Retailers everywhere from online shops to physical stores are going to do their best to squeeze as much money as they can from you by dangling sweet deals and offers. It can be quite tempting to just go for the bait and splurge, but if you want to save as much money as you can when shopping online then you’ll want to know some of these tips and tricks that self-proclaimed online shopping professionals, such as myself, use to get the best deals and save big bucks. Everyone can utilize these tips to their advantage, no matter what your income level is.

1. Organize Your Emails

Subscribing to multiple newsletters, signing up for promotion lists, and on various coupon sites will help you easily discover the best online shopping deals. But doing so can quickly turn your email inbox into a cluttered mess. Getting multiple spam emails can even hinder your ability to find that perfect deal.

You can combat this by organizing your emails. You can either have dedicated email addresses for your coupons and newsletters separate from your main email or you can use programs such as Unroll.me. Unroll will help you automatically segregate your subscription emails and unsubscribe to the ones you no longer need. It is basically a wonderful email add-on that can declutter your inbox automatically taking away all the hassle. Unroll.me will also send one email per day that contains a summary of all your subscription emails for easy viewing.

2. Timing is Key

Knowing the best times to shop online will give you higher chances of striking the best deal. A lot of shops online tend to roll out their special deals and discounts on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and also Fridays. If you plan to shop online, you should find the time to do so during these days. According to research by the Airlines Reporting Corporation, the best day to find cheap airline tickets online is on Sunday while the most expensive day is Monday. For bookworms out there, Saturday may be the best time to shop for that book you’ve had your eye on as retailers such as Barnes & Noble and Amazon generally start their book sales on Saturdays.  

3. Be Strategic With Your Coupons

If you have multiple coupons and promo codes in hand and a website allows you to combine them, you should use them in the order that can net you the biggest savings. For example, if you have a promo code that gives you a 50% discount and also a coupon for $10 off, you should apply the 50% off discount first so that it will subtract from the full price and thus net you a bigger difference. You can then apply the $10 coupon. This way you can save more money overall. Be sure to remember to use this method whenever you can as the ability to mix and match promo codes and coupons may not be possible for every website.

4. Request for Price-Drop Refunds

If you’re a frequent online shopper, you may have purchased an item, and the following day it was now on sale. Most people would’ve just shrugged it off and accepted the loss thinking they can’t do anything about it. However, you can actually do something about it, it’s called price-drop refunds. You can contact some companies, such as Amazon, for a price-drop refund if your purchase was just made recently before the sale. Amazon will give refunds if you notify them within seven business days before the delivery date.

Some credit cards even feature price protection. Wherever the website you purchased the product from, you will get a refund for the difference if it goes on sale within a certain amount of days since you purchased it.

5. Outplay the Dynamic Pricing Strategy

You may wonder what Dynamic pricing is and we don’t blame you. Dynamic Pricing is a strategy used by online retailers and merchants to offer different prices to different types of customers depending on multiple factors such as their location, spending habits online, the product’s current demand, and even their browsing history. This is a very sneaky strategy that millions of unaware consumers fall into. Here are some ways to outplay this strategy and receive less biased prices.

  • If you’re using Google Chrome, you can switch to the incognito mode by pressing Ctrl + Shift + N, this way your browsing history and cookies do not get saved. For better anonymity, you can utilize browsers such as the Tor browser.
  • Periodically clear your browsing history and cookies. If you use Google Chrome, here is how you delete browsing history.
  • When searching for cheaper ticket prices for air travel, you can set your home in less developed countries to receive better pricing.     

Conclusion

Online shops will utilize multiple strategies and tricks to get you to keep spending on their products. However, with the help of these tips and tricks, you will be ahead of them and even save a lot of money over time. We hope that you found this article useful and good luck in finding the best deals for your online shopping.

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