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How to Find Online Shopping Deals
Make Your Gift Wish List
Start by browsing - either online or in real life - for ideas for gifts you’d ideally want to buy for everyone on your list. Make a list with the names of all the people you plan to buy gifts for this Christmas, and then as you browse write a few potential ideas for gifts next to each game. Of course, not everything will be available at a discount or with a coupon, so make sure to give yourself a few options.How to Search for Coupons
The first step to searching for online deals and discounts is to simply Google the object you want plus the word “coupon”. Ideally, you find many coupon sites offering discounts and you can click through them all to see which one offers the best deal.How to Search for Discounted Items
But what if none of the gifts on your wishlist are available through discount or coupon websites? Then start your search from the homepages of such well known websites as:- Dealmoon offers literally thousands of deals. If you can’t find suitable gifts for friends and family here, you won’t find presents anywhere. Site is also available in Chinese.
- Ebates also offers cash back in addition to coupons. Each available deal is labeled with the amount of cash you get back after purchasing.
- FatWallet has an active forum community to help in your search for the best deals.
- TopCashBack is an exclusive cash back shopping site for members only - you can sign up to get notifications for new deals.
Donate to Charity While You Shop
Many coupon sites also offer the option to give back while you do your Christmas shopping - an ideal choice for those looking to spread the spirit of the season during the holidays.- iGive partners with over 1,700 retailers to give an average of 3 percent of purchases towards a charity of your choice. Plus, if you don’t see the charity or cause of your choice listed on the website, you can submit the information in order to get it listed on the site.
- CouponCause donates 10 percent of their revenue to featured charities like the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank. Every month they feature a cause or charity, and a portion of the sale from every purchase you make that month goes towards one of those featured causes.
- Goodshop provides coupons for items, and labels each item that you browse with the exact percentage of the sale that will go to the listed charity, so you know exactly how much money your purchase is generating for the cause.
How to Find the Lowest Price
If you’re set on purchasing an item that apparently isn’t available at a discount through any coupon sites, you can at least find the lowest price possible by using Google Shopping. Type the product into Google, and then click on the “Shopping” tab at the top of the page. Then, click the drop-down menu on the right to choose “Sort by Price Lowest - Highest”. That way, you can rest assured you’re finding the lowest price available online.How to Find Free Shipping
Especially during the busy holiday shopping months, many sites will offer free shipping, especially on orders above a certain threshold. That means it makes sense to stick to sites like Amazon or Target where you can buy a wide variety of items for everyone on your gift list at once to save on shipping. Pay attention to two things:- Gift Receipts
- Shipping Costs
Choose Your Shopping Days Wisely
Not only will your preferred e-commerce sites run free shipping promotions throughout the holiday season, but they’re also quite likely to hold bigger discount sales at various points throughout the season - most popularly, of course, on the most notorious shopping days like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. If it’s an option for you, waiting until the post-Christmas shopping lull may also yield discounts - in an effort to boost a notoriously slow January shopping season, e-commerce sites also often run promotions early in the year. (Even if this tip doesn’t work for Christmas, it’s something to keep in mind for Valentine’s Day.) FOREO always has great discounts on Black Friday, check back next year for an exclusive online deal. So, when you’re scanning advertising banners in anticipation of the holiday season, note those advertising dates for upcoming sales. Set yourself a reminder in your phone calendar or write it down somewhere you will notice - then log on early that day to ensure you don’t miss the deals!Shop the Flash Sales
Unlike coupon sites, flash sales sites restrict their deals to a much more limited amount of time. Deal-of-the-day (also called flash sales or one deal a day) is an e-commerce business model in which a website offers a single product for sale for a period of 24 to 36 hours. So how do you find out about these flash sales? By constantly checking flash sale sites? Don’t worry, there are easier ways:- Sign up for newsletters
- Follow flash sites on Facebook
Shop Online Secondhand Vendors
Sometimes when cross-checking item prices on eBay and Amazon, you’ll find small vendors selling items at a discounted price. Often these smaller private vendors have purchased the items originally at wholesale prices or through other kinds of sales and are therefore able to offer lower prices than the bigger retailers. Under these circumstances, be wary of two things:- Shipping costs
- Quality assurance
How to Check for Quality
So how can you safely purchase an item with peace of mind that you’re getting what’s advertised to you? Of course there are no guarantees in life, but the best bet is to look at the customer reviews. Know what to look for - if a review sounds fake, it may very well be fake. If the item has a 97 percent rating, that might sound good - but if you scroll down and see there are only three reviews, two are 100 percent and sound fake, and the other is a one star review, that may be a red flag. You’re always taking a risk when purchasing an item with no customer reviews.Buy Cheaper Items from China
You may have heard that e-commerce is taking off in China, but back in Western countries we can take advantage of the low prices, too - even if you don’t read Chinese. It’s simple - just visit Chinese online megastore Taobao World. Use your Chrome browser to visit the site, and then allow Google translate to change the page into English for you so that you can navigate the site hassle-free (aside from some occasionally amusing bad translations). You’ll be surprised by how cheaply you’ll be able to purchase certain items - and the shipping isn’t that bad either. It’s much less expensive to ship from China to the US than from the US to China. Keep in mind that your risk in assuring quality is even higher when purchasing from private vendors in China - you’ll often find fake items, which may be fine for you depending on your preferences, but if you want to return an item for a refund, shipping items back from the States to China may be prohibitively expensive, and communication with the vendor who is likely to speak only Chinese may be difficult. Checking the comments on the page can sometimes help, but as with sites in the U.S., be wary of fake reviews.Safely Purchase Using a Credit Card
The safety of online shopping has improved tremendously over the years as technology has advanced to protect against identity theft and banks have improved security for credit cards. However, breaches do still occur and there are things you can do to guard against your credit card information being stolen.- Use PayPal
- Don’t store your credit card information on a site
- Don’t share your credit card information via email or social media accounts
- Don’t give more information than is needed
- Always logout of your account after making your purchase
- Avoid shopping while on open WiFi networks
- If anything goes wrong during an online transaction and the vendor refuses to make amends or outright ignores your attempts at communication, contact authorities: USA.gov, Scam Watch in Australia or Action Fraud in the UK.
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