A survey of 2,000 women has found that nearly one in three of them will keep mum about clothing bargains they discover online.

Users of fashion website Lovarni.com said they did this to stop their friends and members of their family from buying the same items.

One in 10 of the women who took part in the survey said they didn't divulge which fashion websites they visited in an attempt to keep the cachet of visiting what they thought was a site only they knew about, because they were worried about the dreaded 'outfit clash', when they find themselves wearing the same clothes as someone else at the same occasion.

The results apply particularly to small retailers with an online presence, and they imply that they might find it more difficult to persuade women to share information on deals they've bagged through Facebook or Twitter than they might have hoped, according to Simon Crisp of Shopsafe.co.uk.

On the other hand, Crisp added, buyers will be happier to share finds on larger online retailers such as ASOS, because they know these will reach a much wider audience.