By Charlotte Steinway, 25, reporting from New York, NY, on the site that's made online shopping—50 percent off!—her friend.
In all honestly, I’ve never been too into online shopping. But a couple years back, I started my first job—as an editorial assistant for a shopping blog—and I didn’t have much choice but to dive head first into the seemingly endless inventory of e-commerce. The problem is, I have and always have been a sucker for sales. Combine that obsession with professional immersion in the online shopping world, and there I was, playing victim to every coupon code, flashy newsletter, and free shipping offer. Worst of all, I’d usually end up hating most of my new merch upon arrival.
That was until I met Tobi.
Tobi’s cheeky, on-trend clothing is akin to what you’d find on a Nasty Gal or ASOS, but it comes with a game-changing catch: Your first order is 50 percent off if you “like” their Facebook page (plus another half-off code for next time if you “share” it).
I was skeptical at first, but once I narrowed down my cart of 24 items to a much more palatable eight and plugged in my code—$100 total!—I couldn’t have been more excited in the act of shopping. But the biggest surprise of came when my package finally arrived: My haul of $15 crop tops and $30 sundresses were all, gasp, not flimsy pieces of polyester but rather shockingly high-quality items made from lace, silk, and 100 percent cotton.
Four crop tops, three sundresses, and a pair of holographic aviators later, I’m officially obsessed with my new BFF Tobi. And just when I tried to convince my actual BFF to let me “buy in” to her first order, I opened my inbox to find another 50 percent off code of my own. This is a friendship I could get used to.