What are today's bestselling girdles? I was very surprised to see that a small company brand called 'Lipo in a Box' has three of the top five bestselling girdle products on Amazon.com.

Lipo in a Box was founded by Connie Elder about four years ago. Her marketing strategy is to sell direct. The girdles are not available at retail outlets. Instead she promotes her line of shapewear on the QVC Shopping Network and on her websites. She got the idea for this girdle product from her earlier experience of working at a medical compression garments company.

She named the girdle brand "Lipo in a Box" because she thought this would appeal to women's sense of humor.

It's difficult to know how popular "Lipo in a Box" really is in terms of overall girdle sales. Because it's a private company, and because there are no retail sales in addition to online sales, the high ranking on Amazon is overstating the popularity of the product. I did find a vague reference to the company having sales of $56 million in 2005 but was not able to verify this.

On Amazon, the Lipo in a Box products are outselling much sexier girdles. Here are the other two girdles currently ranking on the top five bestselling list. These are the Latex POWER Cincher Plus and the Waist Cincher Shaper Slimming Tummy Shaper by Summit Fashions.