For some, online shopping seems like a luxurious experience. After all, you don’t have to leave the house and deal with traffic; you have your packages delivered to your door and only need to point and click to make a purchase. It seems unlikely that cybershopping could lead to savings, but it can, in a variety of ways.
One of the most obvious ways that online shopping can save you money is by saving you the gas and associated car maintenance costs that come with driving. It may not seem like much, but the half hour you spend in the car driving to and from the store can add up in terms of both mileage and your time, which presumably is also worth money. It may also save you money on headache medicine, if you tend to do your errands during rush hour.
Online shopping definitely does save time, and for most, time is money. If you decide that you want to buy a new DVD player, for example, you can use online price comparisons to determine which store in your town has the best price on the item. Then, you also have the option of going to pick it up yourself, but unlike regular shopping, where you either drive from store to store looking for the best deal, or get impatient and pays the asking price at the first store you stop at, with online price comparisons you know exactly which store carries the item you are looking for at the best price and whether or not the item is in stock. So if you do end up in the car, at least you are not driving around wasting more time and gas looking for the best deal.
To do an online price comparison, simply go to a site such as Yahoo Shopping or Dealplumber and enter the item that you want, in this example, a DVD player. The site will then offer you the choice of searching by brand, price range or most popular items. You choose your search terms, and the search engine will return results on a variety of DVD players from many different stores. You decide which DVD player that you want, which is becoming easier as well, since the sites offer full product specifications and even ratings and detailed reviews of the product. After you decide which player you want, you look at the stores that are selling it for the best price. Chances are, either you will save so much money by going with one particular store that you will save money in spite of the shipping costs, or you will quickly discover which store in your area carries the exact DVD player that you want for the best price. Be sure to use the feature that allows you to check and see if it is in stock. Most stores’ web pages will facilitate this.
Let’s discuss product reviews. Who do you trust more, a salesperson working on commission, or someone who has bought the same exact product that you are considering buying? Take advantage of reading the reviews that are written by other online shoppers and see if you are getting a lemon. Often, reviews can tell you about glitches that the product has, if it is lacking features and other useful tidbits of information. If several people have posted lackluster or negative reviews, you may save yourself a bundle by investigating an alternative product. On the other hand, if you see that the product reviews are primarily positive, then you can buy with confidence.
Another way that individuals use online shopping to save money is by carefully tracking items that they want on online auctions. This is not a good way to save money unless you have already done your homework on the price and know exactly what it is that you want. If you are looking for a specific item, however, an online auction can be the way to go. Be careful not to get sucked into the bidding wars. Decide how much money you are willing to pay before you ever bid, and then use an auction sniper, which is software that will bid your maximum bid (although you may not end up paying that much) during the last few seconds of the auction. That way, you do not have to be near the computer at the end of the auction, and will not be tempted to get in a bidding war. The auction sniper knows your bottom line, and will stick to it, even if you are outbid.
One thing that not many people are aware of is that you can avoid paying taxes if you shop at an online store that is not located in your state. Yes, you will still pay shipping, one of the downsides of online shopping, but often, the tax savings will cancel out your shipping costs. When you factor in the savings in taxes, gas, price comparisons, eliminating the purchase of items with unsatisfactory performance, and the time you will save, cybershopping can definitely be a sweetheart of a deal.
Source: essortment.com
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