Regardless of how much we deny it, online shopping is every woman’s guilty pleasure. It is much more exciting if the shopping goes with online shopping hacks!
We spend a lot of time scrolling through endless options of various online products. The convenience of ordering almost anything and everything online and having it delivered to our doorsteps is loved by all. Isn’t it?
But, with the booming e-commerce business, there are a plethora of options to browse through. It can become really exhaustive to find out what you actually want without burning a hole in your pocket. Luckily, we’ve done all the homework for you and listed down some of the best online shopping hacks.
Online Shopping Hacks To Save Money
Here are some great online shopping hacks that you can implement to save money and make amazing online shopping experience.
1. Abandon items in your cart
You may be aware of those We Miss You emails from shopping sites. Well, being patient does have its perks. If you’ll remain patient and leave items in the cart; then there are high chances that the website would make every effort possible to remind you about your pending checkout. Or, if you leave items in your cart overnight, chances are that the prices may automatically get reduced by morning.
2. Coupon codes and discount offers
This is the one of the most valuable online shopping hacks. Ecommerce websites tend to bring coupon codes and promotional rewards every now and then. The coupons are present in 90% of the shopping sites. You just have to search carefully.
Follow the social media handles of your favourite online stores. They may offer surprise deals and organise contests on their social media accounts to help the customers avail discounts and cashbacks. Also, instead of logging in as a guest, sign up on the website to avail rewards, coupon codes and early access to flash sales
3. App only discounts
Many sites like Flipkart and Amazon offer app only discounts too. So make sure to download the app of your favourite online store. There are also some cashback offers which can only be availed using these app only deals. This means that users can combine these in – app discounts along with the cashback offers and can easily save a lot of money on their purchase. A win – win situation indeed!
4. Shop on specific days
Mark your calendars! Research suggests that the best online shopping deals and sales roll out on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Weekends should generally be avoided as the prices are much higher as compared to weekdays.
5. Wait for the holidays
Among all the shopping hacks, this could be best one possibly! If you are buying a pricey item and there’s no urgency to order; then it’s best to wait for the holiday sales. For example – post Christmas sales and spring sales witness a significant decline in the prices. So, an upcoming holiday can grant you a crazy deal for the same product.
6. Live chat
Nowadays, many online shopping sites have pop up chat boxes which could really come to your rescue. You can reach out to the customer representative by dropping an inquiry about the current offers and promotional deals.
A lot of times, there are deals which are present on the website that you may not know otherwise. Plus, they may also clear your doubts regarding any size, colour or price issues. Who knows, your excellent communication skills may convince them and fetch you an unexpected discount.
7. Membership cards
If you are a regular customer of a particular brand, then it’s best to become a member of the brand and purchase the store credit card for online shopping. E-commerce Giants like Flipkart, Amazon and Myntra offer special Membership & Loyalty cards online.
These cards can prove really beneficial if you regularly shop online. Most of the cards offer the following benefits – free shipping, additional discounts, cashbacks, early access to sales and special discounts on birthdays. We promise you won’t regret it.
8. Google the product before buying it
If you are sure what to buy, then google the specific product. This is one of the great online shopping hacks if you really wanna save money. mGoogle the name and specifications of the product you wish to purchase; and google will display the prices offered by different websites for the same product.
For example – if you wish to buy a brown trench coat, then amazon may display it for Rs 2000 but myntra may offer rs1500 for the same one. You’ll save 500 bucks right there. Sounds great, isn’t it?
Online Shopping Hacks9. Avoid dynamic pricing
This is one of very popular online shopping hacks used by various travel and retail websites. When you buy online, particularly from large shopping sites that combine products from multiple retailers, sites can use location data from your browser to adjust prices to your local “living cost” as their algorithms understand it.
This feature is known as dynamic pricing and it shows different prices to different people based on their location, browsing and spending patterns, and current demand of the product. To get a less biased and a relatively cheaper price, you should do the following:
- Clear your browsing history and cache/cookies
- Log out of all your accounts (email, Google+, Facebook, etc.)
- Switch to incognito mode while shopping
10. Avail free shipping
Finding a great deal on your favorite product and then getting a hefty shipping price is honestly heartbreaking. While some websites do offer free shipping but most of them charge a minimum amount on your total purchase.
One way to avoid it is to do bulk purchasing. I know this may be a little extra but if there’s free shipping, you might as well take advantage of the situation. At Least you’ll get to purchase your favorite goodies. You can also return the extra goods afterwards if you want. Saving a little extra money is not as difficult as you think. Hopefully, these online shopping hacks would save you some extra bucks before you hit ‘checkout’.
Happy shopping ladies!
Also Read: 10 Online Shopping Hacks
