The Best Online Shopping Start-Ups for Cyber Monday Shopping

If you’re wallet isn’t hurting too much from pounding the pavement on Black Friday, then be sure to celebrate Cyber Monday!

Cyber Monday is a term the marketing world made up in 2005 for the Monday following Back Friday, which is predominately an American shopping day. But since the world wide web is well, world wide, Cyber Monday is celebrated by the marketing world in Canada, the UK, France, Portugal and Germany.

We’ve tracked down our 5 favorite online fashion start-ups offering great Cyber Monday discounts.

1. Gilt is my personal favorite for online shopping. Each day at noon, Gilt offers its members a curated selection of merchandise, including apparel, accessories and lifestyle items across the women’s, men’s and children’s categories. Ella Moss, Miss Sixty and BCBG at 60% off? What more could a girl ask for?

For Cyber Monday Gilt is offering free shipping on any purchase (from Gilt Women, Gilt Man, Gilt Home, and Gilt Kids) made on Monday, November 29 between 12 a.m. ET and 11:59 p.m. ET.  N.B. The deal is limited to one shipping ‘coupon’ per customer and only applies to UPS Ground orders.

2. Rent the Runway made our recent list of 20 NYC start-ups you need to know about. The site, like a “Netflix for dresses,” allows women to rent dresses from notable fashion designers like Diane Von Furstenberg, Hervé Léger and Proenza Schouler for about one-tenth of what they would cost to buy in a retail store. Dry cleaning is included in the price and damage insurance costs $5. The renter is responsible for the full retail price in case the dress is completely destroyed.

They are currently running a promotion where users receive $20 for inviting a friend.

3. Exclusively.In, often referred to as the Gilt Group of India, is a new e-commerce warehouse that sells Indian imported clothing, accessories and art like colorful dresses, saris and masala tees. The online shopping site looks and acts like Gilt Group with members-only, flash sales offering heavily discounted high end designer threads, but with Exclusively.In, the designs are exclusively Indian. In November of this year, the site raised a $2.8 million round of institutional and angel funding from Accel Partners India and Helion Venture Partners.

For Cyber Monday the site is offering $20 off any order over $100; $55 off any order from $250-$499; and $125 for any order over $500.

4. Of A Kind, the world’s first online Tumblr store, commissions designers to create limited-edition, exclusive “5, 10 or 50 of a kind” pieces. The site then releases each piece, one at a time, promoting it with a story. Each piece of limited edition merchandise is complemented by refreshingly intimate editorial content. They are currently selling a 23 of a kind scarf by Symmetry Goods.

Shoppers will receive $25 off all items purchased on Monday between 12 a.m. ET through midnight on Wednesday 11:59 p.m. Use coupon code: OFAKINDNESS

5. StyleTrek, an online shopping community featuring independent designers, launched globally this month, officially expanding beyond the U.S. to an additional 91 countries on November 22nd. The site features an easy Facebook log-in and a crowdsourced e-commerce platform with the ability to “Like” products and share on Facebook, Twitter and via e-mail, which means StyleTrek designers receive real time consumer feedback at every stage of the design and production process. You can also “Like” a designer and follow them on Twitter or friend them on Facebook.

We recently wrote about their global launch and they offered our readers a promo code, use NW10 at checkout.

Don’t know what you want? Check out our latest online shopping obsession, Svpply, a site for window browsing online. While you don’t actually purchase anything on Svpply, the site lets you browse beautifully designed and fashionable objects in a curated, Tumblr like format. Pick what you like and the site will re-direct you to the specific site. It’s up to you to find out if they’re offering something special for Cyber Monday. But considering it’s known as the busiest Internet shopping day of the year, chances are good.

Also, since you’ll be shipping your packages, check out our story on Popular Mechanics’s “Who Ships Your Packages Best?” test.