Virtually Fabulous Holiday Shopping ... Online!

Dec. 13, 2007 Special Commentary for ABCNEWS.com — -- As a busy kitty in the city, I can honestly say that there's not one gift I'm buying offline. Those psychos who wake up at 5 a.m. on Black Friday? Yeah. That's not me. I've got things to do, places to be, an online fashion series to launch on Friday.

I'd rather pay double whatever those early-morning shoppers saved to avoid the rush. Yes, it's a luxury even to make a statement like that. But this column is about just that: cyber-shopping the luxury market. So strap on your Louboutins: We've got some view-my-carting to do.

Click here to see the Cyber Kitty's online shopping list at our partner site, Forbes.com.

Two obvious musts for a shopping site to get an Alpha Kitty Meow of Approval: First, it really ought to have a charity (or at least a green) component. Sadly, out of all my favorite retailers, only Barneys scored on that front.

Second, it has to be super-easy to navigate. Because another thing about Alpha Kitties? Ummm… we have no attention span. If a site makes it hard for me to find something, I'm onto the next one. While I found the perfect Jo Malone gift for my mother-in-law on Saks Fifth Avenue's site, they don't have a "view all" button — so instead of click-click-clicking over and over to see their various offerings, I simply clicked over to Bergdorf Goodman!

And don't even get me started about Henri Bendel. They just launched their first Web site, and it is a disaster — clunky and hard to navigate. This is not why I shop online! I virtually (pun intended) ran away. Someone should get them a better Web site for Christmas.

But bravo to Bergdorf's, where I easily found stuff for everyone. From my most chic guy friends, who got Karl Lagerfeld's CD, Les Musiques Que J'aime, to my colleagues' assistants and the cute Prada soaps. And who doesn't love getting one of BG's sleek silver boxes? — I could get one with a potato inside (don't even think about it) and still be excited.

Which brings me to another shopping realization: I could have saved $10 and bought the Lagerfeld CD on Amazon.com, but then I'd have had to settle for their packaging — and a Lagerfeld gift deserves to be luxuriously housed. Chic boxes would be a great add-on to their wonderful offerings. After all, it's where I bought my husband's gift — the most important, of course, on my list. He gets a Kindle, because we always lug so many books wherever we go. Now we have something the size of a paperback with a dozen books inside.