Right now, more people are shopping online than ever before. There are several reasons why online shopping was popular in the past, with a lot of people relying on it as a part of their regular shopping habits. Online shopping was seen as more convenient in many ways than going to the store, and it can often be easier to stay organized when shopping online, resulting in fewer impulse purchases.
Yet, as online shopping has become a part of the usual shopping experience, it’s become increasingly normalized to spend more and more while doing so. For many, this defeats the purpose when shopping online, and it’s becoming an even stronger problem now that people are spending more time at home due to the pandemic.
There is a major need for online shopping in this day and age, and not merely for luxuries, which is what we once relied upon online shopping for. In the name of safety, it’s now necessary to get everything from clothes to groceries through online shopping. However, between service fees and delivery charges, it’s easy to spend more than you expected when you first began your online search.
With about 39% of all global e-commerce beginning with an online search, a lot of people begin their online shopping without doing much research in advance. However, if saving money is important, that research is very necessary. There are certainly several tips and factors that will help shoppers save money in the long term.
1. Avoid Spam Sites
Although this may seem like an obvious tip, it’s harder to follow than some might think if you do not do that all-important research before shopping online. Where spam sites were once easy to spot, they now are much more difficult to detect. A lot of people fall prey to spam sites simply because they’re advertised on websites that they trust, which leads to them spending money on items that they think are amazing deals, only to find that they don’t receive the items they ordered; or worse, their credit card information ends up being stolen.
Spam websites offer several different potential problems, as some do offer items, but are selling knockoff items. These knockoffs are not only often illegal, but in the case of appliances or other machines, they could harm you. These spam site companies often don’t have legal liability in cases like these, and can therefore often be immune to business tort lawsuits.
It’s no wonder, in that case, that business tort lawsuits accounted for less 5% of all civil lawsuits throughout the entirety of 2017. Before ordering from a site that you aren’t sure about, make sure to double-check its reliability and look it up on sites like Trustpilot. Furthermore, if a deal looks too good to be true, it probably is. There is usually a catch when sites offer incredible prices that can’t be found through any major retailer or discount outlet.
2. Be Aware of Return Policies
When buying clothes online in particular, there is the issue of buying clothes that might not fit. Even if you have a good idea of what your typical sizes are and even your measurements, it’s always possible that a company may misrepresent the sizes of its clothing ranges, and for that matter, there are often issues regarding specific companies that ship from different countries.
Therefore, you should probably be aware of refund policies. This is a must for every purchase that you make, but especially when you’re buying clothes. You can save money by buying enough clothes to qualify for free shipping, then returning those that don’t fit correctly. If you feel a bit bad about returning items that don’t work for you, there’s no need; 2019 alone saw 119,853,012 individual refunds being made. Companies with solid refund policies were made to withstand refunds.
3. Buy Items That Were Overstocked
If you want a great deal, a lot of the same principles that you should follow when shopping offline will also apply to your online shopping habits. A lot of people spend a lot of money on specific items because they’re not buying them at the right point in time. If they buy them after they’ve been overstocked, through online outlets, they can save money; however, this requires a bit of patience. It might take a bit of time for what you want to be marked down to the extent that it should be, but ultimately you can usually expect to see a good discount if you buy from overstock websites.
4. Use Coupon Apps
Chances are that you’ve seen advertisements for apps and extensions that market in finding coupons. While you might be skeptical, you can save a lot of money by utilizing these tools. Essentially, they work by cataloging millions of online coupons, and applying them quickly when you’re about to check on during your shopping sprees. If a coupon is applicable, it will be automatically applied. This will not only save you money but also time. Normally, finding the right online coupon codes can be like searching for a needle a haystack. Extensions and apps that are coupon-oriented simply do the work ahead of time.
5. Shop Through Rebate Sites
Another great tool to use when shopping online is rebate websites, like for example Ebates. These sites essentially act as portals. Once you have an account through them, you can shop on the sites that you prefer anyway. While the items that you buy may initially be bought at full price, you’ll save money by getting money back over time. This accumulated money back is essentially a reward from the websites you shop through. While it may take money to save a significant amount of money, it does build up gradually.
At the end of the day, shopping online can result in money lost if shoppers don’t make wise decisions and plan ahead of time. But as it’s a necessary part of life. Therefore, it’s best to do it as wisely as possible.
