12 best shopping cities in the world | CNN

12. Seoul —

Where the most credit card transactions per person takes place -- read: serious shopping addictions. While foreign luxury goods tend to get a hefty mark up, local boutiques tend to be cheap and very chic.

courtesy korea tourism organization

11. Milan —

Home to what many fashion industry insiders consider the world's most important fashion district, the Quadrilatero della Moda, Milan gave the world Prada, Versace, Dolce & Gabbana and many more high-fashion brands.

Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images

10. Madrid —

Madrid ranks third for best prices on luxury items in the Globe Shopper Index. We love it for the glorious sidewalks.

Courtesy madrid visitors convention bureau

9. Dubai; United Arab Emirates —

Dubai is known for glamour and excess; the shopping here would have your Scottish/Chinese/Indian/Great Depression grandmother spinning in her inexpensive plywood coffin. Home to the world's largest mall, Dubai is also home to an indoor ski resort ... at a mall.

Courtesy emaar

8. Vienna —

Vienna's early closing hours don't have to be a total buzz kill. It has some of the best values in Europe, second on the index for total cost of luxury items.

dieter nagl/afp/getty

7. Buenos Aires —

How many styles can you pack into one place? Buenos Aires is famous for leather and jewelry and style-obsessed citizens.

luis davilla/cover/getty images

6. Hong Kong —

"Shopping is one of, if not the, major attraction in Hong Kong. The city ranks highly across most indicators, not least for convenience," says the Global Shopper Index, which deems Hong Kong the best shopping city in Asia. According to the research, 76% of shopping tourists "expressed above-average satisfaction on value for money in 2011."

Courtesy HKTB

5. Paris —

The best shops in Paris sell lifestyles. Case in point: Whimsical shop Merci stocks designer goods that fall under the category of utterly useless but absolutely irresistible.

Courtesy Meri

4. Kuala Lumpur —

Bigger is better in the mind of Kuala Lumpur shopper's ethics. Three of the world's 10 largest malls are in Kuala Lumpur, and the number one mall Utama has more than 650 shops, Asia's largest indoor rock climbing facility and a massive rooftop garden.

Courtesy 1 Utama

3. London —

London prices can destroy your will to live. But get over the sticker shock and you'll see London shopping at its best. Bold, eclectic and international, Liberty department store will inspire you to buy things you never knew existed.

Courtesy Liberty

2. Tokyo —

The best of Tokyo shopping can be found in the department store. Isetan's mammoth flagship in Shinjuku has shopping consultants who will advise customers on everything from shoes to fish.

Courtesy jnto

1. New York City —

Where personal stylists and designer showrooms (and better yet, discounted designer showrooms) abound, New York's exclusive shopping experiences include curated vintage shopping, fashion history tours and discount mega-department stores.

Spencer Platt/getty

World's 12 best shopping cities

Story highlights

Quadrilatero della Moda in Milan is considered the world's most important fashion district

Three of the world's 10 largest malls are in Kuala Lumpur

The ultimate Tokyo shopping experience is the department store

CNN —

From a shopper’s perspective, frequent traveling can be crippling. It can get worse in the holiday season where Christmas dominates many people’s calendars. Why buy something in one city when a trip to a better shopping city is coming up?

To pinpoint which cities around the world deliver the most gratifying, enjoyable shopping experiences, we consulted global experts, such as fashion merchandising firm Donegar Creative Services and Marie Bergfelt, senior spokesperson for Global Blue, which publishes the Globe Shopper City Index.

Then we judged cities in four areas, using a 1-to-10 scoring scale for each category:

1. Getting around: Quality of public transportation, affordability and availability of cabs, transport time

2. Value: Bargain opportunities, such as sale seasons and average prices.

3. Variety: Number of available brands, range of shopping categories, quantity of upscale shops, department stores, boutique and vintage retailers and market stalls.

4. Experience: City beauty, quality of window displays and shop décor, friendliness and competence of clerks and service staff, dining and accommodation options.

Then we charged into the breach.

12. Seoul

Getting around: 4 Value: 7 Variety: 4 Experience: 6 Total: 21

Fact: South Korea has a serious addiction to shopping. The most serious in the world, in fact.

South Korea recorded more credit card transactions per person than any other country in 2011, and all merchants are required by law to accept credit cards no matter how low the price. Yes, that means the phrase “cash only, please” is technically illegal.

This translates to a capital city bursting with shops of a dizzying array of types and sizes, from LED-fish-scale-studded luxury department stores to towering all-nighter shopping malls to trendy street carts, which all reflect the ever-changing hottest item of the moment.

While foreign luxury goods tend to get a hefty mark-up (except at the airport, which boasts the first Louis Vuitton airport duty free store, as well as cheap prices for most foreign brands), local boutiques tend to be cheap and chic.

The city also has a good mix of the old and new, according to the Globe Shopper Index, which recommends the Seoul Folk Flea Market, Namdaemun Market and Gyeongdong Market for a shopping spree of more traditional goods.

Whip out the plastic at:

Seoul’s trendiest late-night shopping mall: Doota, 18-12 Euljiro 6-ga, Jung-gu; +82 2 3398 3333; Tuesday-Saturday 10:30 a.m.- 5 a.m., Monday 7 p.m.-5 a.m., Sunday 10:30 a.m.-11 p.m.

Lotte Department Store flagship,1 Sogong-dong, Jung-gu; +82 2 771 2500; 10:30 a.m.-8 p.m.

Garosugil, Sinsa-dong, Gangnam-gu (shop-lined trendy street), accessible via subway from Sinsa Station (Subway Line 3)

10 Corso Como, B1F Trinity Building, 79 Cheongdam-dong, Gangnam-gu; +82 70 7098 0010

Hot South Korean fashion brands

11. Milan

Getting around: 5 Value: 5 Variety: 4 Experience: 8 Total: 22

Home to many of fashion’s biggest names such as Prada, Dolce & Gabbana and Versace, it’s little wonder this beautiful city is full of glamorous locals and shops that cater to them.

One of the most beautiful (if expensive) shopping experiences can be found at Quadrilatero della Moda or Quadrilatero d’Oro (‘rectangle of gold’), which many fashion insiders consider is the world’s most important fashion district.

The interwoven pedestrian streets are lined with jewelers, boutiques and lifestyle showrooms that make for great window shopping.

While the boutiques cater to the alligator-bag-and-black-card-toting crowd, luckily for bargain shoppers, yesterday’s styles are tossed aside so fast, outlets and sales racks are always full.

Il Salvagente (“the lifesaver”), Milan’s best known and longest established outlet, has three floors of goods discounted up to 60%, all organized by size and color.

No one back home needs to know it was bought at an outlet mall – Milan fashions are always months ahead of the trends elsewhere.

Whip out the plastic at:

Quadrilatero d’Oro, between via Montenapoleone, via Borgospesso, via Della Spiga and via Sant’ Andrea, Milan

Il Salvag