Saving for Change
According to eMarketer magazine, 77% of the online population over age 13—131.3 million people—will shop online in 2007. With more and more online shopping options and the Internet’s ease of use, it’s likely that you, too, will be going online to do your holiday shopping this year. Last month’s column talked about ways to protect yourself online, and this month, we’ll take a look at some strategies that can save you money as you do your shopping (carefully!) over the Internet.
Comparison shop
The Internet offers great ways to sort through and find the best deals. Price aggregator sites abound for travel, but did you know that there are similar sites for just about anything else you might want to buy online? Electronics, books, household items – you name it. Websites like bizrate.com are great resources for comparing prices of popular gifts across many different websites. A 1 GB mp3 player will cost you $95 to $115 this week.
Don’t forget to factor in additional costs. On an aggregator site, you can usually enter the zip code you want the item shipped to and get tax and shipping information across all the online stores that offer that item. Look for sites that offer free or postal rate shipping. It’s also a good idea to do your own homework and check out the site you plan to purchase your product on to make sure that it’s reputable and that it has a return policy you can live with.
Be aware that many aggregator sites will also pull prices on refurbished or “open-box” items that can cost even less. If you don’t want a refurbished product, though, always check the details on any item you search for: a deal is only a deal if you end up with what you actually wanted.
Get a discount on top of a deal
Once you’ve decided where you want to buy your item, you may be able to get an additional discount with a coupon code. Many stores will send their customers special codes that they can then enter at checkout on the store’s website to receive a free gift, discount, or free shipping. Even if you aren’t on a store’s mailing list, you can take advantage of these coupon codes, you just need to find them.
Websites like dealcatcher.com or currentcodes.com will list coupon codes for many different online stores in a searchable list. If you decide to use a code from one of these sites, make sure you check that the code hasn’t expired and that the code hasn’t been maxed out (some codes can only be used a certain number of times before they stop working). Usually you can do this by typing in the code before you checkout of the site. It pays to have a couple of options in mind since a code might not work or sometimes a free shipping offer can end up saving you more than a percent-off coupon. Do the math and it might save you a few bucks, or even more!
Give a gift, get a gift
Giving a gift can be rewarding in more ways than one! Many airline mileage programs also offer bonuses (usually in the form of extra miles) if you shop for an item with one of their partners, and if you start your shopping process through the airline’s website. Some merchants will even give a percentage of your purchase to a charity if you shop through a special site like igive.com. Other sites, like upromise.com, can earmark a percentage of purchases made through their site to fund your child’s 529 college savings plan. Do your research before signing up with an online charitable shopping site (also called charity malls). And, of course, if you really care about a cause, the best thing you can do to benefit a charitable organization is to make a donation to that organization directly; the Internet makes this easy, too, with charitable giving portals like networkforgood.org or, locally, touchdc.org.
In the season of giving, the Internet can make your gift-shopping convenient, thrifty, and even rewarding. As with all online transactions, however, read the fine print and know who you are dealing with. Then you can relax and enjoy the holidays!
