Lilly Pulitzer did it again. She managed to create one of the most dramatic shopping experiences on the internet.
If you haven’t already checked out the After Party sale online, I’d encourage you to hop in the virtual line. Yes, a virtual line. Has anyone else ever had to wait in a virtual line before? My virtual line experience is exclusive to Lilly Pulitzer sales, but I suppose it is better than having the site crash and completely missing out on pineapple print goodness. You know, because who can live without pineapple print?? My husband thinks I’m crazy, and he is probably right.
The sale kicked off at 8am EST (5am on the west coast) and was met with huge numbers. I know this for a fact because I was on the site a couple minutes before 5am local time, which is true dedication since I’m not a morning person. As soon as the clock hit 5, I was notified there were 33,773 users in front of me. A couple minutes later, I tried another browser and the wait was well over 70,000!! So I sat there and did my best not to fall back asleep while I watched the virtual line slowly count to zero.
As a side note, am I the only one who gets nervous in these scenarios? I’m always worried I’m going to accidentally close that browser tab and have to jump at the very back of the line, wasting valuable shopping time and potential deals. #ihaveproblems
It ended up taking more than an hour (1 hour and 29 minutes to be exact) before I was granted access.I will say the estimated wait time sure seemed to jump all over the place today. At one point it got down to 35 minutes, then jumped back to over an hour somewhere around the 10,000 user mark. Once my counter hit 6,379, it came to a screeching halt for a good twenty minutes. Tons of people on the Lilly Pulitzer Facebook page commented saying they were having similar issues. Overall, I really didn’t mind it though because it gave me some quiet time to catch up on blogging and get things done around the house before my family was awake. For a stay-at-home mom, it was almost a nice little break. Doubtful I’ll set my alarm for 4:55am tomorrow, though!
I get the whole virtual line, but it does put a big sense of urgency on the shopping experience. I immediately found a couple t-shirt dresses I loved for a good price and was worried they would sell out before I could check out, so I didn’t get a chance to really look around as much as I wanted. But I did snag four dresses for the price of one regular Lilly shift dress. I’m going to forgo the usual product links since the internet will only direct you back to the virtual line. Here’s what I grabbed:
I snagged two Marlow 3/4 length sleeve dresses for only $39 each (originally $108). I already have this style in a different pattern so I know it will fit me perfectly. Also, since I live in AZ, I know I’ll get a lot of use out of these two in fall in spring.
I also grabbed this Harper embellished t-shirt dress for only $49 (originally $128). Since I’ve never met a pom pom I haven’t loved, I know this will be a winner. It also came in a pink pattern, but that one was $20 more for some odd reason. I pretty much live in casual cotton dresses, so this is right up my alley.
Finally, I couldn’t resist one shift dress since these are what Lilly is most well-known for. I love the pattern on this Sabrina sleeveless shift dress and I really love it was only $54 (originally $178).
Did you wait in the virtual line this morning? Tell me what goodies you grabbed in the comments!!
