"12 Ways To Save Money While Shopping Online"

India has come a long way from being strictly offline market to one of the most prominent online shopping markets of the world. With the onslaught of data revolution and easy availability of cheaper handsets it is becoming increasingly easier to shop online, the Shopping Revolution, in fact, has reached to rural areas of India also. So, being a part of this bandwagon, once you have decided to shop online for a specific product of your choice, there are a couple of points, which, if taken into consideration can save you a lot of money and also provide and an ear to ear grin on your face. Read on further for some subtle and some explicit points through which you can save good amount of money while shopping online and together with know the best deal of the day on online shopping sites.

1.      Stop being an impulsive buyer

When you gloss over or surf online shopping or e-commerce websites you might encounter some interesting products which would look definitely great to you in terms of appearance, colors, features etc. Most of the time, most the people buy such products based upon these considerations or some kind of mouth watering deal, however, stop for a moment and analyze, whether you will use that product in future or it would remain unused and sit in your closet for the times to come. ‘Remember money saved is money earned’ - it is your hard-earned money, stop squandering it on products, which you will not use.

2.      Concrete List of Products You Need 

In a way related to the previous point, this re-emphasizes the fact that you must make a ‘rock solid list’ of the products, which you would need, or going to use in future. Once you make such a list but are unaware regarding which brand to opt for, then you can search on various ‘price comparison’ or ‘product comparison’ websites and go for the brand which offers maximum features plus reliability. 

You can also consult your friends or other members in your circle regarding the trustworthiness of the brand which you have opted for. However, you must also remember that many a times it pays to be first mover in terms of brand testing. Decide for yourself - if you want to play it safe or want to be an adventurer? - If you decide being an adventurer, go for even a new brand also.

3.      Zero Percent EMI

This is a feature, which is now an almost regular in most of the online shopping websites. The best part about this is that you can see upfront what would be the monthly EMI for the next 6, 9, 12 months or whatever time period you intend. You can make sure via calling with the customer care that there would be 0% extra interest, so you can be rest assured and go for this option as this would in fact save you from upfront payment and scatter your payment across months, essentially saving you money.

4.      Make Use of Coupon Codes

Most of the time, we do not give due much attention to the coupon codes as a savings enabler due to the instant gratification we derive from instantly ordering the product. However, in terms of saving money this option of coupon codes can definitely help you a great deal. E-commerce companies offering the products offer these coupons on the regular interval one any festivals like Deepawali, Holi, Raksha Bandhan, Independence or Republic Day and other such occasions. Make sure to use them to save some extra bucks, which you can use elsewhere.

There are also many third party websites, which offer coupons for savings on online shopping. Remember that the simple Google search would reveal a number of third party sites websites, which would offer coupons of the e-commerce sites, which we buy products from.

5.      Use Comparison Shopping Sites

There are many trustworthy comparison shopping sites providing important information regarding features, prices, and detailed analysis as to the advantages and disadvantages offered by a product or service. Some of the sites are junglee.com, smartpix.com, mysmartprice.com, pricebaba.com amongst other. In such ‘Comparison Shopping Websites’ you will also find which e-commerce websites are giving you the best deal in terms of prices.

6.      Make Full Use of the Cash Backs and Super Cash

Remember cashback is not just the prerogative of any single shopping platform In fact, if you are not aware, there are some specialized websites like cashkaro.com and pennyful.in, which offer you cashback if you visit e-commerce websites for the specialized links provided by such ‘Cashback Websites’. It is almost a hassle free task, however, you might need to create an account with such ‘Cashback Sites’ and they would provide you the link through which you can collect your cashback via your regular purchase from e-commerce sites.

7.      Make Use of Price Drop Alerts

When you browse Internet, you must have noticed some ads regarding price drops, well! These are based on your browsing history as tracked by some specialized agencies, keeping a keen watch on your shopping patterns. You can always stop them from tracking you via tinkering with your privacy settings and with the help of some add-ons or browser extensions. However once you made up your mind to purchase a product and the brand that you want to go for (and if you are not in any kind of urgent need) then you can always go for price drop alerts on various comparison websites as well as on main e-commerce websites.

As the price of the product which you have chosen, drops, you will be intimated via email or an SMS. There are also some specialized apps specifically made for this purpose - when you can feed your brand and product in a Google spreadsheet and connect with such tracker apps, they will monitor the price drop alerts for you.

8.      Make Use of the Social Networking Websites 

Most of the prominent e-commerce websites in India maintain their Facebook and Twitter accounts on which they regularly post deals, coupons and some mouth watering upcoming sales. If you are in touch with such the social networking pages of e-commerce sites, then you may grab some interesting deals, which will definitely save you some good bucks.

9.      Learn to Play the Dynamic Pricing Game

Although not considered a regular practice among Indian websites, however in foreign countries, there have been some news reports in the public domain, which suggest that websites especially in the travel category do offer different deals to different customers based on their location, browsing and spending patterns. Because you are concerned with saving money by online medium, make sure that you turn your location access off or search via private mode in your browser, so that such websites will treat you as a new user and who knows you might get a better deal!! 

10.  Make Use of Mega Sale Days or Events

Remember the ‘Big Billion Day’ sale of Flipkart or the ‘Great Indian Sale’ of Amazon - well these are not the only two sites, which indulge in this kind of Mega Sale Events. If you take a closer look, you will find that almost all the websites hold their events alongside other e-commerce websites to snatch some customers from others. They have their own competitive reasons but these very competitive reasons serve as the advantage for customers also. So until and unless you are really in an urgent need of a product, if you can, you must wait for such Mega Sale Events, which will definitely save you good amount of money on your purchases. 

11.  Leave Your Items in Your Cart

Although this might sound a very simplest piece at once but, in fact, you really leave some of the items in your cart for a day or two or for a couple of days, you will be astonished sometimes the deals, which you will get by shopping websites. When the task is of saving money then such simple tactics can always be taken into consideration - just remember - that you are logged in to your account when you leave such products in your Shopping Cart.

12.  Search Offline Too

It is not always a fact that online e-commerce websites are the ones offering best deals on all the products. Rather the fact is, many a times you will be amazed that if you research offline, you might find a particular product of a particular brand at lesser price than what is being offered online. Remember the golden rule – we are shopping for the best price irrespective of the medium or channel of sale.