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Online shopping is my weakness. It is so easy to get carried away and everything is literally available all the time. It’s not like in a store where you can’t always find what you are looking for. This girl is on a budget, but I couldn’t cut out online shopping completely. Luckily I found some ways to save extra money online shopping, so I can still shop, but save money while doing it.
Tips to Save Money Online Shopping
Use store rewards programs
A large majority of stores have special rewards and loyalty programs. Make sure you take advantage of that! Sign up for the loyalty program, what can it hurt?
Walgreens has a really good one and I am constantly getting money off my purchases, sometimes up to $20!
Try to shop at the stores that have good rewards programs first. That way you build up your rewards and are able to use them. If those stores don’t have what you are looking for, then go to a store that doesn’t offer a rewards program.
Add item to cart and come back later
This helps save you money in two different ways. First, you won’t buy as much because you will have time to think about the things in your cart.
If you come back later, you may not feel as excited about the items and can easily walk away from items. It’s a lot easier to make impulse purchases online and that can waste a lot of money.
Second, the store may send you a discount code. They want to lock in your purchase, so if you have items sitting in your cart, some stores will send you an email offering you a small discount to seal the deal.
This is not a guarantee. Not all stores will do this. Sometimes it can take hours and sometimes it can days to get an email. Sometimes you never get one, so don’t bank on it.
In order for this to work, you also need to make sure you have an account with the store and are logged in. This way they have a way to contact you with the discount code.
Use a separate email account for online shopping
If you are easily tempted by those marketing emails, get a separate account. This way you will only see the marketing emails when you want to and won’t be impulsed.
If you have a separate email account, you can sign up for newsletters and emails from everyone without having to worry about your inbox being spammed from stores.
When you are online shopping, you can just open the email account and just search for whatever store you are buying from. Then you can look at recent promotions and discount codes at that time.
Use reward apps
There are now so many reward sites and cashback apps out there, it would be a waste to not be using them.
My personal favorites are Honey, Rakuten, and Ibotta. I use Honey on my desktop. It automatically finds and applies different discount codes to my orders and find the best one to save me the most money.
I also use Rakuten on my desktop. Rakuten gives me cash back for my online purchases. They have so many different stores to get cashback from, its crazy.
Ibotta is an app I use on my phone. I can also use Rakuten on my phone, but I tend to lean towards Ibotta. You can get cash back shopping online and in-store using Ibotta. I love Ibotta for grocery shopping because I can connect my store loyalty card to my account and automatically get cash back instead of submitting receipts.
Price Adjustment
Don’t you hate it when you finally pull the trigger on buying an item and then two days late it goes on sale? Me too. Luckily there are many stores that offer price adjustment. Just email the company and ask for a refund of the difference.
Even if you don’t see anything about price matching or price adjustment, it never hurts to send an email and check. You may luck out.
Avoid shipping fees
I avoid shipping fees by only shopping about once a month. I save lists, that way I don’t forget anything. I do this so that I make sure I hit the dollar amount needed in order to get free shipping without having to waste extra money by adding things to my cart that I don’t actually need. Make sure you aren’t just adding extra items to get free shipping because you will just end up spending extra money and not really saving any.
You could also avoid shipping fees by picking up in-store instead.
Compare prices
The internet is a beautiful thing because it’s SO easily to compare pricing at different stores. You don’t actually have to drive around to find the best deal.
Even if you find an item for only $1 cheaper at a different store that will add up over time.
The Google shopping tab is a simple way to comparison shop because its all on one page, but you can also just jump from site to site.
Ask for discount code in chatbox
This is one tip that I don’t know if a lot of people think about or even know about. If you are shopping on a website that has a little chat box in the corner, where you can ask for help or get additional information, try using it.
Ask for a discount code, sometimes you will get one. They are usually only like 10% or something like that, but that’s still more of a discount than you had before!
These tips have helped me spend less money when I am online shopping and hopefully, they can help you too!
Are there any other ways you save money online shopping? I’m always looking for new ideas!
I love saving money and these tips will help everyone with saving and looking for a great deal@ thank you!!
I have never thought of asking the company itself for a discount code, especially via chat box! What a wonderful helpful hint!
I have never thought of asking for a discount code over a chat box. What a great tip! Thank you.
I have a very important goal for myself this year to buy less “wants”. We leave minimally and are pretty good about it, but I’m ready to buy even less. It’s a great way to save money, too!
Thanks for some good tips. I hadn’t thought of price adjustments or asking the chat bot for a code.
Great tips! It’s true that sometimes stores will send you a coupon to “buy what’s in your shopping cart” buy by then, I’m usually over it 😂
Thanks for this list. I am a big online shopper – just so convenient. But didn’t realize that I could ask for what we used to call “Benefit of the Sale” meaning if the item went on sale after I had just purchased it, I could go back and get the sale prices. Cool! And yes, putting things in the cart and waiting – not falling into that impulse shopping. Thanks for all these great reminders. I can imagine very helpful if you are not used to doing online shopping.
Great list, thanks for sharing
Thanks for sharing! I never thought to ask for a coupon in a chat box. Great tip!
These are great tips. And so useful nowadays. More and more people (myself included) are moving to exclusively online shopping and we still need to save money too!
I have never thought about asking for a discount code on a chat box! Great idea!
Those are all great tips! I have never heard of Honey. I will have to check that out. I don’t shop online very often but unfortunately with so many stores around me closing, I am going to have to soon. I do tend to price compare online.
Great ideas and I LOVE how you use “impulsed”! I’d never thought of that as a verb but I LOVE it!
I like the idea of putting an item in the cart for 24+ hours, then seeing if I’m still excited about it. I’d probably save a ton this way, but my son would probably still buy everything in his cart!
This is a great list, from letting items sit in the shopping cart to getting an account with Rakuten. It never would have occurred to me to get a separate email for shopping … I’ll have to think about that one!
I use the shopping cart as a storage place regularly. It often stops me from impulse buying!
These are fabulous suggestions. I will give them to my daughter-she is the shop-a-holic in this family LOL
Great money saving tips – thank you!
This is helpful! I usually just automatically go to amazon. I’ll have to look into the store rewards. Thank you
These are all really great ideas! Basic things that are easy to do.
You have some tips I never thought of. Thanks!
Awesome tips! I had never thought about the chatbox one.
Great points. I love your tip about using a different email to shop. That will really keep my everyday inbox cleaned out. Thanks.
These are great tips! I do 90% of my shopping online so these will come in handy!
You have provided some valuable info indeed. I have a new appreciation for the chat box….they’re not so annoying anymore.
These are great tips! I’ve noticed the shopping cart/discount phenomenon before. I use Ibotta, but I haven’t used the other two. I will look into those.
I like your discount code suggestion; what a great idea!
These are such good ideas. When you shop online a lot it is so easy to spend too much money so saving money is always such a good idea. I didn’t even think about asking for a code in the chat box. Brilliant!
I love finding discount codes when I am shopping online! These are great tips!
You are so right about leaving items in your “cart”. I often do it on accident and then am emailed discount codes to encourage me to purchase!
Great tips! I love any and all tips to save a little money!
Great ideas, especially the chat box and cart ones! I love Rakuten & Ibotta, I’ve saved so much money with them!
Great tips! I use the one about putting items in your cart then going back later to check out. I usually end up deleting most of the items. It works! Thanks for the post!
The majority of my shopping is done online! I love this!
Cool – I never thought to ask for a discount code in the chat box. Great ideas up there. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for the tips!
Great list! I really need a “shopping” email..that’s a great idea!!!
These are great suggestions! I use the put items in the cart and come back later tip. Often I decide I don’t really need an item.