Masseys

Masseys has an interesting approach to online shoes shopping in that they allow you to spread out payments for your shoes. You can get shoes for no money down, which may be a consideration for those of us who have maxed out our credit cards, but still need fashionable shoes. They also have a beautifully photographed catalog you can order for shoe browsing pleasure any time of the year.

The Masseys specialty is brand name shoes: they sell about 60 of the top women's brands. They also sell matching sets of shoes and handbags, as well as other matched sets that include gloves and hats. Women's shoe sizes range from four to 14 and widths AAAA to EEEE.

Discounts on sale items tend to be substantial. At any given time, about 50 or so of the approximately 300 items they carry online will be on sale. In addition, one of the strengths of the Masseys site lies in the way unique and fun items that might get buried in a megastore stand out here and say "buy me."

For example, they carry a set of lacy white pumps and a matching handbag that would make your average woman eager to attend a wedding, just so she could show them off. For many women, a lot of the fun in shoe shopping lies in the impulse buy, the irresistible shoe, practical or not. A trip around the Masseys site triggers the impulse mechanism. And for some of us dedicated shoppers, that's what shoe shopping should be all about.