How to Save Money When Shopping Online

Shopping online has become just as commonplace as going to the store and buying retail. Once upon a time many people didn’t trust the security of online shopping, but those days are long gone.

You can buy virtually everything under the sun online nowadays, and it’s every bit as secure as shopping in an offline store. The focus has shifted from ‘is shopping online safe?’ to ‘where can I save the most money?’

Everyone loves the convenience of shopping online, but that’s no reason to pay more than you have to. By following some specific tips, you can enjoy the convenience of online shopping and save yourself some money at the same time.

INTRODUCTION

Coupons aren’t only for the offline world. It’s common to stock up on coupons before you hit the grocery store or even a clothing store, but you can use them online too.

If you are shopping online at well-known retailers, there is a possibility that you may be able to get your hands on coupons to help with your purchase. Do a Google search for the store name and ‘discount’ or ‘coupon’ afterward.

If you shop often online, you might want to sign up for any kind of promotion you can find that delivers coupons to your inbox. You may have to suffer through some ads, but you’ll also save money in the end.

Simply asking for a discount code is another way that you might be able to save some money when shopping online. This may prove especially effective if you’re shopping at smaller e-stores or boutiques.

Look for Coupons

Borrowing some strategies from offline never hurt, and one of the simplest is to shop for last season’s trends and styles. Most people won’t even realize that last season has passed them by, and will only relish the savings they find.

This strategy works well if you want to find brand name styles at a good discount. If you have kids, you can often get higher quality articles and save yourself quite a lot in the process.

Shop Last Season

Email Alerts

Many different companies would like nothing more than to have your email address on file, and will gladly send you ‘deals of the day’ or similar information in exchange for it. Having coupons and deals sent to your inbox cuts down on a lot of the time it takes to seek them out yourself.

It’s common to avoid getting put on email lists, but if it’s going to result in saving money with your online shopping, it’s probably worth it. If you want to do it in earnest, set up a new email account with one of the many free providers and use only that email for online shopping deals and coupons.

Social media is good for a lot more than just finding out who married whom after high school and who is doing what this weekend.

Not only can you exchange information with other people on sites like Facebook or Twitter, but many businesses have their own pages and post deals for people like you to rake advantage of. If you become a Twitter follower or fan of a Facebook page, you might just get exclusive access to coupon codes or deals you wouldn’t have seen otherwise.

Get Social

Get a Membership

If you are heavily involved in a certain type of product, you might want to look into a membership at a shopping site that features that type of product. It will cost you some money with the membership, but if you make frequent or sizable purchases, your savings might offset the membership cost and you might save money overall.

The popularity of online shopping has spawned some new business models to simplify it all, and price comparison shopping sites are one of them. With a price comparison site, rather than search the web from site to site, looking for the best deal, you can search for the product you want over several stores at once.

This allows you to save a whole bunch of time and compare prices right in front of you so you really do get the best deal. It basically outsources the searching and sorting part, and lets you skip to the end and look through the results.

Keep It All Together