How to Use Discount Online Shopping to Save

Discount online shopping used to be some rare shopping attraction some years back, but it has now become almost commonplace. Service providers use it as much as product sellers so much so that some people won’t be caught any day buying without a coupon. With that said it still requires some degree of patience and time to get the discounts as many offers last for only a few days.

So how do I save money shopping if time is an issue to me?

The following tips might help you:

1. Look for obvious discounting sites

With the development of e-commerce, not many suppliers, if any, can claim to be a monopoly. So, at any one time, the same product or service you are seeking will be out there at a discount as providers try to woo customers. So go to sites that are known to discount like www.groupon.com and others.

And while at it, visit e-bay where you can get virtually anything. It is a market place that is open to anyone and everyone and the management does not put caveats on any products. People have actually been known to sell unconventional items, like the famous ‘bitten’ sandwich of 2004 from a South Florida woman. Whereas you and I would have thought it despicable, the grilled cheese sandwich ended up fetching a price of $28 000!

2. Get into group buying

If you have to reach out to others in order to benefit from discount online shopping, then do exactly that. You can enjoy discounts on bulk buyingby being part of a social group that buys things together. This will not tie you down to shopping stores because many other service providers like restaurants are also discounting these days. What this kind of group does is get into an agreement with the outlet to pay a certain minimum, say $30 for provisions consumed within a given period. Then every group member is charged a proportion on her or his credit card until the total proportions add up to $30. If they were enjoying 50% discount (as it is sometimes), this means that the group gets to enjoy goods or services worth $60. But if the orders total less than the agreed $30, the offer fails and no credit card is charged. Discounts here are exceptionally huge obviously because you are doing customer hunting on their behalf. In short, the sellers are looking for customers as you seek lower prices.

3. Check out a non-profit discounting group of merchants in your locality

This way you stand to enjoy discounts and still promote business around your home area. You could find merchants within your locality working together; forming a cooperative and opening a website just to retain their customers.

You could also try out craiglist. Craiglist doesn’t charge the sellers a cent and so the sellers are able to dispose of their wares at fairly high discounts. Craiglist doesn’t even want to get its site littered with ads for money so identifying what you want is pretty easy.

4. Search for a discount code

If you are shopping online and you have a coupon, you have no problem enjoying discounts. But if you don’t have one, and the discount code box is on display, don’t just ignore it and place your order. Make a deliberate effort to do some code-searching which can be used as money for shopping. You can do that by opening a new tab, doing a Google search for code-aggregating sites, and see which of them has an active offer that you can enjoy. Get the code, copy and paste it on the discount code box and there you are! You will have saved some worthy dollars.

5. Remember not to confine yourself to one or two sites during discount online shopping.

There are more sites like Slickdeals that have become like home to many buyers. For many of their deals, no sooner does the seller display the offer, than it gets whisked away by an enthusiastic buyer. Keep checking: more such best discount shopping sites are coming up every so often.

Had a good experience? Know where to find a good deal? Leave us a comment or remember to share with your friends!