Even though online shopping can be so easy and effortless (AKA shopping in your pjs at 3 in the morning), it is always a slippery slope towards spending more money than you intended. I am the self proclaimed queen of online shopping so here are my smart tips to not waste your money!
1. Ebates.
I know, I know. Everyone talks about Ebates but it’s seriously the best thing to ever happen to me. And no, this isn’t sponsored by Ebates. Essentially Ebates awards you cash back on select stores (see list of stores here) and then once you reach over $5, they deposit it into your paypal account or send you a cheque in the mail. That’s ALL. Just download the extension onto your browser and then it automatically gives you cashback when you checkout! You would be STUPID to not use Ebates. It’s free money back for doing NOTHING (except spending money oops). My brother still refuses to sign up for it so please don’t be like my brother and just sign up. I have only been using ebates for a year and I already have earned $78 cash back. That’s $78 of FREE money. Are you tired of hearing about Ebates yet? Yeah, me too. Let’s move on (but go download it).
2. Coupon sites.
I will never ever ever ever buy something full price online. Unless it’s Aritzia because I swear they never do coupon/promo codes. Before placing an online order, I always just google “[company name] [month, year] coupon code” and I can usually find something! If not, check sites like retailmenot.com, groupon.com and Honey!
3. Newsletters.
Often, if I can’t find any coupon codes online, I will resort to signing up for the company’s newsletter. More often than not, when you sign up for their newsletter, they will award you with 10-15% off or even a promo code for free shipping! I just enter in one of my throwaway email addresses so I don’t get overwhelmed with an inbox full of newsletters and collect my promo-code. Easy peasy! Also, checking these newsletters every once in a while gives you insight into great sales coming up! And often, newsletters award their readers with early sales or exclusive subscriber only sales (Forever 21 and Old Navy and Gap do this quite often!)
4. Free Shipping.
If there is one thing about online shopping that I hate, it’s paying for shipping. My mentality is that if I were to buy it in store, I wouldn’t be paying for shipping costs so I if I want hassle free online shopping, I should find a way not to pay shipping costs either. Another way to get around shipping costs is to keep items in your cart until you reach the minimum amount for free shipping. For example, Forever 21 is free shipping on orders over $50 so I will just wait until I have accumulated enough items to reach that threshold! In addition, some companies (ie Zara and Simons) have the option to ship the items directly to the store for free so I will also take advantage of that (only if the store is close and not out of my way- doesn’t make sense to save on shipping costs if you’re just going to accumulate gas costs!).
5. Wait a couple of days.
Whenever I start to shop online, it seems so much easier to spend a lot of money than if I was in store and therefore, I tend to make a lot of impulse purchases. To help stop this, I always like to leave things in my online cart for a couple of days to see if I really do like them or need them. Often, the excitement wears off and I realize I really don’t need some of the items! I always start off with like 40 items in my cart and by the end of the week, we’re down to 1 (or none) items! That’s saving me a lot of money!
6. Return Policy.
When shopping online at a store I’m not familiar with, I always make sure I check the return policy. If you can’t return the item in-store or they don’t offer free online returns, ONLY buy it if you’re 99% sure it will fit. Nothing is worse than spending $20 on a top that doesn’t fit and then realizing it’s going to cost $20 to ship it back to get a refund!
7. Holiday sales.
Always be conscious if there’s any holidays coming up when you’re about to place an online order. In the online world, holidays equal big, big sales. It’s not just Boxing Day and Black Friday that spark sales. There’s Easter sales and Halloween sales and Canada Day sales. That’s retail for you. But that’s also just another reason to love holidays!
8. Currency or Customs.
For us Canadians, customs and USD currency are a pain in the butt. I can’t even tell you the number of times I have been shopping online and I’m thinking the prices are sooo cheap and then I realize they’re in USD. Also, I find American site do way better sales and deals than their Canadian counterparts. I remember one time I was shopping on Old Navy and I was shocked because ALL shoes were 60% off and then I realized I was on the American site and when I switched to the Canadian side, the shoes were only 30% off. But it’s not only the currency difference we have to worry about. Customs/duties always play a huge part in my online shopping as well. When shopping, always check to see if you’re going to be charged customs at checkout or when you receive the package. A good rule to keep in mind is that even if a company is American, even their website ends in .ca, that means they will be shipping from Canada and you won’t be charged duties!
Now that we’ve gone over my rules of online shopping, here is a list of my favorite places to shop online with great return policies, shipping rates and no customs/duties!
