A spreadsheet site is a shopping catalogue, not a document
It is a browsable list of products, organised into categories, with a link on each item to a service that can buy it for you. Nothing gets downloaded and nothing gets filled in.
Why the name confuses almost everybody once
The word arrived by accident. Years ago the useful lists really were passed around as shared files, one person maintaining a long list of links and sending it to friends. The lists outgrew that format and became sites you browse, but the old name travelled with them, and now a beginner hears it and starts looking for a file.
There is no file. What you get is a catalogue: category pages full of product cards, each card a picture, a short title and a link. Clicking the link hands you over to a shopping service, which is the party that can actually place the order. The catalogue itself never touches your money.
Getting this straight early saves a specific kind of wasted evening. People who expect a document go hunting for a download button, conclude the site is broken or the link was dead, and give up on a page that was working perfectly. If you are browsing pictures in categories, you are in the right place.
Where the search box fits
Categories are for wandering; search is for when you already know the word. Both routes land on the same catalogue. The search field in the header of this site submits to the catalogue search rather than to anything held here, because there is no separate index on this site to search.
Source excerpt
The sixteen categories, in the order you get dressed
Not alphabetical, and not by popularity. Footwear first, then layers, then the pieces underneath, then everything you add on top. It is an easier order to scan than a list sorted by letter, and it puts the categories people actually shop together next to each other.
16 of 16 categories
SneakersShape and colourway read straight off the tile. The sizing scale a seller is working to does not, so that one you open.
Jackets & CoatsCut and shell fabric are visible here. Lining weight is a sentence on the listing, and sentences are what you came to read.
HoodiesA tile settles the print and the colour. Weight and fit are words underneath it.
T-ShirtsChest prints photograph well, which is exactly why a tile tells you nothing about the fabric carrying them.
JeansWash and distressing show clearly at this size. The measurements table is the part that needs a click.
SweatpantsPattern and colour are settled by the picture. Rise, cuff and inside leg are not.
WomenswearThis one is a search rather than a fixed branch of the catalogue, so what comes back shifts as the catalogue does.
JerseysCrest, sponsor and season are printed on the shirt itself, which makes this the one category where the tile is unusually talkative.
BagsHardware and stitching are what people zoom in on, and a tile at this size can show neither.
HatsFront embroidery is legible on the tile. The closure at the back is the half you cannot see.
BeltsBuckle shape reads at a glance. Strap length is a number, and numbers live on the listing.
EyewearFrame shape is visible, lens tint is visible, and the width across the bridge is the measurement that decides whether it fits.
PerfumeBottle and carton are all a photograph can offer. Everything about what is inside them is text.
JewellerySmall things photograph large. Read the stated dimensions rather than trusting the scale of the picture.
WatchesDial and bezel read well at tile size. Case width and what drives the hands are listing text.
ElectronicsPackaging shots are common in this category, so open the listing to find out what the box is said to contain.
No matching category. Try a shorter word or choose Show all.
Source excerpt
What happens the moment you click a card
A product card is a signpost, not a shopfront. Following one moves you from a catalogue to a shopping service, and the two have completely different jobs. The catalogue collects and sorts. The service quotes a price, buys the item, receives it, stores it, photographs it if you ask, and ships it.
Three things change at that moment and it is worth knowing them in advance. Prices become real, because the service is quoting rather than illustrating. You will usually be asked to sign in, because the service has to attach the order to somebody. And the currency and language controls become the ones on that site, not the ones you set here.
None of that is a trap, but it does surprise people who expected the whole transaction to happen in one place. It never does. The catalogue and the buyer are always two separate companies, even when the handover between them is smooth enough that you barely notice it.
Four things no catalogue can tell you
This applies to every catalogue of this kind, including the one linked from these pages. The limits come from what a card is, not from how well any particular site is run.
- Whether the seller is still trading. Cards outlive listings. A card can sit in a category for months after the page it points at has gone quiet.
- What size you are. Sizing scales differ between sellers and often between items from the same seller. The measurements table on the listing is the only thing that settles it.
- What the item is made of. Fabric weight, lining and hardware are text. A photograph at card size cannot carry any of them, no matter how sharp it is.
- What it will cost to get to you. Shipping is priced after the goods reach the warehouse and are weighed, so any figure you see before that point is an estimate by definition.
The honest use of a catalogue is as a way to find candidates quickly. Deciding between candidates happens on the listing page and in the quality control photographs, which is where the next two pages of this site pick the story up.