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.