If you are an online shopper (like most of us are these days), you are always looking for the best deals! There are a number of ways you can win on the price war without going to too much trouble. Businesses are doing a number of things behind the scenes to boost their sales and you can benefit from them. Here are a few things you can do to get the best deals when shopping online:
Here's a secret: Businesses are putting out coupons in droves, but they may not all be on their main site. In order to increase their traffic and boost sales, they often use a lot of "off site" optimization by placing coupons on other sites rather than their own. So to find these, all you need to do is type in the right search terms. For example, if you want to see if Target has specials running, you could go to Google and type in "Target coupons" or "Target specials," or a similar search term. You might also check the company's Twitter and Facebook accounts to see if they are listed there. Many coupons ARE on site but some are not. It pays to look beyond the obvious.
You can do this the traditional way, by using price comparison sites like nextag.com or pricemachine.com, or let Amazon or Buy.com give you the scoop. This is because Amazon and Buy.com claim to have the lowest prices on the web! They tend to go with the philosophy that they will charge only what consumers are willing to pay. They don't say they always do this, but their price range often does represent the average online price of many items that are "hot," and sometimes this even helps influence the market for these items. So you could purchase from them, or just check the current prices to compare.
Facebook now allows "custom ads," which are geared toward representing what shoppers have searched for previously. They are a bit annoying to some, but they help you find the items you want faster and may lead you to some of the best deals on the web.
These are three of the ways you can shop online and save in the process. Most of all, keep your eyes peeled for new savings and do regular searches both on and off site to see what you can find. Businesses are constantly looking for more ways to please their customers, so start shopping and see what deals you can find!