The Price Makers presents: online shopping hacks to save hundreds of dollars!
If you love purchasing things online as much as I do, you’re in for a treat, because I have some fabulous online shopping hacks for you. The convenience of this type of shopping can never be overstated. The thrill of finding exactly what you need—or a delightful surprise you didn’t even know you were looking for—delivered straight to your door is a modern marvel. But this unparalleled convenience comes with a cleverly designed trap: it’s incredibly easy to overspend. Let’s be honest, we’ve all been there.
Whether you’re comfortably sitting on your couch and mindlessly scrolling after clicking on a social media ad, browsing the Internet, looking for the perfect gift from your favorite retailer, or checking out the latest items from those stores you always shop from, it’s easier to press click and get everything you want, rather than going to the store only to go home upset that they didn’t have the item you were looking for instead. The digital marketplace never closes, and its aisles are infinitely long. This endless selection is both a blessing and a potential curse for your wallet. Retailers have perfected the art of the impulse buy, using targeted ads and enticing visuals to turn a simple browsing session into an unplanned shopping spree. The journey from “just looking” to “order confirmed” can happen in a flash, often leaving you with a touch of buyer’s remorse later on.
Whether you’re a rookie online shopper or a seasoned pro, these online shopping hacks will come in handy because you can get distracted and excited and spend hundreds of dollars in less than 5 minutes. The whole system is designed to get you to that checkout page as quickly as possible. So don’t let the convenience of clicking “add to cart” stay in your way of saving money. Taking just a few extra moments to be a strategic shopper can make a massive difference to your bank account without diminishing the fun of it all.
The goal isn’t to stop shopping, but to shop smarter. It’s about turning the tables and using the technology at our disposal to our advantage, just like the retailers do. If you want to save money and still get those items you were looking for, keep reading to discover my best online shopping hacks. Here’s how to lower those big virtual price tags and save hundreds of dollars! You’ll be amazed at how a few simple changes to your routine can lead to significant savings over time.
1. Check price history
We begin this list of online shopping hacks by saying that you should always check price history because that’s how you’ll know if you get a real deal or not. Many online shoppers don’t realize that prices can fluctuate wildly, not just during big sales events but on a daily or even hourly basis. This practice is often called “dynamic pricing.” Retailers use sophisticated algorithms to adjust prices based on demand, competition, your browsing history, and even the time of day. Checking the price history is your secret weapon against this, giving you the power to see through the marketing hype and understand an item’s true value over time.
I recommend you check out sites like PayPal Honey and CamelCamelCamel.com, which will give you historical pricing data to help you make the best decisions when buying items. For anyone who shops on Amazon, CamelCamelCamel.com is an absolute game-changer. You can simply paste the URL of any Amazon product into their search bar and see its entire price history presented in a clear, easy-to-read chart. This instantly tells you if the current price is a bargain or if it’s actually higher than usual.
Retailers will always try to convince you to click “add to cart”, making you think that you get the best deal ever with flashy “SALE” banners, but the pricing history will help you know better. Arming yourself with this data transforms you from a passive consumer into an informed one. If you want something and notice that a while ago it was sold for less, you’d better wait a little longer until it’s discounted again. Patience, in this case, directly translates into savings.
Another trick I have for you is to use Paypal Honey’s DropList feature, which sends you an alert when a product’s price drops below a specific amount you set. You can add items from many different stores to your DropList, and Honey will monitor them for you. This is proactive saving at its best—you do the research once and then let the tool do the waiting and watching for you. Discounts are some of the best online shopping hacks, so make the most of them by letting technology automate the process!
2. Compare prices
I have plenty of online shopping hacks for you, so don’t go anywhere. The next tip I have for you is to take your time to look for lower prices because this will help you save money. It’s a simple step that many people skip in their excitement to buy, but it can yield some of the biggest savings. Think of it as digital window shopping. Before you commit to a purchase from one retailer, take a few extra minutes to see if another store offers the exact same item for less.
Unless you don’t want a specific item from a specific store, it’s best to look for that product on different websites because the prices might be different from one another. For example, a specific brand of kitchen mixer might be sold by the brand itself, on Amazon, at Walmart, and through other large department stores. A quick search can reveal a surprise sale you would have otherwise missed. If you’re lucky, maybe you’ll get a sale or a coupon too.
You can easily compare prices by searching online for the name of the product and the style number, and plenty of results will pop up on your screen. Be specific in your search to get the most accurate comparisons. If you want to use a browser tool, go for PriceBlink, because this one will alert you with a pop-up if it finds your desired item on another website for less. It works quietly in the background and does the comparison shopping for you, which is incredibly efficient. Another important factor to include in your comparison is shipping costs. A lower item price can be quickly negated by a high shipping fee, so always compare the total, final cost before making your decision.
3. Look for coupons
One of my favorite online shopping hacks is using coupons to save money on my shopping sprees. Never, ever complete a purchase without taking 30 seconds to look for a discount code! Plenty of retailers offer a coupon, especially when it’s your first time shopping from them or when you subscribe to their newsletter. These codes can offer anything from a percentage off your total, a fixed dollar amount discount, or the ever-popular free shipping.
You can go to the retailer’s homepage to see if they have any coupons, or you can go directly to a deal aggregator, such as CouponFollow.com, which will organize them by store name, so you can immediately find everything you need. Other excellent resources include sites like RetailMeNot and Slickdeals, where communities of shoppers share and verify the latest codes and deals. It’s like having a team of bargain hunters on your side.
The best thing about this aggregator is that it will let you know if a coupon has been verified, so you don’t waste precious time trying one that doesn’t work or that’s expired. We’ve all felt that small sting of disappointment when a code comes back as invalid. Verified codes save you from that frustration and get you to your discount faster.
Cently is an extension from Chrome that is going to help you find coupons available for the site you’re shopping at. This will also test each code and apply the deal with the highest discount to your order automatically, so you don’t waste any time. This automation is a lifesaver. Instead of you having to copy and paste a dozen different codes to see what works, the extension does all that tedious work in a matter of seconds, ensuring you get the best possible deal without any effort.
Another thing I love about Cently is that it applies cash back, so you get rewards and savings. This is what’s known as “stacking” your savings—getting a coupon discount on top of earning cash back is the ultimate pro move. Make sure you use this Chrome extension because it will give you plenty of online shopping hacks! These tools transform your browser into a powerful money-saving assistant.
If you love coupons and jokes, I have something funny for you! This high-quality T-shirt saying “Hang on, I have a coupon for that” is a conversation starter and a good way to let other people know that you’re all about deals. It’s a fun way to wear your savvy shopper badge with pride. If you want to have a funny item like this, click here!
4. Use incognito
I can’t stress this enough, but one of the most important online shopping hacks you need to follow is using Incognito mode when you browse your favorite websites. It’s a simple click that can have a surprisingly large impact on the prices you’re shown. Many people think it’s just for privacy, but it’s a powerful tool for savings, too.
This way, you’ll have a private browsing session, which means that your browsing history will be empty, and other people using that device can’t find anything. More importantly for our purposes, it prevents websites from planting cookies that track your behavior. When a retailer’s site sees you’ve visited a product page multiple times, it might interpret this as high interest and raise the price, assuming you’re close to buying. Moreover, Incognito mode will also block third-party cookies by default, unless you don’t want that and you choose to allow them.
The reason why this is one of my favorite online shopping hacks is because it helps me save money. I’ve seen this in action myself. My wife loves Versace perfumes, and I wanted to surprise her with one for her birthday. I looked on a website and saw a price that was okay, but I decided to think about it and didn’t order right away. I was just doing some initial research.
After a couple of hours, when I went on that website again from the same browser, this time to make the purchase, my desired product had a price increase of 10 dollars. It was the exact same product, just more expensive! Frustrated, I remembered this trick, opened an Incognito window, navigated back to the site, and the price was back down to the original, lower amount. It might not seem much, but these can quickly add up, especially if you don’t pay attention to them.
Another thing Incognito can help you with is when shopping for plane tickets or hotel bookings. The travel industry is notorious for using tracking cookies to manipulate prices. The more you leave a website and enter again to check on a flight, the more you signal your intent to buy, which can cause the price to creep up to create a false sense of urgency. Always, always search for flights and hotels in Incognito mode, so keep this in mind.
5. Subscribe to their platforms
Subscribing to your favorite retailers’ newsletters and loyalty programs are great online shopping hacks to save money. Retailers want to build a direct relationship with you, and they’re willing to offer perks to do it. The majority of them are free to join, so it doesn’t hurt to subscribe and stay informed on upcoming flash sales, deals, and new items. These programs often give you early access to major sales events like Black Friday, allowing you to get the best selection before items sell out.
Other than that, plenty of retailers tend to offer a special discount code to new subscribers, so if you plan on buying something for the first time from a specific retailer, sign up for the newsletter before you do that, so you get the discount code before the purchase. It’s often a 10-20% off coupon that you’ll receive in your inbox almost instantly. Loyalty programs can also include benefits like birthday gifts, exclusive member-only products, and points systems where your spending accumulates and translates into rewards or cash off future orders.
Here’s a pro-tip to manage this influx of promotional emails: create a separate email address dedicated solely to online shopping and newsletters. This keeps your primary inbox clean and organized while ensuring you never miss a deal. When you’re ready to shop, just log in to your “shopping” email and see what offers are waiting for you.
6. Maximize cash back
Maximizing cashback is one of the most popular online shopping hacks, and it’s essentially getting paid to shop. I want to tell you exactly how it works. The first thing you need to do is make sure that your credit cards are doing their job for you, helping you get more valuable rewards that might be helpful for bigger purchases or for booking a vacation. Review your card’s benefits to see if it offers higher cashback rates in certain categories, like groceries or dining.
A flat-rate cash-back card is now one of the best options because it eliminates the need to track categories or spending limits while helping you earn more across a variety of purchases and retailers or merchants. A card that gives you a simple 1.5% or 2% back on everything is a straightforward and effective way to save consistently.
But that’s not all. You can take it a step further and use cash-back tools to increase the amount of money you get back on all of your transactions. This is where you can “double-dip” your savings. You start your shopping trip by clicking through a cashback portal like Rakuten or TopCashback, and then you complete the purchase using your cashback credit card. This way, you earn cash back from the portal AND from your credit card company on the same purchase!
You can use CouponCabin.com to help you do that because it gives cash back to thousands of online stores in a wide range of categories, such as baby goods, groceries, appliances, clothing, and electronics. The way these sites work is simple: they earn a commission from the retailer for sending a customer their way, and they share a portion of that commission with you in the form of cash back. It’s a win-win situation.
For example, Macy’s offers 2.5 percent back, Walmart offers 2 percent back, and Alberton’s offers 7.5 percent back, so there’s no need to make these online shopping hacks work for you! These percentages can add up to a significant amount over a year of shopping. Most portals pay out quarterly via check or PayPal, giving you a nice little bonus just for being a savvy shopper.
Did you find these online shopping hacks useful? The key is to turn them into habits. Start with one or two that seem easiest to you and incorporate them into your routine. Soon, you’ll be saving automatically. If you know any other hacks that might come in handy, leave them in the comments below, because you can help other readers out! Sharing knowledge helps everyone in the community shop smarter and save more.
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