Love shopping? We can hear you say “Yes!” out loud. Shopping today has gained a whole new meaning with the Coronavirus pandemic. In fact, even before the virus outbreak, shopping trends were in motion, showing an increasing inclination towards a gigantic growth in online sales.
Facts about online buyers
As the popularity of e-commerce stores and the quality of the overall online shopping experience increased, more and more buyers have adopted remote shopping behaviors. According to research findings on digital shoppers in the US by Statista, there were already 209.6 million online shoppers in the US, in 2016. The number was projected to reach 230.5 million in 2021.
Similarly, according to another study, over 2.14 billion people worldwide were expected to buy goods and services online, whereas the number was 1.66 billion back in 2016. And now, as Coronavirus forces us to stay home, we have very few options as opposed to shopping online. Thus, those projected numbers could see an upsurge.
Online shopping is the most popular online activity for obvious reasons:
- Super easy: In the comfort of our home or office, we can buy almost anything with a few clicks.
- Time efficient: With the ease of comparing hundreds of options in just a few minutes, digital shopping eliminates the burden of getting about several physical stores.
- Less risky: Having the option of reading customer ratings and reviews, we can trust in or turn away from the products we are hunting.
- Less costly: With deals exclusive to online shopping, we can economize more.
Let’s now look closer to tips to make our shopping experience less costly:
Monitor social media, apps, and newsletters before you shop
Some brands and larger retailers offer specific discounts and campaigns across different touchpoints. Before checking out your products, make sure that you have looked into certain accounts, apps, and e-mails related to the seller. You may be missing a coupon or promotion code somewhere.
You can also encounter some contests or surveys offered by the sellers, which may eventually lead to discounts or give away. Make a list of your favorite brands and add a few dozen of new accounts to your following list on Instagram. Subscribe to community pages and download any apps from those brands.
Make your purchases on the right day
Believe it or not, prices fluctuate at a pace that is hard to keep track of. During the week, manufacturers make discounts on different days depending on their restocking schedule.
According to the findings of two blogs (extrabux.com and camelcamelcamel.com), which compared two years of historical price data from thousands of online retailers and over 100,000 different products, Monday is the best day to buy computers, electronics, TVs, cameras and video games.
Apart from consumer electronics, again according to the same data, major appliances are more budget-friendly on Sundays and jewelry is cheapest on Wednesdays.
Fight out dynamic pricing
You may have also realized that prices climb up for you, whereas your partner sitting right next to you and checking out the same product may see a completely different offer. This is due to the dynamic pricing (or, sometimes called the real-time pricing) strategy used by many retailers.
Not all customers have the same means. Therefore, some companies use algorithms or statistical data to track demand, divide their shopper base in different segments and show their products to those groups at varied prices.
There are some tricks to beat this:
- Log out of your accounts (social media, e-mail, etc.)
- Clear your browsing history and get rid of cookies
- Go incognito mode as you browse
Shop when the catalog is about to go off-season
This is a very accustomed trick, but it can still be overlooked. We sometimes find ourselves falling under the spell of new collections. We know that it could be hard to withstand new arrivals, yet if you can wait for an optimum period, i.e. 6-8 weeks, you can get a much cheaper price!
It is always a great idea to skim through the outlet selection. Outlet doesn’t necessarily mean that you will encounter off-season items. In fact, some items go right to the outlet without making their way to the seasonal collection.
Find your international shipping partner
If you are shopping across borders online, you may be scattering your money to the winds as you pay for sales tax and international shipping every time you approve your cart. By using a package forwarding solution such as Forwardme when you shop from the US, you can both save money and time.
Forwardme grants you a free postal address in the US, where you can get your packages delivered free of tax. You can either choose to be shipped immediately or keep shopping as your packages are consolidated at your US address. Then, you can simply combine all of your deliveries into one parcel and pay for a single international delivery!