It used to be that the best place to get gifts was to brave the crowds for Black Friday Shopping, but more and more, retailers are really turning it up on their online savings as well. There are so many ways to get gifts for low prices and even get free shipping in some cases. Here are some tips for shopping online this holiday season to maximize your savings and most of all, make sure you get what you want.
Tips for Shopping Online this Holiday Season
Related: Using Technology to help you save on Black Friday
Make sure to calculate the cost of shipping when deciding if it’s a good deal or not. Sometimes, the price will be great, but the cost of shipping can kill any savings in the end. Always check the cost of shipping before buying as some retailers try to inflate shipping and handling costs around the holidays so they can “lower” their prices.
Look for free shipping options. You can often get free shipping codes online by just typing in the store’s name and free shipping into Google. Another way to get free shipping is to bundle some gifts together to get the offers that allow free shipping when you order $X amount.
Sign up for your favorite store’s emails. During the holiday season, some stores have one day only sales that offer free shipping, super low one day sale prices or even free gifts with purchase for a limited time. If you sign up for these early, you can often be in the know when these sales happen before others.
Shop early. Online shopping is not something you can do last-minute. While many store promise to deliver by Christmas eve, this is the time of year that the postal services are most busy and sometimes things get lost, mistreated and delayed for many reasons. Plan to get most of your holiday shopping done online by the 1st or 2nd week of December so there is plenty of time for returns, replacements and just plain time to get to your location.
Related: 9 Tips to have a Stress-Free Black Friday
Do a little research. Don’t buy from unknown retailers. Be very careful if buying from auction sites like eBay. Make sure that the company you are buying from is in the US or Canada. This is not to be discriminatory, but rather to avoid delays in shipping and a communication barrier should you need to speak with customer service. International laws vary as well on refunds and business practices and shipping from overseas can take a month or more.
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