Friday, June 22, 2007

3 Ways To Save Money Shopping Online

More and more people are shopping online each year. The growing popularity of online shopping is easy to explain – online shopping offers greater convenience, and better prices than any other shopping method.

If you follow the tips in this article, you can take advantage of great savings available to you online.


Tip #1: Use Comparison shopping sites

Comparison shopping sites, such as bizrate, shopzilla, http://shopping.com, Froogle, Yahoo Shopping, and many others, are extremely valuable tools. Using one of these sites, you can find the cheapest online retailer for the product you wish to purchase. In most cases, the sites can calculate shipping and tax for you as well.

Plus, these comparison shopping sites offer unbiased ratings and reviews on both products and retailers, so you can be sure you're getting a good product from a dependable online retailer.

Tip #2: Use Online Markets

You can save a considerable amount of money by shopping on online marketplaces, such as Ebay or Amazon Marketplace. These sites allow you to purchase directly from individuals or discount sellers. You can often buy brand new products at steep discounts. Just like the comparison shopping sites, online marketplace sites offer ratings and reviews to help you make your decision.

Books and CDs are items that you can get especially good deals on at online market places. Electronics are not generally as cheap.

Tip #3: Sign Up for affiliate programs

If you buy from a particular merchant alot, you should consider joining their affiliate program. If their affiliate program rules allow it, you can earn a commission on all of your own purchases. Just be sure that you click on your affiliate link to make your purchase.

Of course, be sure to check the affiliate program terms of service to be sure that it's OK to make personal purchases via your affiliate link.

By: Gabriel Adams

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Getting The Best Deals From Shopping Online

By: Susan Esterbill

Shopping online is the newest trend to hit various industries, most especially retail. There is said to be an untapped market online and more and more businesses are expanding to include online sales. After all, online transactions do bring money in and it is another tool for marketing products and services.

On your part however, you may be asking as to how you can get the best online shopping deals. It really is so easy and all you need is a few pointers to get you started on this new wave of shopping. So, bring out your credit cards and warm up those PC’s of yours because you sure are going to have fun with shopping online!

How to get started

Most if not all online transactions are being done with the use of a credit card and a valid email address. To some, the concept of using a credit card is scary because of making such information available to people they don’t know and they don’t see. In addition, this is a new shopping concept and some people are not used to starting a new way of doing things.

If you are one of the people who get paranoid about online shopping, then you shouldn’t be. Although there are a lot of scams on the internet, there are more reliable businesses online and all you have to do is use your common sense in protecting yourself from such frauds.

To check if the site that you intend to transact business with is secure and is free from any third party access, all you have to do is look for a padlock icon at the bottom of the browser. If there is such an icon, you may relax because it is safe to do business with the site. An additional safety measure is to ensure that the business has a valid website address. If their website address has shifted from an http:// to having an https:// then you are sure that the business you are transacting with has made it secure for you to provide your credit card information.

Advantages of online shopping

While you cannot really touch or feel the merchandise you are purchasing through online shopping, websites are rich with pictures and descriptions to go along with other necessary info that are also made available to you in an actual store. Online shopping really is at an advanced state these days, and apart from seeing and trying out the items before purchase, you are provided with pictures instead. It may just need a little getting used to.

Finally, online shopping enables you to save on other costs such as transportation because you do the purchases in the confines of your home or office. Furthermore, it actually involves less stress and is truly more convenient for you, the shopper. Also, you don’t have to worry because there are promotions and discounts made available online. Just imagine all the shopping that you can do while you stay at home with the kids or while you are having a break from a stressful meeting at the office. Try it! Soon you’ll be hooked to online shopping.



Article Source: www.iSnare.com