8 ways you can make online shopping cheaper
There’s never been a better time to learn how to improve your online shopping experience, and there’s a lot to learn if you’re only just now getting into it. Online shopping has been a useful tool for everyone to use for many years now, but there’s more to it than just buying what you see – you could be saving yourself a lot of money on your purchases, and it would be wasteful to ignore that possibility. You wouldn’t want to miss out on huge savings when it could have been avoided with just the click of a button. There’s no catch here, it’s just a matter of doing a little extra work before you hit that purchase button.
Look out for sales
If you’re not in a rush, window shopping can be a great way to help you save yourself some money. Before you purchase something that you’re going to need or want later on, just hold onto your money for a little bit and wait to see if it goes on sale. Sites will hold discounts that they feel are in their best interest, so you should make sure to check each site that has that product to see if the item you’re interested in has gone on sale yet. You have a lot of stores to check, so there are bound to be sales quite frequently that interest you.
Sign up for email marketing
It might sound like you’re signing yourself up to be spammed endlessly by these online stores, but there’s quite a lot of benefit to using email marketing. You can have discounts and promotions sent right to you without even needing to do anything. If you sign up for the website and then forget about them, they may eventually email you to let you know of a discount you’ve received if you return to their store. It’s a common marketing tactic, so you should take as much advantage of that as you can.
Signing up to these sites can also be a good way to find out when there are sales that might interest you are going on, so it’s a win-win situation for you to sign up for their emails. You might want to make a separate email, though, as your inbox can get pretty cluttered.
You can also head over to deal websites like uk hot deals to check out a list of their daily deals to save you money on gadgets, appliances and more.
Forget your basket
Simply forgetting the basket you’ve been putting together on a website might sound silly, but some sites will use this as an opportunity to advertise to you. If you’ve left your basket, it shows them that you’re interested in the product, but having second thoughts. Some sites will send you email reminders that you still have some items in your basket, and these can oftentimes come with discounts on the item that you’re interested in. So forgetting the items within the basket can be a great way to get a discount later on.
Loyalty rewards
If you’ve found yourself often using the same websites, it might be of use to you to make sure you’re signed up with that site. Signing up enables that website to store information about you, not only making your next purchase more convenient for you, but you could also be getting rewards as a customer for frequently shopping with them. It might sound like there’s a catch, but this is just a business’s way to give back to their customer while encouraging your return to shop with them again. Loyalty rewards aren’t new with online shopping, but they’re much easier to access; as you don’t have to worry about making your way to said store.
Discount coupons
It might sound too good to be true, but there are often opportunities when you’re making a purchase online to enter a code. Discount codes are easy to come across, and you could find that you can reduce the price of your basket significantly just by entering a code that you find online. How do you go about getting these codes? Thanks to options like Net Voucher Codes, you don’t have to worry at all about finding your codes, as they’re there and free for anyone to access. It’s a little extra effort added to your shopping experience, but it’s worth it when you add up how much money you save.
Compare prices
One of the best parts of online shopping is how convenient everything is for you, the customer. You have access to any store that you could want to visit at any time of the day, so if you see a product that catches your interest – you can easily check the price on it on any other website that sells similar items. It’s a good way to make sure that you’re not getting sold something that’s more expensive than it should be.
You might even find that when you’re checking the other sites that you find something similar but better at the same time. It’s always worth shopping around when you find something that you want to buy.
Premium subscriptions
Sometimes saving money takes a little investment on your part. If you’re often buying from one site, in particular, it might be worth investing in their premium service to reap the benefits that they have available. If they have things like special promotions and cheaper delivery, you might find yourself saving more money than you’re spending on; and you’re getting to experience the extra benefits that come with the subscription. Amazon, for example, have their prime subscription available to all customers, and it has a large range of features that become available to you upon purchasing it.
Be patient
Being patient with your online shopping is one of the best ways you can save your money. Waiting around for sales and discounts means you’re going to have a lot more variety to pick from. It can help if you’re not in a rush to make your purchase, so if you’re shopping for gifts – you should do it ahead of time! It can also save you a lot of money to stock up when the sale is finally here, so you don’t have to wait around in the future.