Top 5 Ways to Maximize Your Online Shopping Experience

Yes, Christmas will be upon us soon. You can almost feel the spirit of giving, caring and sharing in the air as the day draws near. For many of us, it would also be the time to start buying lovely gifts for our friends and loved ones, and with the amount of online shopping and product sites out there, you might be saying to yourself - “where do I even begin”?

Here are a few tips to start you off:

Tip # 1: Read aggregated product reviews with Wize.com

wize

For me, Wize.com is right up there as one of the best online resources for product reviews. It’s strength comes from it’s ability to aggregate user and expert reviews from all the major review sites such as CNet, PC World into a single location, making it a true one stop center for comprehensive reviews of any gift you are scoping out.

Tip #2: Find a gift which looks the same, but cheaper - with Like.com

From the makers of Riya, the famous photo storage site with face recognition, comes Like.com, a truly amazing search engine which features product recognition from photos.

Here’s a quick run down of key features.

  • The ability to search by image as well as text. Upload an image of something you like, and Like.com will search it’s database for a product that looks like your image. With that you can
    • Find color and design variants of the item you desire;
    • Find clothing, shoes and accessories similar to those worn by your favorite celebrities
    • Find similar looking items within your price range

Try Like.com, and both your wallet and your girlfriend will love you.

Tip #3: Get the bottom line prices with UGenie.com

If you’re searching for Books, Movies, CDs, or games, stop over at Ugenie to find the some bargains. What I really like about Ugenie is that it cuts right to the point when it comes to pricing. It will search multiple shopping sites online, and apply all the available discounts, and add in the hidden (shipping and tax) charges before presenting you with a final price, so you know what exactly you’re paying.

i.e. Bottom Line Price = Item price + Shipping + Taxes - Coupon Discounts

Tip #4: Find interesting deals & compare prices online

Personally, I find it really hard to tell which is the best price comparison site on the web because results will vary from product to product. Here are a few popular ones you can try.

Tip #5: Get free coupon codes at RetailMeNot.com

Many online stores allow for a “coupon” or “promotion” code when you order to automatically assign discounts, deals and freebies (kinda like money for nothing). RetailMeNot is a place for finding and sharing these coupon codes - and it comes with a free bookmarklet too. Does the concept sound familiar? Well that’s because it’s brought to you by the same people who did BugMeNot. Highly recommended.

And there you go… 5 solid tips to get your Christmas shopping off to a great start!

What are your favourite online shopping resources?

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    • 15 Responses to 'Top 5 Ways to Maximize Your Online Shopping Experience'

    TrackBack to 'Top 5 Ways to Maximize Your Online Shopping Experience'.

    1. Josh said,

      on December 13th, 2006 at 3:18 am

      Tip #6: Use Boddit.com. I’ve never turned back.

    2. James Yeang said,

      on December 20th, 2006 at 4:04 am

      Looks like a pretty interesting option for deals.

    3. Chris Lindgren said,

      on March 29th, 2007 at 9:58 pm

      A price comparison that aims for accurate prices http://www.spotcost.com

    4. James Yeang said,

      on March 30th, 2007 at 8:38 pm

      Spotcost looks simple and straightforward… thanks for the tip Chris!

    5. Joe Mac said,

      on May 2nd, 2007 at 9:47 am

      I’ve used retailmenot for coupons, but whatever I can’t find there, i’ve been able to find at another coupon & deal site:
      http://www.savings.com/

    6. Dave said,

      on May 18th, 2007 at 1:45 pm

      I like boddit but I think http://www.dealighted.com (a newer hot forum deals aggregator) works better at weeding out the junk deals and focusing on the hot ones. Dealighted’s homepage is addictive, I probably check it like 5 times a day because once their algorithm identifies a hot deal it gets posted to the top of their homepage, which makes nearly all of the deals there very good.

    7. Dan said,

      on May 29th, 2007 at 6:51 am

      My favorite online shopping resource is http://www.jangle.net

      What I like is the ability to sort amazon products several different ways (discount amount, price, popularity, average user rating).

    8. Dornessa Harris said,

      on June 3rd, 2007 at 12:44 pm

      Anyone who shopps online can get their own now to earn cash back. I love it.

    9. John Kensinger said,

      on June 11th, 2007 at 6:11 am

      My favorite has been http://www.dealclan.com , as the best rated deal bubbles up to the home page. I find only the best deals there, as the users post the deals which they found useful. I have posted few deals myslef after using it for sometime .

      Pretty well- designed.

    10. Carol said,

      on June 11th, 2007 at 6:36 pm

      Found one more decent coupon codes website – CouponAlbum. It’s now in my favorites. Smart shoppers should try it out.

    11. SaraLiz said,

      on June 28th, 2007 at 8:08 am

      Retailmenot.com is great, but another site for online coupons that I think is pretty great is savings.com. They’ve got an extensive list of merchants, and they seem to keep their codes current and up-to-date so you don’t have to deal with expired deals or links. Check them out if you get a minute. -SaraLiz

    12. TargetCoupons said,

      on August 11th, 2007 at 12:38 pm

      If you haven’t been to Just4Deal.com yet, go check it out. Basically, the idea is that they post the latest deals they finds on the web and lists them in chronological order starting with the most recent. These deals often involve things like multiple rebates or are special promotions, meaning you can get some things incredibly cheap. You can also sort and search for freebies, rebates, coupons, and regular offers. There’s always something you can get for free, so it’s always worth checking out some extra useless office supplies, USB keys, etc.

    13. Josh said,

      on November 20th, 2007 at 2:24 am

      Also, check out FindDealsFirst.com for great coupons and handpicked deals.

    14. Adam said,

      on November 22nd, 2007 at 12:08 am

      Great article! When I am shopping for books I like to use SmartBookFinder.com, http://www.smartbookfinder.com. They seem to know what they are doing and have some interesting features. I have saved a lot of money from that website. Cheers!

    15. dabendan said,

      on June 27th, 2008 at 11:21 am

      A nice place for Internet shoppping http://www.dealwicks.com

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