Personally, I love shopping online. Pretty much everything I buy, outside of food, gas for my car, and basic clothing – I generally purchase online and have it shipped right to my door.
There are mainly two reasons for this… The first is that I find it very convenient for my busy schedule. Like many of you, I’m generally running from one thing to the next with barely anytime in-between to do the things I truly love, let alone shop at a local store. I would rather purchase something online and wait a few days for it to arrive, than to fit in a 30 min trip to the local store.
The second reason I shop online is that I almost always save money when purchasing online rather than at a local retailer. This has now become a cardinal truth for me that in the past I never thought was even possible. Shopping online is where many savvy shoppers nowadays save money, sometimes big money if they are diligent enough to examine some simple money saving tips.
What are those tips? Below are my 4 steps to saving money online. I use these steps regularly to save money and also provide a nice ‘cash’ kick-back on every purchase I make.
1. No Sales Tax BABY!
The first way I save money shopping online, is that I pay literally no sales tax whenever I make a purchase. This is literally impossible to do if I was purchasing at a local store. By purchasing online (such as through Amazon) I never ever pay sales tax.
I can also avoid taxes by purchasing from ‘name brand’ stores that do not have a location in my home state. This is truly the only requirement to saving money on sales tax. When you think about sales taxes, for most people in the US, this is almost always a 5-10% savings right off the top of the purchase.
Not a bad way to start saving money online.
2. No Shipping Costs
The biggest fear that most people have with shopping online is that they will have to pay shipping costs, and thus cost them more money than shopping in the store.
In my experience, shipping costs are generally not a problem anymore when conducting online shopping. First off, shipping costs are much rarer these days then they use to be. A lot of stores are eating these costs in order to increase their sales and get your business.
They know, like we do, that the customer doesn’t want to pay shipping and will move onto another business with ‘free shipping’ in order to make their purchase. Thereby, free enterprise is forcing many businesses to offer free shipping on their products. (Hurray for Capitalism!)
The second item to note is that many times shipping costs – if there are any – are less than the costs of sales taxes and discount you will get online. So, if you are paying a shipping fee, in the long run you may still be saving money online than purchasing in the store.
3. Comparison Shop
The third way I save money by shopping online, is that I get to conduct the oldest trick in the book for saving money. I get to comparison shop at ‘rapid’ speed. Many of us have parents that taught us to check the prices when shopping, and ‘shop around’ as it’s called when looking for a new purchase. (To save money of course)
Well, in today’s day and age, comparison shopping has taken on a whole new level. By using the web, one can comparison shop 15-25 different stores in less than 2 minutes and quickly find the lowest price across the board.
Many websites show not only the price of the item, but the shipping costs as well. This makes it easy to see which business is offering the lowest price including the extras. And guess what… the price is almost always cheaper than in your local “brick and mortar” store.
What can I say about EBates… I love them. Did you hear me? I love Ebates! I’ll admit. EBates has been around since 1999, so I’m a little late to the game. But thankfully I discovered them recently, and there is end to how much money you can save with them. Frankly, the more you buy online – the more “cash back” you receive.
If you don’t have an Ebates account, then get one now. It is seriously easier than subscribing to this blog. All it takes is 20 seconds to create an account with your email you are all set. Then, every time you purchase something online. You go to Ebates first to see if they have a cash rebate on it. Ebates credits this cash to your account and then distributes it to you quarterly.
No joke, it is free money and if you are not using them – you are missing out. Yes, I love Ebates! Sign up Today.
5. Credit Card Rewards
And finally, last but not least, credit card rewards. I’ve written about credit card rewards in the past, and they are not exclusive to shopping online. But they are powerful, and I personally just came back from a free vacation because of my credit card rewards.
Now, image the purchasing power when you combine all 5 of these options. No sales tax, free shipping, comparison shopping, cash back with Ebates, and then credit card rewards points. All these used together make shopping online a no brainer for saving money.
Not only will you save money in the purchasing of the products you need and love, you will receive cash back and rewards options for purchases in the future. Frankly it makes shopping much more than just parting with your money. If you are getting the rewards and cash back available to you, you are receiving much more than the product itself.
$500 CASH Giveaway
Now it’s time for a $500 cash giveaway, brought to you by Rather-Be-Shopping.com. Use the rafflecopter signup below to sign up for the cash giveaway.
A special thank you to Kyle @ Rather-Be-Shopping.com for hosting this event… If you haven’t checked out there website recently, I recommend you do so. They offer numerous coupons for saving $$ at your favorite stores and throughout the year.
Ask the Readers
Readers, what techniques do you use to save money online? Do you find that you save more money shopping online, instead of shopping in your local stores?
Jason is the founder of frugal habits - a personal finance blog about eliminating debt, saving your hard earned cash, and giving generously. When not enjoying time with his beautiful wife and two daughters - Jason enjoys the great outdoors, reading a great book, traveling the globe, triathlons, and a good cup of coffee.
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
I love shopping online and I recently got into ebay shopping! Its so fun and convenient and I love getting things shipped to my front door!
Holly@ClubThrifty recently posted..Extreme Hoarding: Pregnancy Edition…..and a Giveaway!
I love shopping online as well as I HATE going to the stores and I can do it whenever I want and basically wherever I want. I do fear though, that the sales tax issue will go away in time. California, I believe, has already done away with Amazon’s sales tax benefit and I think it’s a matter of time before we see it affect more of us.
John S @ Frugal Rules recently posted..Giveaway: An Online Shopping Tool for Frugal Shoppers
I used Amazon and Zappos a lot for the reasons of no sales tax and free shipping, but living in Cali they charge tax now. It’s still cheaper to buy online, though, and free shipping at least still exists!
anna recently posted..Financial pre-nesting? And Week 6 spending
I enjoy shopping line for many of the same reasons you listed, though I have yet to join EBates. Though store cards aren’t for everyone, I get big savings using the store credit card to my favorite retailer. Free shipping on all orders plus reward points — combine those with daily sales and I can save a lot of money. The convenience of online shopping can lead to overspending, however, so I have a separate email account for newsletters and deal alerts so I’m not hammered with marketing messages.
Kendal recently posted..Contemplating a Shopping Embargo
I like shopping online too! I like that I can use a shopping bot to find the lowest prices. I sometimes use more than one to make sure I have the lowest prices. The ease of getting coupons is great too.
krantcents recently posted..Rental Property Investing Tips
I’m all about shopping online when possible, and I always seek out discount codes and free shipping options!
Happy to co-host with you
The Happy Homeowner recently posted..Saving Money While Shopping…And a $500 Giveaway!
Those are some good tips. As far as the free shipping goes I’ve found eBay to do a great job at this.
Chris @ Stumble Forward recently posted..The Amazon Price Change – Plus A $500 Giveaway
I love ebates and shop at home. Whenever I’m online shopping I use one of the two. I typically get back at least $50-$100 per year from both sites combined, depending on how much online shopping I do.
KK @ Student Debt Survivor recently posted..How to Spend Too Much This Valentine’s Day
We do a very large percentage of our shopping online as well.. The versatility that you get and the ability to compare and find coupon codes, truly makes it worthwhile.
Jefferson @SeeDebtRun recently posted..Saving Money Shopping – a $500 giveaway!
I can’t stay away from Amazon. Absolutely adore it. Thanks for the post and the giveaway!
Tony@YouOnlyDoThisOnce recently posted..On Conquering Self Doubt (and some great weekend reads)
Shopping online is the best. One thing I wanted to mention besides the sales tax is the price of gas. If you figure the cost of getting there and back from any given store it would cover the shipping. I would rather pay 4.50 one time for shipping then 4.50 x how ever amount it would take me to get there! Great tips thankx!
Shopping online is the best
Shopping online recently posted..Electronics
Without doubt coupon codes is the best way to save money these days since the discount reward is largest and fastest to get. I would recommend CouponChief and http://www.hellocoin.com for finding coupons you need on particular store.
I found a great new way to buy online and actually save up to 20% additional: https://www.ultimatepowerprofits.com/index.cfm?c=igoshopping&username=allright1
You’ve covered an interesting topic here. I’d say another way to save money is to be an affiliate of the product you want to buy, and buy it using your own affiliate link, isn’t it another way? Many thanks for sharing the possible ways to save money while shopping online)
Evan recently posted..Great Travel WordPress Theme Collection 2013
I love onestopshoppinglist for being able to get everything from one store. If you haven’t used it you are just throwing money away! It works list this — I make a list and onestopshoppinglist.com finds the website with the lowest price for my shopping list.
Enjoy — Paula
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