Want to save money on your online purchases? Then you’ve come to the right place. Here I’ll be showing you some useful online shopping tips and tricks that I use to buy products with huge discount up to 80 percent.

Since 2005, I’ve been actively shopping online and meanwhile I learned many ways to save money when buying online for example usually all online stores offer huge discounts on first order, I never miss that opportunity. Using this online shopping trick, just a few days ago, I bought items worth of $61.4 just for $27.5. This is only one, next I’ll be unveiling more online shopping tips for you.

Believe me after reading this post, you will become an expert online shopper.

Let’s first understand why should you shop online?

Online shopping is evolving at lightening speed and majority of us prefer buying online than buying from a physical store. There are many advantages of buying a product online for example you can visit an online shopping store and can stay there as long as you want and in the end if you don’t find anything worth buying then simply close the app or website.

Can you do the same at a physical store? After spending some time at an offline store, we start feeling that we’re wasting our and someone’s time. Also, you get unbelievable discounts on online shopping that you can barely get while shopping offline.

There are hundreds of online shopping websites out there and you’ve endless opportunities to save money. If you want to save money on your online purchases then try these online shopping tips that will certainly help you save real money.

Online Shopping Tips to Save Real Money

First order discount

No matter on what online store say you’re, you can avail new customer discount usually known as first order discount. As mentioned above, just a few days ago, I used this online shopping trick to save $34 or ₹2429.

If you’re going to place your first order on a store then never forget to use new customer discount coupon. This type of coupons offer additional discounts to new customers for placing their first order.

Price Comparison

As mentioned earlier, there’re loads of online shopping websites out there, which is bad for these sites, in terms of competition, but good for customers. Because due to this huge competition, these online stores endeavor to beat each other by giving huge discounts on products.

Therefore, before buying a product online, always check its price on different online stores. Buy your product from a store that is offering you lowest price on the product.

I always do the same. But never forget to buy from a reputable seller because everything available online is not authentic. In next post, we’ll publish, “tips for safe online shopping” but today we’re taking you through working online shopping tips.

Tip: Search a product on Google, you’ll be able to see price on other retailers’ sites.

I suggest you to read this guide also, ’12 common online shopping mistakes that most online buyers make.’

Showrooming

Before we jump into this online shopping tip, let’s first understand, what actually showrooming is?

The activity of visiting a physical store in order to check a product before buying it online is called showrooming.

Is showrooming ethical?

Yes, in my opinion, it’s. We’ll discuss it in another post.

It’s very beneficial and time saving online shopping trick, because this way you can decide which size should you buy and also you can check quality of the product.

So before closing the deal, visit a physical store and try the product you’re going to buy. Also, try to find the price difference. If offline store is offering you the product at equal or less price than online then buy your product from that store.

To beat online stores, offline sellers are also coming up with lucrative discount offers. They are worth considering.

Look for discount coupons

Talking about how to save money while shopping online, then how can we forget online shopping discount coupons? Nowadays, you don’t need to search for discount coupons because majority of online shopping websites automatically show you available discount promo codes.

All you need to do is just apply the one that offers maximum discount. So always read product discount section to find out available discount offers.

However, you can search for online discount coupons because some famous blogs/websites help you get special discount coupons. This is rare but you can try your luck.

Cashback

Cashback is another way to save money while shopping online. Cashback is a kind of incentive given by online retailers whereby customers get cash refund on their purchases. To encourage you shop again, online stores give you cashback offers.

If you often do online shopping then don’t miss any cashback offer opportunity to save money on your future purchases.

Once you make a purchase and opt cashback offer, store credits mentioned cashback to your online shopping wallet. This cashback is real money, you can’t transfer it to your bank account, that you can use to pay for your next order.

Add items to your wish list

One of the best online shopping tips, in my opinion. Online stores often try to trigger FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) by showing you ‘only few products are left’, ‘sale is about to end’ and the like. Don’t get trapped. Nothing you’re going to miss out. One deal goes another comes for example if you’re getting Black Friday sale today then you will get new year offer tomorrow.

This trick always works. I’ve been using this trick for a long time and it’s working for me. Of course, it will work for you too. Let’s know what you need to do?

I usually add products, that I want to buy, to my wish list and wait for price drop. I still remember using this online shopping trick, I bought Nike MD Runner 2 shoes at 60 percent discount. That was insane discount (for me).

You can use the same trick to save money. For that purpose, simply add products (which you don’t need urgently and can wait for them) to your wish list you’re interested in and regularly check prices. And when you get a great deal, simply grab it.

For your convenience, some retailers send you price drop alerts through app notifications and emails.

Add items to cart

I tried this online shopping trick and astonishingly it works (see above screenshot). This trick works sometimes, not all the times. When retailers find out that you’ve left some products in your cart then to encourage you to complete your order they send you special discount coupons.

To try this trick, all you need to do is just add some items to your shopping cart and wait for a day or two, if you’d be lucky then you’ll receive an extra discount coupon.

Read: 8 Things You Must Check Before Buying Refurbished Electronics

Dodge dynamic pricing

Do you know anything about dynamic pricing? If not, then for your information, dynamic pricing is a pricing strategy which retailers use to show different prices (for same products) to different customers according to their location, spending pattern, ability to pay and also on the basis of current demand.

Online retailers use sophisticated algorithms to know a potential customer’s price point. And using the same algorithm, they (retailers) may show you a higher or lower price compared to someone else.

I don’t support such practices. Price of a product should be same throughout a country. I understand that different countries have different taxes but offering a price on the basis of spending pattern and ability to pay is not justified in any manner.

You can use VPN (Virtual Private Network) to deceive dynamic pricing and also by using a VPN you can protect yourself against identity theft.

You can outwit dynamic pricing by using following tricks:

• Use mobile apps to make your purchases. Yes, this will help retailers to track you easily but some retailers give extra discount when you order from their mobile apps.
• Clear your browser cookies, history, and websites data. This way retailers will not be able to track your previous activities on their websites.
• If you’re using mobile app then clear app data.
• Log out of all social accounts plus emails accounts. You can skip but recommended.
• Turn off location of your device or use a developed city as your location.

Create new account

This is another way to outwit dynamic pricing. If you’re an existing customer then instead of ordering from an existing account, create a new account and order using that account.

This way retailer will not be to use dynamic pricing trick completely. Also, retailers give special discounts to new customers, as discussed in our first online shopping tip.

Before creating a new account, follow the points given in tip 5. If you’re going to register using mobile app then uninstall the app and install a fresh copy of the app from your phone’s app store.

Don’t be lazy must do that. Otherwise, you’ll not be able to see new user discount offer, if any.

Use specific banks’ cards and wallets

Over the years, many new banks have come into existence therefore to retain existing customers and to attract new, banks have come up with special bank cards discounts.

Therefore, you can get special discount if you use your bank’s card. If you’ve multiple bank accounts in different banks then always use bank’s card that helps you get extra discount.

Also, mobile wallet apps also offer nail biting cashback offers. You get huge discount or cashback on your online shopping, sometimes up to 100 percent cashback.

Therefore, if a mobile wallet is offering you reasonable discount or cashback then you should use that wallet app to pay for your order.

Use specific card issuer’s card for shopping

One of my favorite online shopping tips. Earlier, only a few card issuers like Visa, Mastercard, and Maestro, were in domination. But now many nations have started establishing their own card issuers authorities for instance India has launched a new domestic card payment scheme (Rupay) for quick domestic transactions and to reduce transaction fees.

So now card issuers luring potential customers by providing them extra discounts on their online purchases.

Recently, I bought Canon Pixma G2000 All-in-One inkjet printer. At the time of making payment, I found that on my bank’s credit card, I could get extra 10 percent discount. I’s already getting 30 percent discount and this extra 10 percent discount was like a lottery to me. So, what? Without any second thought, I availed extra discount.

I advise you never miss such offers.

Pay online avoid cash on delivery

Nowadays, cash on delivery is a preferable payment method and an online store can hardly survive without this payment method. It’s good if you’re not paying anything extra, but many shopping websites charge you extra if you opt cash on delivery option.

Always pay online using your credit card, debit card, mobile wallet, or net banking. Sometimes, retailers give you extra 2-5 percent discount if you pay online.

Shipping charges

While buying a product online, find out whether you’ll need to pay shipping charges or not. If you’ll need to pay shipping charges then visit another online store that has zero shipping charges.

Some stores have zero shipping charges if shoppers spend over a certain amount.

Subscribe to newsletters and organize your emails

In our recent post on Gmail, in which showed you how to organize your Gmail inbox like a pro, I advised you to unsubscribe from all unnecessary promotional newsletters. But here if you want to save money on online shopping then you can subscribe for them.

Online shopping sites let you subscribe to their newsletters. As a subscriber, you’ll receive exclusive promotional offers, promo codes, and lightening deals from your retailer.

I suggest you create a separate email account for online shopping and subscribe to different retailers’ newsletters.

Also, if retailer has any reward scheme then enroll for that. Such schemes let you save extra few bucks on your shopping.

Bargain

This is an effective online shopping trick if your order is going to be big.

Nowadays, bargaining is not limited to physical stores, online retailers also bargain. If you think you’re a good bargainer then just ring up the hotline and ask for discount.

If you’re going to shop for multiple products or an expensive product and currently no sale is running on the store then you can call your retailer and ask for discount. There’re 90 percent chances that retailer will honor your request.

Don’t be shy! Money saved is money earned.

I tried it. To purchase WordPress.com Business Plan (for website hosting), I contacted to WordPress.com support team and asked for discount. They provided me 17 percent discount coupon.

If I wouldn’t ask them for discount then I would be paying full amount. But with just a little effort, I saved $40 (approx.).

Price-drop refund

If you’ve just bought a new product and within a week you see huge price drop then you can ask for price-drop refund. Many online shopping websites like Amazon, refund price difference within select time period.

But these websites don’t do that own their own, you have to contact them. If you’ve ordered using your credit card then you can also contact your credit card company and it will help you get refund.

Note: Only few websites have this facility.

Start a subscription

Amazon has started ‘Subscribe & Save’ facility in which it automatically delivers products to your address on monthly basis or depending on your set period.

This is indeed a good facility. You can save your time and money by opting such facilities. Subscription facilities help you get extra 10 to 15 percent discount.

That’s all from my side. I’ve revealed my secret online shopping tips and tricks. You can try them to save money while shopping online.

Would you like to share your online shopping tips with us?