| 5 Ways To Super Saving
Internet Shopping by Prasad Kopanati
5 ways to super savings when shopping on the internet. Save at least
200 dollars for 1000 dollars of shopping– that is 20% of the total
money spent. With common sense and little prudence you can save hundreds
of dollars on your holiday shopping bills. From my past experiences, I
have chosen the five best practices that will give you the maximum savings.
Peruse them, put them into action and email me your numbers on savings.
Comparison Shopping:
Gone are the days when there was no easy way to compare the price of
a product at different stores other than visiting the stores. In this
new era of cyber-shopping, there are numerous options to compare the price
of a product at different locations of the globe. With very little effort,
internet would find the best and right price, at the right store for you
to save big bucks.
A few days back, I was shopping for a Mini DV camcorder in the price
range of $500 to $700. An ardent internet shopper, I researched on brands,
their prices and decided to buy a JVC GRD200 Mini DV camcorder. It is
(may be “it was”) my belief that Amazon.com delivers the best
products at the lowest prices (It does sell the best products, but not
at the cheapest prices – at least in this case). As always, I was
poised to buy the product from Amazon.
The comparison on the price of this product (via www.shopping.com)
revealed that the product was sold as low as $299.00. With further research
I understood that the price was indeed 299 US dollars. Delaying no more,
I bought the camcorder from this seller instead of my first option –
to save only $400.
As I look back, it still perplexes me how I saved $400 on a single buy.
Does it not surprise you when you cut down 400 dollars on a single item?
Perhaps the most important thing I did was comparing the prices for this
product on www.shopping.com. It paid!
Cognizant Shopping:
As a customer, your goal is to buy the best product at the cheapest price.
Right?
You agree with me that it is not an intelligent idea to buy a product
for 10 dollars when it is sold at 3 dollars less at the near by store.
Neither do you accord it a savvy-shopping, to buy a product for 50 dollars
when its price can be reduced by 10 dollars via the special store discount/coupon
for the product.
Many of us do not realize the power of coupons. They hold tremendous
potential for huge savings. Depending on how you use them, a coupon for
10 dollars for every 50 dollars would save 40 dollars over a period of
month, assuming shopping once a week. Extrapolating, it is a 200 dollars
savings over a 1000 dollar shopping-money. A typical Christmas shopping
would amount to these numbers easily.
Although the example seems to be ideal, it resonates the ideas of retails
stores like JC Penny or Sears, whose holiday-shopping-placards read “$10
off for every $50 shopping – JC Penny”, “$35 off for
every $250 spent on electronics – Sears”. Get into the habit
of using the coupons whenever possible to appreciate the savings accumulating
into your pockets.
Selective Shopping:
Depending on which state you buy the product from and which store you
buy it from, you may or may not be charged a sales tax. If the sale is
exempted the sales tax, it is a savings of 6 percent to 9 percent of total
sale amount. Each seller clearly indicates if a sales tax would be applied
on the sale in the geographical location. Thus, a little cautiousness
would translate to a savings as high as 9 percent.
On the downside, you may have to pay for the shipping for the product
which in most cases would compare less to the total of sales tax. And,
by the way, due to the immense competition among the internet-sellers,
you may end up making a bargain by not paying the taxes and not paying
for the shipping either. Free shipping – as it is called, is common
on many internet sites these days. For an item priced at $1000 you would
save as much as $90 as sales tax savings – all you do is pick the
right seller.
Early Shopping:
Planning on shopping near the beginning of the season will give you ample
time to compare the prices on the product at various sellers. During this
process, you will form a ballpark estimate of the item.
Let me remind you that the variation of the price can be any where from
few dollars to few hundreds of dollars depending on the original price
of the product, which makes it necessary for you to do this homework as
to know the kind-of best price before you finalize on buying the product.
In addition, sellers usually hike the prices as the holiday season approaches
so that they can display higher discount-numbers on their sale-advertisements.
The higher discounts not only attract more customers but also compensate
and compete the prices for the similar items at other stores. The fact
is, even when you see greater discounts, you would not realize tangible
savings around the holiday season unless you end up getting an early bird
discount. I am somewhat reluctant to say this is true all the times, but
is the case in several occasions.
Team Shopping:
Like in a workplace, collaborative shopping produces amazing results.
You are not mandated to go to a shopping mall as a team, but exchanging
ideas and information as a team would be advantageous.
Talk to your friends about their experience buying a similar item in
the past. Gather information about the quality of the product, prices
at different stores, seller reputation, etc that play a vital role on
your buying-decision. Moreover, ask your friends and relatives if they
could share any discount coupons. If preferred customer, they would share
the coupons with you, which in turn would give you the opportunity to
cut down on the final price. Beware that some sellers distribute non-transferable
coupons in which cases you need to be creative to maximize your savings.
So finally:
These ideas only scratch the surface of the iceberg. You can get innovative
and creative to find the best deals on the market. Websites like www.techbargains.com,
www.ecoupons.com, etc are some of
the few sites that gather information about the greatest deals of the
day. Internet has many such great money-saving ideas.
Armed with this information, I am sure you would be able to craft a good
plan which would save you many dollars each shopping trip. If you are
meticulous enough, you would save at least $200 for every $1000 dollars
spent. I guarantee it. If you deny my proposition or have a different
opinion write to me and I will help you see the potential of putting the
above facts to work.
About The Author
Prasad Kopanati is the Vice President of XemanteX Inc. http://www.xemantex.com,
an internet company offering language related services. You can reach
him via email at team@xemantex.com
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