How can you save dollars while shopping online?

This is a guest post. The very first one :)

Author’s Bio:

RP is a guest writer for various finance related Communities including CDFA, FCB, Debt Consolidation Care etc. She is a PG degree holder in Marketing and Finance and right now working in a reputed bank as a relationship manager. She is well equipped to write articles on credit card consolidation , debt settlement, frugality, savings, economies of states etc.


How can you save dollars while shopping online?


Online shopping save a lot of time and money. You can shop at your convenient time without having to step out of your home. However, while shopping online, you should get the best deal and save money as much as you can. Read on to know how you can save dollars while shopping items online.


Shop and compare prices before buying items


One of the greatest advantages of shopping online is that you can browse through a number of websites and compare prices in relatively lesser time. So, before ordering an item, always shop around and compare prices to get the best deal and save significant amount.


Make use of coupons and promotional codes


The online stores usually offer special deals from time to time. These stores offer coupons or promotional codes to the prolific customers or who’ve been inactive for a certain time. The codes entice the customers to shop more. You can also get these codes from specialist websites and it is advisable that you check a few of them to get the most suitable codes. You can use these promotional codes at the checkout to get special discounts.


Shop on special calendar dates

You can get discounts on some calendar dates such as on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Some websites offer certain percentage discounts on all orders on these special dates. However, the websites usually give such offers for a limited time. So, search beforehand and order items during the exact timings to get discounts and save dollars on purchased items.


Order items from websites offering free shipping


Do you know that the products are usually cheaper online but the shipping costs tend to increase the cost of items much more? Yes, it is true. To avoid it, you can search for websites which offer free shipping. However, you may have to order items exceeding a certain dollar amount in order to take advantage of free shipping cost. It may not benefit you much if you have to order more items in order to take advantage of free shipping. However, it’ll benefit you a lot if you consider buying products from a store that offers free shipping in comparison to one that doesn’t give such offers.


Use cash-back and rewards programs


Before buying any item online, check whether or not the store participates in any cash-back programs which offer about 1-25% cash back on your purchase. Some credit card companies or banks also offer such programs. Most of the companies offer a percent of cash back on purchases made in 1 year of time. Some of the reward programs may also give you discounts on some other purchase.


When you shop online by using your credit cards, try to pay back the outstanding balances in every billing cycle. Otherwise, you will have to pay an interest on the outstanding amount. This is one of the major reasons of incurring credit card debt. So, swipe your cards for making online purchases for an amount that you can manage to pay back within a certain period of time. It will help you avoid falling into debt in future.