Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
How to save the most when shopping online
Search, click, buy, repeat.
That’s what a lot more of us will be doing this year as holiday shopping gets underway on Thanksgiving. For the first time in history, online purchases will overtake in-store buying, according to retail surveys.
This year, 51 percent of shoppers will be combing the internet for deals and buying online as opposed to 42 percent buying in stores (the other 7 percent will be making catalog and direct mail purchases), according to Deloitte’s 2017 holiday survey of more than 5,000 consumers. Last year, spending was evenly divided at 42 percent, not including other methods of purchase.
Another first: More than half of online visits will come from mobile devices, says Adobe Digital Insights. Online spending will top $107.4 billion, a nearly 14 percent increase from last year, too. We spent a record $94.4 billion last year.
More than half of online purchases will be made on Amazon.com.
Also, Cyber Monday is expected to be the largest online shopping day ever with $6.6 billion in sales. At the top of shopping lists: Apple Air Pods, Sony PlayStation VR and Amazon Echo and Google Home assistants.
Gone are the days when we lined up at 5 a.m. on Black Friday to snag hot deals. Now, there really is no reason to dine and dash for deals in stores on Thanksgiving.
But when exactly is the best day to get the biggest discount online? That depends on what you’re shopping for, says Adobe, which analyzed a trillion visits to 4,500 retail websites, 55 million stock keeping units (SKUs) and 12 million mentions on social media to make its annual predictions.
Thanksgiving is the best day to buy clothes, computers, video game consoles and sporting goods, including fitness trackers.
Black Friday is the best day to purchase televisions, tablets, appliances and jewelry. Cyber Monday is when to buy toys.
Giving Tuesday will yield the best discounts on pet products, bedding and furniture.
Now that you know when to buy, use these sneaky tricks and tips to save more online. Install free browser extensions. There is no need to Google coupon codes before making purchases. Get them automatically and ensure you’re getting the best prices by using plug-ins installed on Chrome, Safari and Firefox browsers, which run in the background while you surf for deals. They’re easy to install. Honey (JoinHoney.com) will find coupon codes automatically at checkout when you put items in your shopping cart. CouponFollow.com and InvisibleHand.com are also good choices.
Use free price trackers. CamelCamelCamel.com finds the best prices on Amazon.com. Enter the URL of an Amazon item and the site magically finds you the lowest price. You also can review price histories on more than 18 million products and opt to get alerts via email or Twitter. Use the free ShopSavvy.com app to scan product bar codes to find the best prices online and in stores from more than 20,000 retailers. It also offers cash back on purchases, as does Ebates.com.
Save more on Amazon.com. Sign up for Amazon Prime. If you’re not member — it costs $99 a year and includes free two-day shipping on purchases of $25 on millions of items — now’s the time to sign up for a free 30-day trial at Amazon.com/Prime. Thousands of Lightning Deals and more than 30 Deals of the Day kick off at 9 p.m. on Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday. Use the Amazon mobile app to set alerts and preview deals at Amazon.com/BlackFriday. New this year: Alexa voice shoppers get early access starting at 3 p.m. Wednesday. If a purchase is under $25 and won’t qualify for free two-day shipping, use the awesome Amazon Filler Item Finder (FillerItem.com). It compiles a list of cheap items that can be added to your cart to meet the shipping requirement. Abandon items in your shopping cart. Figure out what you want to buy, create an account (if you don’t have one) and then leave items in the cart without paying. Usually, retailers will send emails offering additional discounts and even free shipping to close the deal. Another benefit: You’ll be ready for a speedy checkout when hot deals go live. Another trick: Change the ZIP code (use Google to find them) when searching retail sites to see if you’re getting the lowest price. Many big-box retailers set online prices based on region.
Get free shipping. Paying for shipping is always a deal-breaker for me. Target, Best Buy and Bloomingdale’s are offering free shipping and returns with no minimum purchase through the holidays. Sears and Kmart ship free on purchases over $25. Walmart offers free two-day shipping with most purchases of $35 and in-store pickup discounts on online orders. Toys R Us and Bed Bath & Beyond ship free with $29 purchase; Macy’s will offer it with $49 purchases on Nov. 23-25. Also, Free Shipping Day is Dec. 15, when more than 1,000 retailers offer the service with guaranteed delivery by Dec. 24. Sign up for an email reminder at FreeShippingDay.com. If you can’t get free shipping, consider ordering online and picking up in stores, a free service offered by most retailers.
Use price matching. Retailers have generous holiday pricematch policies, but they are usually not valid on limited-quantity doorbuster deals. Still, Target, Walmart, Best Buy, Toys R Us, BrandsMart U.S.A. and many others price-match against each other, including Amazon and local competitors.
Sign up and save. Join reward clubs, sign up for mobile alerts and download apps to get early notifications of sales and discounts. Programs are free to join and you earn points for more savings. Also, follow brands on social media to unlock special savings.
Connect with me: “Like” Doreen’s Deals on Facebook; follow Doreen Christensen on Twitter, Facebook and GooglePlus; sign up for my Freebie Friday Newsletter.