Is there anything better than online shopping? You get to avoid the lines and crowds & you get it delivered right to your door! It’s pretty great.

Now, if only you could save money when online shopping… oh wait! You can! 

I’m here to help you make the most out of your online shopping experience with these money saving tips and apps that you NEED today! Want to keep this safe to read another day? Pin it for later!

Our blog posts often contain affiliate links, you can learn more in our very long (and very boring) affiliate disclosure!

6 Ways to Save Money Online Shopping

#1 – Always Clear Your History

Technology is getting pretty crazy these days and pricing in online stores is no different. Stores are able to use a thing called “dynamic pricing” to use all of your computer history to give you a price that they think you’d be willing to pay.

This means if you’re someone who makes high ticket online purchases, you’re going to be shown higher prices than someone who only makes small purchases because of dynamic pricing. Fair? Not really.

How can you avoid dynamic pricing? 

Well, the easiest thing you can do is to use an incognito browser mode or clear your browsing history and cookies. This will leave the online stores with no information to pull from and you’ll get a more fair price.

#2 – Always Find a Coupon Code

There is no reason to ever pay full price in a world of coupon code apps & chrome extensions that you can find great coupons at the click of a button. My absolute favourite chrome extension for finding coupons is called Honey.

Honey is a 100% free service (my favourite price is free!) that finds you amazing coupon codes for so many websites that you already use.

I remember my first time using honey, I was ordering $100 worth of clothes from Forever 21 and honey saved me $40. I don’t know how they did it, but from then on, I was hooked.

There are a lot of more traditional websites out there where you can search a store name and find coupon codes but honey does all the work for you. I highly suggest you try out honey for free!

#3 – Leave it in your cart

An online store’s least favourite thing to see is that you’ve left something in your cart and just walked away.

They have systems set in place where if you leave something in your cart for a certain amount of time they’re able to send you an email that usually contains a new coupon code to save you money. They want your business and they’re willing to do anything to get it!

This also helps with impulse control, leaving something in your cart for a while can often talk you out of buying it, which saves you tons of money anyway!

#4 – Get Cash Back

If you’re a returning reader of Not Quite an Adult then you probably know how much I love Ebates. Who wouldn’t love getting cash back for stuff you’re already going to buy!

How does Ebates work? Well, when you go to a website through Ebates, they get a commission for sending you to that websites and instead of keeping the commission for themselves they share it with you!

It’s really freaking awesome. Free money for buying things you already are going to buy online! Anyway, if you check out Ebates for free, you’ll be able to get lots of cash back and get a nice check every few months.

#5 – Plan The Timing Of Your Purchases

Since the stores know that most people are going to be home on the weekend, they know when people will shop. This means they’ll jack up their prices a bit on Friday-Sunday.

If you know you’re going to be making a big online purchase, you should watch the prices for the week before and see which day the price is the lowest.

You can usually find the cheapest prices in the middle of the week, usually tuesday or wednesday.

#6 – Ask for Money Back If Price Changes Quickly

We’ve all been there. You want that adorable $50 shirt for weeks and weeks, and finally, decide to bite the bullet because apparently, it’s never going to go on sale. The next day you go look at it again because it’s been shipped and you’re just so excited but the price dropped 20% cheaper.

Well, you’re in luck! Many companies are willing to give you the difference if you’ve made the purchase within a few days of the new sale price.

Why would they do that?

Well, it’s all about customer retention folks! They want you to keep coming back and buying from them. They can obviously make a bit of money even from this sale price so they’re willing to make sure you’re the happiest!

 

Final Thoughts

Saving money doesn’t have to be hard. I’m here to help! I hope some of these tips help you to save a few bucks on your next big online purchase. Thanks for reading!