Sex toys are great once you finally have them in your possession. However, the process of actually getting them to your house can be a bit stressful! Thankfully, there are many online retailers who will ship packages directly to your home, allowing you to avoid an awkward visit to your local sex shop. Still, if discretion is of the utmost importance then you’ll want to know how to avoid any hassles while shopping for new toys. Is online shopping really discreet? Let’s find out!
Shopping on Amazon
Amazon.com is just one of the many major online retailers where sex toys are easy to find. Specific to Amazon, they offer thousands of products on a single platform, which can make it tempting to purchase your new toy(s) from their website. Unfortunately, there are a few reasons why using Amazon (or another online retailer that’s not sex-toy-specific) might not be in your best interests.
While many online retailers offer products on their websites, the simple presence of a listing doesn’t automatically mean that the order will be fulfilled by the said company. Amazon is a great example of this: your order could be completed by Amazon or processed by a third-party company. This means you can’t be exactly sure if your new toys are from a reputable company, or if they are generic knock-off products made from sub-par material. It may seem like there’s an easy fix to this: just check the ratings, correct? Unfortunately, that’s not the case. Many sellers offer incentives to their customers, offering reduced pricing or even free products in exchange for five-star reviews! This means that although a listing may have a perfect rating, you won’t truly know the quality of the said product until you receive it in the mail. Obviously, this puts you (as the customer) at risk of being bamboozled, which is why we don’t recommend using any major online retailers when shopping for new sex toys. It’s also important to note that Amazon uses your browsing history to recommend similar products, so unless you want constant sex toy suggestions, you’ll want to “pause” your browsing history before shopping for sex toys.
Using Trusted Online Adult Sex Shops
Designated online adult sex shops like Lovehoney or TooTimid are the best places to purchase your new sex toys from. Not only can you be sure that you’ll receive the correct product as advertised, but most of these websites (such as Adam and Eve online shopping)also claim to offer discreet shipping. Promotions run fairly frequently, product warranties are often offered, and some sites will even give you bonus items if your order is large enough! The other benefit to these shops is that, since they focus on sex toys, they have a wider variety and can suit whatever fantasy you have. For instance, you may have a hard time finding a dragon dildo on Amazon, but at a legit sex toy shop, you can find exactly what you desire. Beyond providing superior service, the reviews on these sites are written by real customers—not compensated ones—which means you can read both the good & the bad about all of the best sex toys before making your final decision.
Sex toys for beginners
If you are a beginner, and you worry about the package discretion, you should also make sure that you are investing in the right toy for you. As amazing the world of sex toys is, as confusing can it be if you aren’t enlightened enough. On bedbible.com you can read product tests and reviews so you can make sure that you make an informed decision.
Vibrators is a product that has evolved massively, and now you can get all sorts of vibrators.
If you want to try an exciting vibrator, you can try the womanizer duo out. Before you do though, you should read the review of it. That way, you ensure that you want that product and get in-depth information about it.
Billing & Payment History
While we would like to once again reiterate that we don’t recommend shopping on Amazon & similar online retailers, we’ll still be including Amazon in this section for a complete comparison. Once you place an order on Amazon, the order will show up on your card as “Amazon”, which is discreet enough. Unfortunately, the order is also logged in your “Order History” where it can be viewed by anyone else with access to the account. Although Amazon does allow you to “Archive” an order, this won’t delete the order record: it simply moves it into the archive! If someone snoops around long enough, they will eventually find your order, making complete discretion an impossibility. But what about online sex shops?
Well, the specifics vary by website. Both Lovehoney & Adam and Eve will show up on your credit card statement by name, which means complete discretion is only possible if you use a prepaid debit card. Other sites (such as SheVibe) use an abbreviated name for your credit card statement, which provides some level of privacy. Sadly, a phone number is often found accompanying the abbreviated name, which can be traced back to the company with a quick Google search. If you want to avoid any possibility of being caught then we recommend using a prepaid debit card for your purchase!
Unnecessary Email Campaigns
Like many online services, online sex toy shops will start sending you promotional emails the moment you provide your address. Upon ordering, you’ll first receive an order confirmation, and then the unnecessary email campaigns will pick up. If your email is private then this might not be an issue, but since most sex shops don’t bother to abbreviate the “Sender” field, anyone who glances over your shoulder will still be able to tell where the emails came from. Fortunately, as long as you can keep the original confirmation email hidden, the following emails can be avoided simply by scrolling to the bottom of the email and clicking “unsubscribe”. In this aspect, Amazon actually does have an advantage, since—assuming you turned off your browsing history while making the purchase—you’ll only receive one email from “Amazon” that simply says your order has been shipped.
Non-revealing Packaging
Discretion may be lacking in other areas, but when it comes to packaging, all the companies that claim to offer “discreet shipping” seem to deliver on their promises! Your order will most likely show up in a plain box or bubble wrapper with an unnamed return address on the label. This prevents the mailman (or anyone else) from knowing who sent you the package (the same is true with Amazon)! However, once you open the package then it’s up to the manufacturer. Most manufacturers label their product boxes very clearly, which means you’ll want to figure out a disposal process ahead of time (unless you don’t mind chucking out a box that’s clearly labeled “Japanese Co-Ed Masturbator” on the side). We recommend gathering a few black plastic bags ahead of time since you can rip apart the packaging & place the pieces inside of the bag for discrete disposal.
Is Complete Discretion Really Possible?
It is possible, but only if you follow very specific steps. Most consumers will only be concerned with the label on the box that shows up at their house, and if this is all that you’re worried about, then good news: you’re in the clear! However, if you want to keep your bank records, email, and mailbox free of sex-toy-related content, then you’ll need to do these three things:
- Use a prepaid debit card to purchase your new toy
- Create a new email account specifically for sex toy purchases
- Only order from reputable sex toy shops that offer discrete shipping
Exactly how much discretion you need is up to you, but if you want the purchase to be essentially non-existent, it is possible. Just remember to create a disposal plan for the sex toy packaging and you’ll be all set to discretely receive the best sex toys on the net. Happy shopping!