With the economy down, we're starting to watch our spending. Although the best thing to do is to not buy anything at all, we all know that's impossible. We all have some material needs (and wants) in life that we cannot ignore.
Online shopping has become increasingly popular because of goods being priced lower than those offered at your local brick & mortar. On top of that, more online retailers are offering deals for free shipping, and sometimes you can even get away without paying sales tax. It's also a wonderful thing for semi-asocial people such as myself. No hassle of having to deal with aggressive salespeople, and no waiting in long lines to check out. Pure heaven. Now, let me tell you about a few online resources that can make your online shopping experience much more grand.
First off, there is my current favorite: Ebates.com. Join Ebates (for free), and you'll have access to getting cash back from hundreds of online retailers. How does it work? Log into your Ebates account, click on the link to the online retailer of your choice, and start shopping! Clicking on the link activates a sort of link between your purchase and your Ebates account. The money will be deposited to your Ebates account and will be sent to you directly or deposited into a PayPal account.
There are two minor snags: 1. You have to have earned a minimum of $5 in cash back before you can see any of that money; and 2. Checks are sent to you on a quarterly basis (once every 3 months). BUT I can assure you that this service works! I joined earlier this year, and have already received checks from them. Also, in my experience, dealing with customer service when a particular purchase hasn't posted to your account has been fairly easy. Of course, the burden of proof is on you, but it's as easy as sending them a copy of your invoice and evidence that you activated an Ebates ticket for that retailer at the time of purchase (which you can easily find in your Ebates account). They also have a "Daily Double" deal, where they'll choose one retailer and double the cash back percentage for the day (I'm still kicking myself for the day I missed Shu Uemura at 10% off, plus additional coupons!!!). If you're just signing up for Ebates, be sure to tell them I referred you (enter my email at hotmail.com)! ;-)
Second, there are those AAA discounts. Of course, you have to be a AAA member in order to take advantage of this, but deals like 10% off of any Target online purchase??? Save yourself the gas money, and order those funky linens online!!! AAA deals work a little like Ebates: you have to log into your account and activate the link in order for the discount to work, but it's taken off right when you check out (no waiting for any checks).
Next, there is Retailmenot.com. This one is pretty straightforward. Type in the web address for a particular online retailer, and the search engine will bring up a list of available coupons, along with a rating of whether or not it's working and comments from other users. No membership involved.
Then, we have sites like Shopping.com and BizRate.com. Enter the name of the item you want to buy in the search engine, and these sites will bring up a list of all the online retailers selling that particular item. The best part? They also indicate who's selling it the cheapest. Make sure you check out their seller's ratings, though.
Finally, register online to become a member of whatever clothing, electronics, makeup brand or retailer you have any interest in, and sign up for their email newsletters. Most of the time, they'll send you a bunch of junk advertising the latest whatever (it might be helpful to create another email address dedicated to this stuff). BUT, every once in a while, they will send you that ONE EMAIL... The one that has the line, really small in the corner, that says "25/50/75% off all purchases!" JACKPOT!
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