Online shopping makes life easier because you don’t need to leave your house to have what you want delivered to your front porch. I really like to save money shopping online, and I especially love shopping online during the holiday season because I don’t have to leave my house, I can shop in my pajamas and I can avoid the crowds, particularly during Black Friday. If you want to know tips how to shop Black Friday deals, head over here. I almost always find just as good of deals if not better deals shopping online rather than going to the store.
Check out these 8 ways to save money shopping online that will save you money.
1. Use Cashback Shopping Sites
Use cashback shopping sites such as TopCashback or Rakuten for all your online purchases. Cashback sites are a way for you to save money every time you shop online at one of its partner retailers using a link from the cashback website. A percentage of the purchase is returned to you as a cash back rebate when you complete your purchase. Cashback shopping sites offer cash back at thousands of stores and they are free to use.
I use both TopCashback and Rakuten to shop online and like them both. I usually check to see which of the cashback sites will give me more money back on my purchase and then shop through that cashback site for my specific purchase. Here is more information about them:
TopCashback has partnered with more than 4,100 online stores. When you sign up for TopCashback, you’ll receive a $10 sign up bonus which can be redeemed once you reach the $10 minimum payable cash back threshold for purchasing an item through its site. After this first payout there is no minimum pay-out threshold. You can choose to be paid through gift cards, ACH, PayPal, Amazon.com Gift Card and American Express Rewards Card.
Rakuten is also a great cash back site with more than 2,000 stores. In addition, you’ll find thousands of coupons and promo codes from Rakuten. Every quarter Rakuten mails you a check or PayPal payment with the cash back you received from shopping online through them. Sign up with Rakuten and receive $30 cash back on your online qualifying purchase of $30.
2. Use Rewards Sites
Save money by shopping online using rewards sites such as MyPoints and Swagbucks. Start an online purchase through a rewards site and you can earn points that can be redeemed for gift cards. Rewards sites also offer multiple ways to earn money or rewards by doing tasks such as searching the web, reading e-mails, filling out surveys, watching videos, playing games, shopping, printing out coupons or completing a variety of other activities.
Once you accrue enough points with MyPoints, you can redeem them for an eGift card of your choice of more than 75 popular retailers, a PayPal deposit, Visa prepaid card or travel miles. One of my favorite gift cards is a $3 Amazon.com gift card for just 480 points. Head over here to sign up for MyPoints.
Swagbucks allows you to earn digital points called SB. You can also use the Swagbucks search engine to randomly get rewarded points for searching the web. Once you earn enough points, they can be redeemed for gift cards, electronics, apparel, household goods, and much more. If you are not a member of Swagbucks then head over here to sign up. I’ve been using Swagbucks for years, and my favorite items to redeem are the $5 Amazon gift card for 500 SB or the $3 Amazon gift card for 300.
3. Find Deals and Promo Codes on Deal Sites
Deal sites help you find promo codes, deals and coupons so you can save more on your purchases. One deal site that you’ll want to use often is DealSpotr.com. DealSpotr is similar to RetailMeNot.com, but DealSpotr keeps the deals on its site up-to-date. They have people working constantly to keep promo codes and discounts current. And on DealSpotr.com you’ll find unique discount codes for popular retailers such as Forever 21, Target, Macy’s and Bath & Body Works. Plus, you’ll find codes you won’t find on other sites such as personal referral codes and even single-use codes. It’s free to sign up and use.
Other deals sites that are popular include SlickDeals, Woot! and BradsDeals.
And two daily deal sites that regularly have great deals are Groupon and Living Social. They offer different deals each day on activities, travel, goods and services in a city for discounted prices ranging from 40 percent to 90 percent off, but the deals are only offered for 24-72 hours. This is a great way to try out a new business, purchase an activity for a date night or find activities for the family that are less expensive.
4. Get Price Drop Alerts
Keep items on your wish list in your online shopping carts because some companies, such as Target and Amazon, will send you an email alert or notification in your account when a price drops on an item that is in your online shopping cart or on your wish list. While shopping online, as you see items you want, place the item in your online shopping cart and stay logged in. If the price drops, you will get notified. Not all retailers use price drop alerts, but it is quickly catching on with retailers.
If you shop online a lot and don’t want to pay full price for items, Shoptagr is a free service that notifies you in real time when the price of an item drops, right down to your preferred size and color. You simply browse online and save products you like to your wish and watch list on Shoptagr. Then you will be automatically notified when the items you selected go on sale, are about to sell out or if they come back in stock again. And if it’s the holiday season or if your birthday is coming up, Shoptagr has a feature where you can create and share lists with friends and family to make sure you receive the gifts you want.
5. Sign up for Emails from Retailers
For those stores you love to shop at regularly, sign up for emails from those retailers. Not only will they send you a 10-20% off discount code for signing up for their emails, but they will regularly send you promo codes and discounts to your inbox.
6. Save Money on Shipping
You may find an item on sale, but it may cost a lot to ship it to you. If the item you purchase isn’t shipped free to your house, see if you can ship it to the store and then pick it up there. Both Walmart and Target (to name a few) have these options to get free shipping to the store. I do this often to save money on shipping and will pick up my purchased items while running other errands.
7. Find Deals on Amazon
If you shop on Amazon regularly, you’ll want to check out the Amazon Warehouse Deals where you will find discounts on open-box and pre-owned products such as computers and accessories, televisions, cell phones, power tools, grocery, toys, games, kitchen and dining and so much more. Plus, there is a Bargain Bin where everything is 50% off or more. This is definitely a place to find quality used products but you won’t pay as much for the items.
And keep an eye on Amazon’s Gold Box page, which features hour-long lightning sales and price-reduced items from around the site.
Before you purchase items on Amazon such as household, food or beauty products, check here to see if there is a coupon that you can use to get a discount on the item. And many products have the option to choose Subscribe & Save on Amazon, which will save you up to 15% and includes free shipping. After your products are delivered to you, you can cancel Subscribe & Save anytime or skip an order.
Another way to save money on shipping is to sign up for Amazon Prime. With Amazon Prime, you get free, 2-day shipping, as well as exclusive access to movies, TV shows, ad-free music, Kindle books, original audio series and unlimited photo storage. You can try out Amazon Prime for free by signing up for the 30-day Prime free trial here. Right after your free trial is up you can cancel it or it costs $119 a year or $12.99 per month.
8. Compare Prices Before You Purchase
Before you purchase a product, even if the company says its a good deal, be sure to take time to research and compare prices to see if another retailer has a better deal on it. It takes more time to do this, but it will ensure that you find the best price for that product. One way I compare prices when shopping online is to go directly online to the larger retailer stores’ websites who I know sell the product, such as Amazon, Walmart and Target, and search for that product online. I sometimes look at 10 websites to make sure I’ve found the best deal.
Another way to find the best prices is to type the name of the product into Google’s search bar and then click on the shopping tab. The items listed aren’t necessarily the best prices available, but you can compare them by using the price sort tab to find what stores have a better price on the product.
Since it does take time to research other websites to find the best deal, then you might like to try out PriceBlink. It’s a browser add on that searches more than 4,000 merchants for lower prices so you can find the best price. PriceBlink stays hidden until you are on a shopping site. Then when you are on a purchase page for an item, it will automatically scan other sites and let you know if you can get that item for less expensive and which stores are cheaper. PriceBlink also show you money-saving coupons that are available when you are shopping at a store, and it will alert you to price drops on products you want to purchase and when the best time is to purchase certain products.
These are only a handful of ways to save money when shopping online, but these online shopping tips are a great way to save money and to have a little extra spending money, especially around the holidays. What tips do you have to save money when shopping online?
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