If there is one thing that has made life easier for the modern man (and woman), it is the advent of online shopping. No longer does one have to get down the elevator, get in the car, and drive to the supermarket to grab the products they need and want.
A word of caution is mandatory, though. Since it is much easier to shop online and no physical exchange of cash takes place, there is a tendency among people to shop more. While there is no harm in doing all your shopping online, it is always better to check if there are any ways to get a better deal.
In this post, we bring you five ways to find the best deal while shopping online.
- Search for deals and promotions – Let’s get the basics right. Every website has some kind of deal or promotion going on at any given time, like Boxing Day deals after Christmas. All you need to do is find out where the best price for what you are looking for is. For instance, if you are looking for deals on electronics, checking out sites that gather all of the retailer’s online deals in one place makes sense. So you can compare Best Buy’s flyer promotions with other electronics stores and choose the best deal for you.
You may be fortunate to also find a signup offer that entitles you to a flat discount. Moreover, there may be referral discounts for users who bring in more shoppers, which can also reduce your shopping bills.
- Use Price Comparison Websites – If you do not fancy spending a lot of time foraging for discounts, then you can opt for these price comparison websites, which tell you the best place for buying a particular product.
The fact that these websites earn a certain percentage of the sales as affiliate income should not deter you from using them, as it results in no additional cost for you. - Buy discounted Gift Cards – This is especially useful if you are a regular customer of any particular store or brand. What you can do is grab the opportunity when the gift cards of these stores or brands are available at a discounted rate. Even a small discount of 5% can make a big absolute difference if you shop frequently.
Apart from buying gift cards directly from the brand, you may also buy them online on various shopping sites where people like you and me list the gift cards which they will not be using. Mostly, these will be cheap as they might be looking to sell them at a lower price. - Learn about Price Matching – Let us understand price matching with the help of an example. For instance, you are looking to buy a ready-made piece of furniture from the website of a local brand and the product is listed for $50. The exact same piece is available for $40 on Amazon.
At this point, if you are uncertain about the quality of the product on Amazon, you can drop an email or chat with the customer care executive of the local brand, show them the listing on Amazon and ask them to match the price for you to order directly from them. You will be surprised how many times all it takes is to ask. - Add to Cart and forget – Now, this may not work all the time, but it is nevertheless worthy of an attempt. If it is a product that you want to buy but do not need immediately (like a handbag or a pair of shoes), then all you need to do is add the product to your online cart and stop right there.
All online stores have this programming on their website whereby they keep notifying the customer that they have products in their cart and that the order has not yet been placed. If you ignore these reminders for the first few times, they will probably send you a unique discount code to incentivize you to place the order.
At the heart of any shopping experience is the budget. If you get busy looking for deals without knowing how far you are willing to go in order to get the product, you might be in for a shock. While online shopping does not allow you to bargain (in most cases), it surely offers you more options.
