Who doesn’t like saving money while online shopping? The problem is, it’s not always as easy as it sounds. If you’re struggling with this, here are a few ideas to get your brain going.
Grab Coupons, Check Terms And Conditions
Clip and copy (and paste) coupon codes from wherever you can find them. Make sure you check the terms and conditions though. Compare what you’d spend without the coupon versus with it.
Compare Deals
This can be tricky sometimes, and you might need 10 or 20 different browser windows or tabs open at the same time. But, if you’re willing to bounce back and forth between websites, you can almost certainly find the best deal out there on just about anything.
That’s the nice thing about the Internet – comparing prices is relatively easy.
You have to be willing to put in the work. For example, if you’re shopping for a deal on a new set of kitchen chairs, it probably makes sense to open up tabs with Amazon, Overstock.com, Walmart, and other big box retailers. Then, compare their prices with smaller sites.
Start On Amazon
Most people should start their search on Amazon. Why? Because Amazon lists a lot of products. If the company doesn’t sell it directly, they probably have an associate who does.
And, Amazon almost always has the lowest prices. And, when they don’t, you can head to the Amazon marketplace and see if you can find the same item cheaper. Either way, it serves as a “benchmark” for pricing. If you can find it elsewhere cheaper, by all means, buy it. But, if you want to know what it should cost, head to Amazon first. Then make a decision about where you should buy it from.
Shop On Rebate Sites
This is a trick that many people just plain forget about. If you do a lot of shopping online, and you’re willing to log into a third-party site to do your online shopping, then shopping through sites like Rakuten can be a great way to save money without fiddling around with coupons.
You can’t always save money, and you have to be especially thrifty and dedicated to getting discounts and cashback through these types of sites, but it can be done.
The way these rebate sites work is that the site itself has signed up to be an affiliate with many of the major retailers. They then turn around and offer to split some of the referral fees with customers who shop through their site.
The upside is that you get a discount just for buying something you would buy anyway. The downside is that you have to click through the referral link each and every time you want to buy something.
If it’s not logged and verified, you don’t get the cashback rewards.
And, sometimes, what you can get cash back on is limited, so make sure you check the terms and conditions for the rebate site you’re shopping through.
Luke Ingram is a guy who loves to find the best deal available whether he's shopping for a car, couch, or even carrots! Called obsessive by friends and family, he is now sharing his money-saving tips with an online audience through blogging.