Most of us shop online these days, it is so convenient! How many of us lay awake at 3 am and decide to go online shopping. A few taps later and you have bought an inflatable unicorn outfit that you didn’t need. You can shop online any hour of the day because the online shops do not close. Sometimes that makes it easier for us to spend more. But you can save money when you shop online if you are careful.
When you do shop online, make sure that the site is secure. In the corner of the website address line, there should be a closed padlock. If there isn’t a closed padlock, the website is not secure and can be compromised by hackers.
The benefit of shopping online is that you can also read reviews before you make a purchase. But it also means you won’t have your shopping in your hands for a few days, by the time it is shipped out.
Comparison Sites
Comparison sites are a great way of finding a bargain when you shop online. You can usually find them to help you buy anything from a kettle to a holiday. I use these websites all of the time before I buy something online. Although comparison websites usually do only recommend websites that they get affiliate money for. So you might not get the best deal if they do not have an affiliate with them.
Look For Discount Codes
There are always discount codes for online shopping because everyone wants your money. So always use google to look for an online discount code. It is a bit of trial and error because not all of the codes work. You will also be able to get discounts online if you have a student discount card or a blue light card. Your friends might even have a code that you can use to get a discount.
Sometimes the company will advertise a discount code on their own website. But the code will not automatically come off, it will need to be added by you.
Leave Your Shopping In The Basket
When you have decided what you want to buy, pop it in your basket and close the page down. This shows the company that you want to buy something but you are also looking elsewhere online to see if you can get a better deal. Leave it for a day or two, then they will email you saying something like ‘Did you forget something in your basket?’. They will then offer you a discount of 10 or 20% to get you back to the site and buy from them.
Sign Up To Mailing Lists
Signing up for a mailing list is a great way to make sure you save money when you shop online. Because you get to know about the sales before everyone else and you also get sent special discounts to spend online in their shop. Although the downside to this is that they will also use this email address to spam you with other stuff from their online shop too. An occasional weekly email from them is great but some are once or twice a day. no shop discount is worth all of that spamming.
You could open an email address especially to get your shopping deals, then it is kept away from your main email address. Then you can just go and find a code when you need one to shop.
Shop Out Of Season
Shopping out of season and in sales can save you so much money. Why not buy your Christmas presents in the January sales? This is something that I have done for years. You can get things at a 70% discount and save so much money. And you can use these gifts for birthdays throughout the year as well as teacher gifts and friend gifts.
You can buy summer clothes in the sales from July or August because shops need to make room for new stock. So this is the best time to shop for clothes, you can get great deals on holiday clothes.
Get Cash Back
You can use a website like Quidco or TopCashback to get a small percentage of money back when you buy something online. Not all shops are involved in this kind of thing and again it is down to affiliates. They will only recommend the websites they work with. It might take a while to buildup the cashback, but it is still worth doing it and you get a nice bit of money paid into your account.
