Online shopping allows you the ease of getting
items delivered directly to your door. Not only is online shopping convenient,
but it also allows you to discover sites that help you save money while shopping.
Family Features, an online editorial site, wrote
most of this article based on the online shopping site Woot. We thought the ideas would
apply to any of your online favorites.
Beside Woot, my daughter-in-law put me on to Fabulous Fun Finds Group Steals, which can’t be all that bad with its 35,000 member base.
Credited
with being the original daily deals site, launching in 2004, Woot! makes it easy
for shoppers to save – and laugh out loud – while browsing for items they need,
want and everything in between.
Consider
these ways you can save and have more fun while you shop.
Shop daily
deals. Offering daily deals for the last
16 years, you can find staff-picked deals every day across categories including
home and kitchen, electronics, computers, tools and garden, sports and outdoors,
shirts and gourmet food. While daily deals can help you save on items you
didn’t even know you needed – such as TVs, laptops, power tools, sneakers and custom
graphic t-shirts – other household necessities are also easy to find. “Daily deals must work because I see them on
Amazon.com,” says Terrie Goldstein, publisher of Hudson Valley Parent.
Expect
the unexpected. Most
of the time when you shop, you’re looking for something you already know you
need or want, but a website like Woot! also allows you to step into the unknown
and buy a mystery box of items, referred to as a “Bag o’ Crap.” These “BOCs”
are random items that are silly, fun and can sometimes be exactly what you need
to make your day and help you save.
Join in
on the forum fun. You
can find various forums online that cover a variety of topics, including some for
the online shopping community. For example, some sites allow you to engage in discussions
on threads, swap different items, share reviews of products and more. Forums can
be a fun way to uncover more tips for saving online from other experienced shoppers.
Vote to
lower prices. Fun,
interactive features like Woot!’s Deal-O-Meter
allow you to have a say in how you save by voting to lower the prices of
upcoming deals. If a product gets enough votes, the price will be lowered.
Face off
to score deals. If
you enjoy the thrill of a friendly competition, you don’t want to miss the
Woot-Off. It’s a day-long gauntlet of unannounced deals, with new offers
launching every 30 minutes or less. Woot-Offs don’t happen often, but when they
do, you’ll want to check back so you don’t miss the super-cheap prices,
limited-quantity offers and the elusive Bag o’ Crap.
Take advantage
of special pricing. Another
fun way to get items for low prices, the WTF (Woot!’s Totally Fun-tastic) Pricing
promotion showcases limited quantities of a deal, raising the price every 10
minutes until it sells out. If you arrive quickly at the deal page, you can get
products for as low as $1.
Combine
membership perks.
If you shop online often, there’s a fairly good chance you, or someone who you
know, is an Amazon Prime member. As a subsidiary of the e-commerce site, Woot!
offers special perks to members including free shipping and exclusive
discounts.
To share in
the savings and fun, visit woot.com or download
the app.
What are
your favorite online shopping sites? (Other than supermarket shopping)
Courtesy of Family Features