If you truly love shopping tips, then you know the existential dilemma that plagues the life of a shopaholic. You shop for fun, but you need money to shop, and you work for money. The more you work, the more you need fun, in the form of shopping, to balance the equation. It’s a rabbit hole, but we know how to escape it. Cheaper prices are the way to go, but without a doubt, you should never compromise on quality. These tips and tricks will show you how to get what you want at the price that you want.
Go Incognito
You might have heard about this tip before, but thought it was too good to be true. If you shop online through your browser’s incognito mode, you might get cheaper prices than if you shop using the standard browsing mode. The reasoning behind why such a strategy works is that websites price their items differently depending on your demographic, which they can get information on using cookies. These cookies contain your information, be it search history, location, or device information. How does this affect your shopping experience? If you are shopping from a developed country, chances are the item you’re buying will be priced higher than if you were shopping from a developing country. By going incognito, you prevent the website from accessing a significant portion of your information, thus giving you the default rate rather than a slightly higher one.
Click and Run
People usually think of artificial intelligence as a destructive tool that brings machines to life. In reality, we still have a long way ahead of us to create a sentient machine. For now, artificial intelligence can do tiny little things, like noticing that you added an item to your cart, then left the website. In response, it gives you a discount or an offer to make you stay. Do you see where this is going? When online shopping, add the item you want to your cart, then simply abandon it by closing the website. Within a period ranging from a few seconds to a couple of days, you should be getting an email or a notification with a discount. Keep in mind, you need to have an account in order to receive the discount, so don’t forget to sign up before you start adding to your cart.
Online Vs In-store
One of the wonderful perks of capitalism is the competitive market. In this competition we thrive, picking out the lowest prices at the best times. Of course, this was harder at first because, in order to know how much an item costs in various places, you had to do the leg work, literally. Meaning, whatever you’ve saved up on price, you’ve spent on time, effort, and transportation. Nowadays, we’re blessed with the ability to check out and compare the prices for daily essential products at the click of a button. All you need to do is determine the type of unit you want to buy, see the average price, and where you can find a close enough price. The next time you’re in a store, don’t buy straight up. Take the time to check out the item online first. There is always a better price. Sometimes on-ground stores have better prices than online stores, but the tables can easily turn. Do your research first.
Coupons
Finding coupons is an underestimated form of shopping tips. Fools are those who think you just “stumble upon” a coupon. Finding these precious discount-granting leprechauns is the result of hard work and extensive research. You’ll need to check out company pages on social media. You’ll have to look through blogs and keep tabs on the social media influencers sponsored by your target brand. Try searching for coupons directly from your search engine, too. It is bound to prove fruitful, but don’t only depend on the search engine. That said, let’s take the time to dispel one myth: you’re cheap if you’re looking for coupons. You’re not. You simply choose not to pay more when you can pay less. It’s smart. It’s what all successful entrepreneurs do.
As you see, the way to get the best quality and the cheapest price is all about knowing where to look and how the game works. Once you understand how marketers attract people by coupons and how companies make the most profit by altering prices, you can use these shopping tips to your benefit. Most importantly, don’t let anyone, even yourself, makes you feel ashamed for dedicating a lot of effort to finding the cheapest prices. Granted, buying at whatever price is available can make one seem larger than life, but why would you waste your hard-earned money on purpose? There’s a fine line between cheap and opportunistic, don’t forget that.