Smart Ways to Save Money while Shopping Online in 2021
Introduction
Online shopping has never been more popular. And with the new year just starting, many of you may be wondering exactly how to get the most out of retailers when shopping online.
Today, we’re going to go over five tips that will ensure you receive the best deals and nothing else.
5 Tips for Smart Online Shopping
1. Keep an Eye Out for Deals
The greatest strength online retailers offer over traditional brick-and-mortar stores (besides convenience) is the ability for shoppers to keep track of deals without needing to ask an employee, use paper coupons, etc.
Online retailers announce tons of promotional deals and discounts all the time—you just need to know when and keep an eye out. Best Buy, for example, often does midweek deals.
2. Use a VPN to Avoid Higher Prices
This past month, major video game company Valve and it’s digital storefront Steam experienced trouble when they were sued by the European Commission due to the store’s attempt at maintaining price differences between countries.
Unfortunately, Valve isn’t the only company to do this, and Steam isn’t the only digital storefront where prices differ from country to country. The reality is that certain countries pay much higher prices for the same product.
Avoiding this practice can be difficult, but a VPN can help. The way a VPN works is by routing your data through servers located in the country of your choice. This routing tricks websites into believing you’re located in another country, hence why VPNs help guarantee you the best prices. Finding the best vpn for iphone is important and there are several to choose from. Make sure to do your research online before choosing the right VPN for you as there are several to choose form.
3. Refer to Multiple Websites Before Clicking Buy
Prices differ from website to website, retailer to retailer. There are many reasons as to why this is the case, from promotional deals to mail-in rebates to stock and vice versa. But because prices differ depending on the retailer you’re checking out, you’re better off looking at the item of interest on multiple sites.
After all, the last thing you want is to buy a product only to find out it was a few dollars cheaper somewhere else. The good thing is, even if you end up doing that, there is a way to get your money back (which I’ll discuss later).
4. Look For Discount Codes
Every checkout screen has that one section that seems to go without using 99% of the time: the discount code section.
Retailers are often stingy when it comes to their discount codes. Why wouldn’t they be? No business willingly loses out on potential profit without good reason. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t dozens of discount codes floating around the Internet, waiting to be used.
There are many websites and browser extensions dedicated to sharing discount codes. There’s no guarantee the codes found on these sites will work, but it doesn’t hurt to try.
5. Take Advantage of Price Matching Policies
Most retailers nowadays—both online and in-person—possess some sort of price matching policy. A price match policy means that if a customer sees an item in-stock at, let’s say, Best Buy but is cheaper at Amazon, Best Buy will lower the price of the item to match.
Rules and limitations differ from retailer to retailer, but even if you think the item you’re looking at or the site it’s on doesn’t line up with the rules, try anyway—retailers have been lenient when it comes to price matching.
Conclusion
All in all, online shopping is pretty similar to regular shopping, except it’s much more convenient and there are plenty more ways to save some money. With these five tips, you’ll never need to spend more than necessary, and you may even be able to score deals you never thought possible!
