Jeans

Items you’ll find in accessories include belts, sunglasses, scarves, socks, jewelry (necklaces and earrings), and hats. That said; if you’ll want beauty products such as make-up, body cream, etc, you’ll have to check another store.

Inventory Size

While, the ideal store, having a variety of products is important, it’s even more important that the store have a sizeable inventory in each product section. That way, you’ll have a huge selection to choose from when shopping; and you’ll be more likely to find something that matches your preferences and budget.

Boden does somewhat okay in this regards. For example, at the time of writing this review, in the women category: there were 378 items in the dresses section, there were 71 item in the shorts and blouses section, while there were 91 items in the trousers section. With those numbers, you’ll have your selection needs catered to when shopping items in the women category.

The men’s category was not as well stocked as the women’s category. There were 69 items in the Tops and Polos section, 53 items in the shirt section, and 39 items in the Trousers and Jeans section. However, the number of items in other sections bothers on too few. For example, there were only 14 items in the men’s Coats and Jackets section, and only 6 items in the Sweats section.

The children’s category fared as the men’s category, with some sections well stocked while others were well lacking in numbers. For example, Girls dresses section featured 200 items, but activewear section featured only 14 items. Also Boys’ Sweatshirts and Fleeces featured 36 items, while the knitwear section featured only 14 items.

That said; tens of items in some sections of the men’s and kids’ category might not be enough to cater to the selection needs of some customers. Thus, we’ll like to see Boden increase their inventory in some of these product sections.

Product Quality

When accessing the products in a store, product quality is even more important than product variety or inventory size. You’ll want the ideal store to feature only top quality items, so that even when you select an item with your eyes closed, you’re sure to still find its quality satisfactory.

Boden does very well in this regards. High quality clothing should feature good materials, good tailoring, and, most importantly, durability. You’ll find that Boden items ticks most quality boxes. However, we’ll give Boden flying marks in the quality section because they stand by their products. Boden offers a 365 days Quality Guarantee, which allows customers to return items to Boden until one year after the delivery date. However, the “365 days Quality Guarantee” is not regular returns of items that do not meet your quality expectations upon receipt; rather, it is for returns of items that during use are found not to satisfactorily meet certain quality expectations. For example, things like “wear and tear” are included in the guarantee; meaning that if, during use, the item falls apart or loses color earlier than expected, it can still be returned to Boden. We’ve reviewed a lot of online fashion stores; and not many stand by their products with this kind of Quality Guarantee.

Price, Promotions and Related Policies

Prices

One of the first things you’ll see when shopping is the prices of items. It’s a no-brainer that prices that are perceived as unreasonably high will put off customers. Thus, the ideal store should feature prices that are reasonable.

Though the prices of Boden are not the lowest you’ll find in the market, they come out as reasonable. For example, at the time of writing this review, in the women category, most of the Dresses were priced at £50 – £140, most of the blouses were priced at £55 – £110, while the women trousers were priced at £55 – £90. To get prices well below £50, you’ll have to go to the Leggings section where items were priced at £20 – £22.

The men’s items were similarly priced.  Men’s Tees and Polos were priced at £25 – £60, Sweats were priced at £50 – £60 at full price, Shirts were priced at £45 – £60, overshirts were about £70, while Coats and Jackets were priced at £150 – £330.

To put these prices in perspective, the real low and affordable fashion stores will have a lot of items with prices well below the £50 mark. That said; that most items listed in Boden pushed a little above the £50 tells you that Boden is just a little overpriced. Also, the really expensive or high priced fashion stores have most of their items in three figures with a few entering four figures. That said; that only a few items in Boden were above £100 tells you that Boden is not by any means an expensive or high priced store.

Promotions

Almost every customer want to be able to buy items for less than the items’ full prices; or better still, to get free items (Free items can be gotten in special deals where the customer buys a particular number of items). Since customers are on the lookout for promotional offers, the promotions offered by a store are an important consideration when reviewing fashion stores.

In this regard, Boden does not particularly shine. Stores that are generous with promotions feature a lot of price slashing offers on the website; but the landing page of the Boden website had no promotional offer on show. We had to go to the Clearance (Sales) page to find discounted items. These items presented huge cost saving opportunities as some were up to 70% off. Interestingly, there were quite a number of items. At the time; women’s clearance featured 1353 items, men’s clearance featured 93 items, girls’ clearance featured 230 items, boys’ clearance featured 119 items, while baby clearance featured 30 items.

Other than the knock off prices of the Clearance items, we didn’t find any other saving opportunity. The “buy X get 1 free” kind of offers that nets buyers free products were not available; we also couldn’t find anything like student discounts, or  even the popular one-off offer to get something off the next purchase by subscribing to the store’s newsletter.  

Payment Method

You’ll want a store that supports payment methods that are readily available, so that finding one for paying for your orders will not be difficult. Thus, the idea fashion store should support a wide range of easily accessible payment methods.

In this regards, Boden accept payment with PayPal, as well as with most credit and debit cards (Visa, Mastercard, Maestro, and AMEX). The supported options are popular options that can be easily accessed globally; as such, finding a means to pay for Boden orders shouldn’t be an issue. However, the supported options bother on too few. There is no support for the web wallets, crypto currencies, cheques, or COD (cash on delivery) payments. Granted, these options are rare if ever found in the fashion retailing business; but there are stores that accept some form of bank transfer options, while Boden doesn’t support that at all.

Shipping

Any item ordered online will have to be shipped to where the buyer will take possession of it. Thus, shipping almost always goes hand in hand with online purchases. The most important shipping considerations include: shipping destinations, shipping times, and shipping costs.

Shipping Destination

An online store has to ship to your location before you can use it for you online purchases, else it will be very difficult to receive delivery of your order.  Thus, one of the first things to look out is the destinations that a store ships. You’ll want a store that ships to many worldwide locations so that your location will more likely be served.

Boden does quite okay in this regards. The store divides its reach into three; its domestic UK market, Europe and the rest of the world.

34 European countries are served which are: Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canary Islands, Croatia, Cyrus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.

The rest of the world include 39 countries which are: Antigua, Aruba, Australia, Bahamas, Bahrain, Barbados, Bermuda, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Canada, Cayman Islands, China, Curacao, Falkland Islands, Fiji, Gibraltar, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Korea (South), Kuwait, Malaysia, Martinique, New Zealand, Oman, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, St Barthelemy, St Martin, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, and United Arab Emirates.

This would mean that Boden ships to only 73 international locations. While this much better than stores that faces only their domestic markets, it’s still short of a real global reach.

Shipping Times

Except you’ll not mind if your orders take forever to be delivered, you’ll want an online fashion store with fast delivery. Boden does relatively well in this regards.

For delivery to UK locations, there are a number of delivery options for customers to choose the option that works best for them. There is a Standard delivery which takes 2 – 3 working days to deliver the order to your door; and there is the Royal Mail delivery option, which takes only 1 – 2 working days. There are two Express delivery options. The first variant is the regular Next Day delivery option which will get your package to you the day following order placement; while the second variant is the Express By Noon, which will get the package to you the next day following order placement, but before noon.

Boden also offers in-store collection, where you can have the package sent to a store closest to you (either a Boden store or any other store in their “Click and Collect” program), after which you’ll visit the store to pick up the order.  Click and Collect (in-store pick up) orders are usually ready for collection the next day following order placement.

However, it should be said that for the Express orders and Click and Collect orders to be delivered the Next Day, they must be submitted before 7.00 pm on the day of order placement (Sunday to Friday). If you’ve seen other reviews, you’ll find that this is very good. First, Boden processes such orders from Sunday to Fridays unlike most stores that’ll only process such orders from Mondays to Thursdays. This means that Boden processes Express orders on Sundays, and delivers on Saturdays.

Also, the cut off time of 7.00 pm for the placement of Express (Next Day) order is a wider window than we often find. Usually, online fashion stores cut off Next day order placement much earlier (12:00 pm – 2:00pm); while the most generous stores allow order placement only up to at most 4:00 pm.

For international delivery, Boden offers only the options of Standard delivery and Premium delivery. For European orders; Standard delivery takes 6 – 8 working days, while Premium delivery takes 3 – 5 working days. For “the rest of the world” orders; Standard delivery takes 8 – 10 working days, while Premium delivery takes 5 – 6 working days. However, the Premium delivery does not apply to orders travelling to Australia or China.

Shipping Cost

Most often than not, the cost of acquiring merchandise is more than the merchandise’s purchase price. Another element of the acquisition cost is shipping costs. Any increase in shipping costs increases the acquisition cost by the same amount; such that high shipping costs can easily make it too expensive to acquire a product. Therefore, the ideal online fashion store should offer shipping costs that are as low as possible.

Since the lowest number is zero; the lowest possible shipping cost is $0.00 (that is, free shipping). Thankfully, Boden offers that; albeit to only UK customers. The Click and Collect orders that’ll be shipped to Boden stores within the UK are shipped free. Also, UK customers can get free shipment to their door (via the Standard delivery option) if they spend over £30.

We didn’t like that the free shipping offer applies to only UK customers; after all, customers in other parts of the world also like the freebies. But looking beyond that, you’ll find that the offer is good. For one, the minimum order requirement is a low £30. Many of the competing online fashion stores will require you to spend up to three figures to qualify for free shipping. That said; the £30+ order free shipping offer of Boden means that you won’t have to overspend in order to qualify for free shipping.

Where free shipping does not apply (UK orders under £30 or international orders) Boden charges flat shipping rates. This is also very good, as it means what you pay for shipping will not go increase even as you add items into your order.

For UK orders: Click and Collect orders shipping to retail outlets other than Boden stores will cost £3.50, the standard delivery cost £3.00, the Royal Mail cost £5.00, the regular Express shipping cost £5.75, while the Express By Noon delivery cost £8.00. For European orders; Standard shipping cost £6.00, while Premium delivery cost £7.50. Lastly for other international orders, Standard shipping cost £12.00 while Premium delivery cost £15.00.

Return

A look at online fashion stores for your online purchases should not be done without also looking the return policies of the stores. There are many reason you could want to return an item to the store (ranging from size difference, to receiving defective items, and more); and you’ll not want to be stuck with an unwanted item because the store does not support returns.

Thankfully, Boden wants to ensure you remain a happy customer, and will accept returns of orders that do not meet your expectations.

Return Process

If you decide to return an item back to the store, it means something is wrong. That’s frustrating enough, and you don’t want a cumbersome return process to add to the frustration. Thus, the ideal online fashion store should offer easy hassle-free returns.

Boden ticks the box in this regards. You can return the Boden items you purchased online to store (by taking the unwanted item to any Boden store) or by mail (by mailing the unwanted item to Boden’s warehouse). This is a good one because in-store returns are very convenient. It should be said that not many online fashion stores allow this; the policy is usually: online purchases are to be returned by mail, while only in-store purchases are to be returned in-store. However, if you return your online purchase to store, the return/ refunds will not be processed in the store. The store will forward it to the Boden warehouse who will then process it.

Returning your Boden order by mail is also very easy. Apart from packaging the item(s), you only have to fill and enclose the form attached to your delivery note. There is another form that you can fill and submit so Boden will know you are returning an item; but this is not compulsory. Unlike many other fashion stores that require you to contact them for authorization before returning any item, in Boden there are such things like seeking a RAN (Return Authorization Number).

After packaging the returned item appropriately, you’ll have to post it to:

Boden,

Kirby Road, Glenfield,

Leicester, LE3 8DU

Items that can be returned

Boden allows returns of almost all items bought from the store. Unlike most stores that do not accept returns of Sales items, Boden accepts returns of both Sales (discounted) items and full price items. However, there is a catch as we’ll find in the next section (return window). However, it’s good that sales items can be returned, because owing to the low prices featured in the sales section, many customers will be shopping from the section.

However, there are some items that are final sales items, which cannot be returned to Boden. This include Earrings (where the internal packaging seal has been broken), and Swimwear (where the hygiene strips has been removed. It should be said that where the hygiene seals are intact, these items can be returned to Boden. Thus, Boden’s return policy is friendlier in this respect that most stores that refuse to accept returns of all pierced jewelry and intimates whether or not the hygiene seals are intact.  

That said; items that are to be returned to Boden must be in their original conditions. They must not show sign of usage, damage or alteration.

Return Window

Retail stores only accept returns of items sent to them within a time period.  Thus, so that you’ll not find yourself racing against time when you have items to return to the retailer, you’ll want an extended return window.

Boden does very well in this regards. Their “no questions asked” return policy is with a window of 3 months from receipt of items. That is, the store will accept a Boden item you return to them if the item is received not later than 3 months after it is delivered to you. This is a very generous return window that trumps those of many stores in the business. To put this in perspective, the industry standard return window is 30 days from the date of delivery.

However, the 3 months return window applies only to items bought at full prices, and not to Sales (discounted) items. For sales items, you’ll have to cancel within 14 days of receiving the item; after which, the unwanted item must be sent (and received by Boden) within 14 days of cancellation.

Cost of Returns

You don’t want to be hindered from returning an item to its retailer because of high costs. Thus, you’ll want the ideal store to offer cost of returns that are as low as possible.

Once again, Boden goes the extra mile for customers in its domestic market by offering them free returns. That is, customers will not need to pay return shipping to return any UK order. However, international orders will have to pay for return shipping. Boden works with ReBound for international returns. The cost of return shipping charged by ReBound depends on the country the item will be shipping from, and whether tracking service will apply. At the time of writing this review, the return shipping cost range from €6.50 (from Ireland with tracked post) to €20.85 (from Greece with tracked post).

Given that except for a couple of countries (The Netherlands, Spain and Portugal), the return shipping cost for every other country was in double figure, it’s safe to say that cost of international returns is a little on the high side.

Refunds Processing

Another important consideration in a store’s returns policy is “how” and “when” you’ll get back the amount you paid for an item after returning the item to its retailer. Boden does very well in this regards.

In terms of “how”, as long as the returned item is received by Boden within three months of the delivery date, they’ll give you a full refund of your payment for the item via the original payment method. This gives customers the choice of using the funds for future purchases in Boden or going to another store. This is better than fashion stores who only issues store credits for returns, which restricts the customer to using the funds in the particular store.

Refund for the items coming in under the 365 days Quality Guarantee is as follows: if the return is made within 6 months of the delivery date, Boden will give you a refund of the amount you paid (via your original payment method); but if the return is made after 6 months (but within one year) of the delivery date, Boden will issue you store credits for the amount paid for the item.

In terms of “when”, Boden processes qualifying returns within 14 days of receipt of the returned item(s). You’ll have to allow a few extra days for the amount to be reflected in your balance, after which you’ll your funds available to you. This is not the fast “refund processing time” that we’ll have wanted, but it’s relatively fine considering that some fashion retailers can have you waiting for upward of one month to get your refund.

Exchanges

Most times, customers return items not for a refund, but to get another item as a replacement. Stores that allow such product exchanges are desired because exchanges allow customers to get the replacement item relatively faster. The store will send the replacement item immediately after processing your return saving you the time of having to wait to get refunded before placing another order.

Thankfully, Boden allows product exchanges. Also, apart from that Boden does not process exchanges for items purchased with PayPal, their exchange policy makes for good reading. First, they allow the same 3 months return window, which gives you enough time to make up your mind. Also, they allow style exchange unlike many fashion stores that only allow size or color exchanges. That is, in most stores, when returning an item for an exchange, you can only request a different colour or size of the same style you are returning. But in Boden, you can return one style, and request a different style entirely as replacement. It doesn’t even matter that what you want to exchange the item for is cheaper or more expensive. If cheaper, Boden will refund you the price difference; and if more expensive, Boden will require extra payment to match the price of the more expensive item.

Customer Support Service

If you have questions about the store and its offerings, you’ll want answers. Also, if you have issues with your order, you’ll want effective resolution. Thus, the ideal online fashion store should provide for handling customers’ questions and issues.

Boden also does well in this regards. The store provides different self help articles in their website that you can purr through to get answers to many questions, especially those relating to ordering, shipping, returns, and privacy & security.

If you’ll rather contact a support rep of the store, they also provide contact channels. You can send the company postal mail using the address: Boden, Kirby Road, Glenfield, Leicester, LE3 8DU, United Kingdom. However, because feedback is very slow with postal mail, you may be better off with email. You can send Boden an e-mail by using the “contact us” form accessible from the website. Alternatively, you may send a mail directly from your email account using the email address cservices@boden.co.uk. However, you’ll have to wait a few hours for your response. If you’ll rather not wait, you may use the telephone service for instant feedback. The telephone number to call is 0330 333 0000 (UK customers) and +44 208 328 7000 (international customers).However, the phone service is not available round the clock. The lines are only active between 8:00 am – 10:00 pm (Mondays – Saturdays), and between 10:00 am – 6:00 pm on Sundays.

Summary

Boden promises to add fun and colour to the world; and they provide functional apparel that features vibrant prints. They promise high quality items; and they respond with a 365 days Quality Guarantee that ensures that customers are satisfied with the quality of orders. Thus, Boden comes out as a serious fashion retailer. They provide a wide variety of products for everyone – women, men, boys, girls, and babies.

Boden offers free shipping for UK orders, while delivery is relatively fast to every location they ship merchandise to. Also, not only is returns free for UK orders, but Boden offers one of the best return policy you’ll find in the industry (with a wide 3 months window, and allowing returns of sales items, and more). With Boden, there are only a few bumps on the road such as prices not being the most competitive, having only a few cost saving offers, and cost of international returns being relatively high.

Pros:

• Provides a wide variety of fashion products for everyone
• Delivery is relatively fast
• Free shipping is available (albeit to only UK orders)
• The free shipping qualifying amount is a low £30
• Offers an easy returns process, with a generous returns window of 3 months (albeit for full price items)
• Online purchases can be returned in-store
• Accepts returns of sales items (albeit with a reduced return window)
• Offers free returns shipping (albeit for UK orders)
• Product exchanges (of even dissimilar styles) are allowed
• Offer a “365 days Quality Guarantee” which allow customers to return items until one year after delivery date
• A wide range of options for contacting customer support service (post, email, and telephone)

Cons:

• Free shipping applies only to UK orders
• Cost of returns (for international orders) is relatively high
• Some inventory of some product sections bothers on too few
• Items are a little overpriced
• There were not too many promotional offers