Lately, we have been shopping big ticket items only online. We recently had a baby and almost all the nursery furniture we got were bought online. We found that things are cheaper online than at retail stores. Not only furniture but, electronics and even clothes as well.
But not always you get things cheaper online. There are some exceptions. As a policy, we don’t buy food items or any perishable item online. We also don’t buy clothes online. We prefer to check them out in the fitting room before buying. so we do look for deals and discounts at the retailers as well.
There can be various ways you can have the best shopping deal for a particular product. But you need to find time to do research, price comparison, fact-check and search for deals and discounts. Let’s take a look at various methods I found useful while shopping online or off-line.
Tips for best shopping deals
Do some Research
If you want to make your shopping experience delightful then you should do some homework. You need to make research like what things are available at a very low and affordable cost for you.
This search is completely simple. You can open websites of different local and online stores just to know what they are offering. Google shopping site is a great way to compare prices at online stores. If we decide to buy things online, we first check on Google shopping, then we go to Amazon and eBay for a better deal.
Another way is to watch the newspaper ads; You can see ads of top retailers in local and international markets. You can pick the best retailers with amazing deals from ads and keep their contacts and location information saved in your shopping diary.
You can pick the best retailers with amazing deals from ads and keep their contacts and location information saved in your shopping diary.
Always Shop with Free Shipping
You need to be a smart shopper. Don’t buy from places where you can not get free shipping opportunity. If a store doesn’t offer free shipping you need to be a bit clever.
For example, you can avail free shipping facility from Amazon if you buy some specific items or place an order of more than $30. So, why not avail free shipping facility from this giant retailer online by making a purchase of only $30.
Pick Early and Pay Later
This technique helps you enjoy great shopping deals from major online stores. According to this technique, you need to add all those items, which you want in your shopping cart.
However, you don’t have to make the final payment once your cart is full. Instead, you should leave cart there for one week or two. People reported that when they empty their carts, they got deep discount deals from the online stores.
Why not avail this great deal opportunity with one simple technique? Although I haven’t experimented this technique yet.
Use Coupons and Vouchers
No matter you want to buy online or in local stores, you should find latest shopping coupon codes. These codes let you get deep-discount on every kind of shopping.
These days one of the priciest items on our weekly grocery list is the baby formula. We use Similac and fortunately, I get Similac coupons or manufacturer’s checks every time I buy one.
Those $5 off manufacturer’s checks are so handy. We perhaps saved more than $100 on formula alone by using these coupons.
Shop Early at Clearance Sale
As soon as you get alert for sale from a special store, you should rush to this store. When a store runs sale then people like to buy from it as soon as they can.
The reason is that stock is limited. If you don’t buy early then you might not be able to get good quality items. If you go early, you get a chance to grab the best items at a very low price.
Don’t be an Impulsive shopper
Always try to stick with your shopping list and budget. You don’t need to be impulsive shopper as you might waste money on a thing you don’t need. It is good to buy things you like but you should try to give preference to your budget and the most needed things.
Get Discount from Retailers
There are certain stores, which ask you to signup with email and then get special discount vouchers from them. My wife has subscribed to many such store email campaigns, mostly the stores where we buy stuff, like JC Penny, Macy’s, Carter’s, etc. It’s important to control your impulses while you go through the daily emails and look at the products that are advertised on them.
It’s important to control your impulses while you go through the daily emails and look at the products that are advertised on them.
Mobile apps have been quite handy for us lately. You can try RetailMeNot app (or other similar apps), which let you save money when you shop from the top retailers of the web.
Usually, we look for coupons in RetailmeNot only when we decide to buy a product. We don’t buy from a store just because they have discount coupons on RetailMeNot.
Readers, love to know your feedback and comments. Share what you know and tell your stories.
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