Best Online Retail Stores for Vegans and Vegetarians

If you are vegan, vegetarian, or simply detest animal-cruelty, it is often difficult over the Holidays to find gifts for your loved ones (or even to shop for yourself!). Locating stylish, vegan and vegetarian clothing, shoes, accessories, and cosmetics can be a struggle-but its getting easier. Now there are a few great online outposts that provide wonderful gifts for vegans and animal lovers alike, without sacrificing style for ethics. These outposts are useful over the Holiday season, but are also great when looking to update your own wardrobe or shoe collection!

Here I have compiled my favorite online retail stores for your use. The online retailers on my list are all excellent resources for vegans and vegetarians during the Holidays or just for personal and ethical shopping pleasure.

Alternative Outfitters- Vegan Boutique- alternativeoutfitters.com

The Alternative Outfitters website is very well laid out and extremely easy to navigate, unlike some other vegan outfitters. The store was founded on the desire to bring stylish fashion to concerned, caring citizens. It aims to show customers that we can all be stylish without contributing to animal suffering. The store boasts not only stylish clothing and products that are completely non-leather, non-animal tested, and non-animal derived, but also sweatshop free.

The website has a wide variety of vegan and vegetarian shoes, both for men and women. It also provides accessories, such as faux-leather wallets and purses, "cruelty-free" t-shirts and active wear, and cosmetics. The products are never animal-tested. The site also provides gift certificates and gift ideas that range in price from $5-$100.

The shoes, handbags, and accessories are so stylish that even those who are not vegan or vegetarian will gravitate towards them, because hey-who doesn't loves animals?

Moo Shoes- mooshoes.com

Moo Shoes' slogan is "one cannot have fashion without compassion", and this mantra reverberates through the online store and storefront located in New York City at 78 Orchard Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Moo Shoes claims to be one of the first cruelty-free shops in New York City. It is Vegan-owned and Vegan-Operated-and this is posted proudly on the website.

Although Moo Shoes provides more that just vegetarian shoes, this is its main product (you might have guessed). As such, the website contains shoes galore! Vegetarian Shoes for every occasion and in every style! You will never feel out of touch with the fashion world while shopping here, and you can do this knowing you are not supporting animal cruelty.

The prices are a bit steep, especially as they are leather-free (leather being what often drives prices up on shoes). Shoes range from $70-$90, and boots linger around $130. But you have to remember that you are not just supporting style, but a cause as well. Moo Shoes also provides other vegan accessories, such as make-up and other cosmetics, wallets, t-shirts, and outerwear.

The Vegan Store- veganstore.com

The Vegan Store calls themselves the "one-stop vegan shop" and this they really are. Its store-front was first opened in 1995 in Bathesda, Maryland, it now offers a great online shop with options to spare! The Vegan Store provides us with alternatives to animal-based products, vegan and vegetarian, an altogether cruelty-free shopping experience.

One great advantage to this site is that it offers gift baskets geared towards certain groups- college students, new vegetarians, Chocolate-lovers, and anti-stress (ranging in price from $35-$45 per basket). These baskets make great Holiday gifts, even to those who aren't vegan but who are concerned about animal welfare.

Happy Shopping!