Shopping in a store at the mall is probably ranked #2 on the “things my husband would rather not do” list. (For the curious, #1 is leave the house in the winter and #3 is taste zoodles.)
As a result, he’s become a very savvy online shopper and is always sharing tips for how to get a good buy with our friends and family. After hearing him talk about these 3 websites to help people we know find deals during the holidays, I thought surely you could benefit from this wisdom, too!
In no particular order:
1.fakespot.com
I put a lot of stock in reviews. I don’t book a hotel room without scouring Trip Advisor for posts about room cleanliness and I hardly ever visit a new restaurant without checking Yelp for recent posts about food quality.
I do the same thing with products on Amazon, but more and more I’ve encountered reviews that sound generic or fake, probably planted there by the seller or manufacturer to boost sales.
Fakespot to the rescue!
All you have to do is paste the product URL from Amazon into a box on their website, hit the ANALYZE button, and voila! The site automagically analyzes all the reviews for the product and then gives the company a letter grade rating for review authenticity.
Now you’ll know whether or not those sheets on super sale are really as soft and wonderful as the reviews suggest.
2. camelcamelcamel.com
Ever wonder when the best time of month or year to buy something is?
camelcamelcamel is a free service that allows you to view the price history of a particular product and sign up to receive alerts when it drops below a certain price.
For example, I’ve been watching this Mass Kit for kids for a while. You can see by the screenshot of the chart below, now would not be the best time to buy if I want the lowest price.
3. slickdeals.net
Slickdeals is a community of deal hunters who locate fabulous deals and post them so the rest of us can benefit.
My favorite part about this site is that the posts often come with very specific instructions for how to obtain the deal (i.e. use the coupon code XYZ54) so it is super easy follow along. Because lots of other people try to get the deals, too, if something is out of stock or a deal ends, you also see that right away in the comments.
After registering on the site, you can sign up to receive alerts for deals with relevant keywords like “sunglasses” or whatever your heart desires.
The only *bad* thing about this site, is that it requires you to have a a whole bunch of self-control. There’s always a deal for something, but you don’t always need it just because it’s a super low price.
BONUS: smile.amazon.com
This is a bonus because you only need to set it up once. AmazonSmile donates 0.5% of the price of your eligible purchases to charity when you shop on Amazon from the link amazon.smile.com instead of regular amazon.com. Other than the 2 seconds it takes to pick the charity, there is no extra effort on your part and your favorite charity benefits. Win-win!
What other tips do you have for getting the best prices while online shopping?
Awesome! We just heard of the camel one from friends. i like the idea of checking fakespot thanks for the tip!