Online Shopping Discounts
Saving money is something that everyone is interested in, and because of this many sites have been created to help shoppers find good deals on the products they want to buy. Here's the scoop on the best price comparison websites, and where to find killer coupons for online deals... |
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Compare Prices and Save With Online Coupon Codes
So you're just about the hit the Buy Now button, and that little voice says: "Are you sure you're getting the best possible deal on this purchase?" You'd be smart to listen to the little voice, because if you haven't done your research with a price comparison search engine, or looked for an online coupon or discount code, you're probably paying more than you should.
You won't always find a better deal, but in many cases online retailers offer discounts or coupons that you'll never know about unless you look for them. Sometimes you'll even luck out and find a great deal and a coupon code. You could end up saving quite a bit of cash, especially if you're buying a big ticket item. Here are some online price comparison search engines for shoppers and some recommended places to find coupon codes for Internet shopping.
Price Comparison Websites
Price comparison websites are basically shopping search engines. Generally you just enter what you are looking for and a listing of vendors is generated, as are lists of pricing information and product reviews. If multiple stores are offering the same item, you can quickly find out who has the lowest price, what the shipping charges will be, and the reputation of the store. Here are some of the most popular price comparison sites:
- BizRate is one of the oldest and most respected price comparison website around. It allows you to search for products by category or keyword. This site is popular because in addition to offering you a price comparison by vendor, it also offers you consumer reviews and ratings of products and stores. Other popular features offered by BizRate are informative articles on shopping and shopping trend lists. For example you can click on a city and see what shoppers from that city are shopping for the most.
- Shopping.com was a pioneer in online comparison shopping and today offers price data from thousands of trusted stores from across the Web. Shopping.com offers shoppers easy-to-use search tools, along with millions of unbiased product and merchant reviews from the Epinions community, all in one place.
- Like.com is a unique price comparison website. This site utilizes visual search engine technology in lieu of keyword searches. This means that the user clicks on a picture of what they are interested in, in order to generate a listing of similar products. In addition to searching for items by visual cues, you can also search by specific features that you want, such as toggle buttons, zippers or belts. One feature that is in development for this site is the ability to upload your own photograph to the Like.com system and use this graphic to search for similar items.
- NexTag is another very popular price comparison website. This site offers several great features that make researching purchases easier to do. For example, you can set up a price alert tracker so that you are notified when an item you are interested in goes on sale or is listed for a specific price. Another popular feature is that you can create and save shopping lists. This will speed up your research, especially when looking for gift items.
Coupon Sites
Coupon clipping is a time honored tradition. However, in the past coupon clipping relied heavily on what was printed in local media sources like newspapers and flyers. Today traditional coupon distribution has been supplemented by online coupon websites like the ones below.
Coupon websites are generally free, and allow you to search for coupons and online shopping discount codes by product or by vendor. When you find one you're interested in you either click a link that takes you directly to the store, or write down the code to use at checkout.
- Coupon Surfer is a coupon website that offers both printable coupons and discount codes for online stores. In order to use this site you will need to sign up for a free membership. Then you can search for grocery coupons, clothing coupons and dining coupons. You can browse by keyword, product or store. This site has been online for ten years and has a good reputation for providing quality coupons.
- Retail Me Not is a coupon site that specializes in online store discount codes. To use this site you enter the name of the online store you want to shop at and then write down the codes for the discounts that you want to use. This site has codes for over 20,000 online stores including Victorias Secret, Amazon.com, AE.com, Ebay.com and PapaJohns.com.
- Cool Savings is one of the pioneers of the coupon site. This site requires coupon hunters to sign up for a free membership before they search and print out coupons. This is a relatively painless process that can be completed in a few minutes. Once a member, the user will be able to search for coupons for free samples, free items, grocery coupons, travel coupons, pet coupons and baby coupons. As you find coupons you are interested in you click on a check box next to it. When you are done hunting for coupons you click on a print icon and all of your coupons are printed out on your laser or inkjet printer.
- Coupon Cabin is another well respected coupon website. This site offers both printable coupons and discount codes for online stores like Target, HomeDepot and Zappos. What is unique about this site is that you can sign up for a weekly coupon alert that is sent to your email on Mondays. This alert lists all the new coupons that have been added to the database.
You may be wondering why these shopping search engines and coupon websites exist. Are they run by humanitarians who just want to help people get a good deal? That's hardly the case. In most cases, the links you follow from these sites are affiliate deals that give the owners of the price comparison or coupon sites a commission on any sales that result. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that. Most large companies have affiliate programs, and they are happy to give a slice of their profits to savvy marketers who bring customers to their doors. But if you take my advice and use one of the sites recommended here, I won't make a penny. Just so you know...
Do you have a favorite shopping search engine or coupon code website that's not listed here? Post a comment and tell us about it...
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This article was posted by Bob Rankin on 26 Nov 2008
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Most recent comments on "Online Shopping Discounts"
Posted by:
MmeMoxie
26 Nov 2008
I have used the above, but, am still a big fan of PriceWatcher, one of the originals. I usually check out PriceWatcher first and then, go from there. Must note, less ads on PriceWatcher than the other sites. Not big on coupon savings. Those sites frequently want you to 'join' and then you are 'spammed', least wise that has been my experience.
Posted by:
TimO
27 Nov 2008
For computers & electronics, I also like pricewatch.com (NO "er"). Also, Pricegrabber is very similar to nextag; but, make sure to read seller reviews, especially on the lowest price shown for a given item. I also like buy.com and Amazon.com, both sites are very reputable and list others' prices as well as their own.
There is another type of site (e.g. edealinfo.com and deals2buy.com) that actually do research on special deals, some of which are creative.
Posted by:
The Censor
30 Nov 2008
Buying from a reputable store is just as important as getting the lowerst price. for that I use http://resellerratings.com
also try http://headlinedeals.com that lists items that are on sale. search for the keyword 'hot!' for the best deals. also I use shopzilla.com
Posted by:
The Censor
30 Nov 2008
Forgot to add http://froogle.com
Posted by:
Allan Brockman
01 Dec 2008
I think you need to really re-look at these sites. nextag and Shopping simply lead you to the best of a limited number of sites. THEY DO NOT FIND THE BEST ONLINE PRICES!! That is the way search engines used to function.
If you want an interesting comparison, go to the manufacturer's website and search out online retailers. Check those retailers and you'll find some big and very pleasant surprises. The only good way to get lowest prices anymore is to maintain your own database of good, low price sites and then check them.
Most of these so-called comparison sites are CRAP!
Also, you might try Fat Wallet and SearchAllDeals.com
If you are going to produce an article like this, please do your due diligence.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Okay, the sites I recommend are crap, but the ones you recommend are great. Got it, thanks. I'll try to remember that for next time.
Posted by:
retired2AZ
01 Dec 2008
I also like Naughty Codes to check and see what discounts stores are offering. See http://naughtycodes.com/
Posted by:
Allan Brockman
02 Dec 2008
My, aren't we sensitive! Instead of blowing me off, you might just want to think through and check whether ANY of the sites you recommend actually work. What I suggested, rather than commercial search engines, were collections of deal sites. many are user driven, rather than $$ driven.
But then again, maybe you are receiving some quid pro quo for your references. BTW, I didn't suggest that you're sites were crap, just all of the shopper search engines were. Have you ever checked to see how good they are? I would guess, by your comment, that you have not.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Yes, I've used all of the shopping sites that I mentioned in the article. And no, none of them have the slightest idea that I've mentioned them. Perhaps I'm just having a hard time get through your hyperbole... When you say that BizRate, Shopping.com and Nextag "don't work" you're just not talking sense. They've all been around for 10 or more years, and have become popular because they provide value to their users. All of them have a strong user/community component as well.
And FatWallet is not really any different than other coupon aggregators. As I mentioned in my article, all the coupon/shopping sites are super-affiliates for hundreds or thousands of merchants. It's a rare thing if you find a link on ANY coupon or price comparison site that's NOT an affiliate link, or a link to an affiliate site. And that's not necessarily bad that they have an incentive to provide this information.
I've operated an ecommerce site since 1997, and have years of experience in online retailing and as an affiliate manager. I've worked with all of the major price comparison and coupon sites -- Fatwallet, Igive, Ebates, Bizrate, Shopzilla and the rest . They work pretty much the same way. Searchalldeals is just another layer of abstraction -- a paid metasearch site that lists affiliate links. Fatwallet, Dealcatcher and all the others you see there PAY to be there. So how does that make them more pure?
Posted by:
MmeMoxie
06 Dec 2008
Duh ... I really do know that it is PriceWatch. Just had a blonde moment, is all. }:-}
I have been using PriceWatch for over 8 years and it has honestly lead me to some excellent online websites, where I purchase a lot of my computer components today. I remember the days when PriceWatch did not have any 'rating' system and you were really 'taking chances'. Today, I find their 'rating' system is quite good and gives you some insight, as to how a particular retailer will treat you and your order.
Plus, there are some items that are sold at a discount, just for PriceWatch consumers.
Resellersratings.com is also an excellent place to check out about the sellers. Must note, it can be a bit difficult to navigate. But, once you figure it out, it is well worth the effort.
Posted by:
SarahL
10 Dec 2008
This site doesn't really fall into the "online" category, but I have found it VERY useful when comparison shopping for electronics & appliances. They "aggregate" all of the ads from your local Sunday paper (site updates in the wee hours of Sunday morning, weekly) and turn them into handy-dandy tables (lowest price to highest price) that are sorted by category. Example: All MP3 players are on one page, that shows price, retailer, model number and a brief description.
http://www.salescircular.com
Be sure to pick your local paper so that you see all of the locally available deals, and accurate prices.
Whenever we buy anything that might be listed at salescircular.com, I always check there first, if for no other reason than to have an idea of what current sale prices are.
And, no - my link is not a referral link. Mr. Brockman should learn to "read" the URL's in his browser. Any URL that has "referrer=" or similar embedded in it almost ALWAYS indicates an affiliate relationship.
Posted by:
Amazon Deals
11 Dec 2008
You can find online deals, discounts and hot products for Amazon.com, Apple, Buy.com and Overstock.com here: www.bargainprice.com
Posted by:
Bob DeCarlo
12 Dec 2008
I do most of my most of my shopping online and I have found that most of the sites like Nextag, shoping.com, etc rearely ever give you the best prices. The best way I have found is to put in the modle number or description into scroogle and select 50 for the number or results. This takes more effort but the savings are worth the effort.
I also use resellerratings.com for reviews and determining how reliable a store is before I make a purchase from a new merchant.
As far as cupons go I think Retail me not mentioned in the article is the best.
Posted by:
damnadam
13 Dec 2008
Not sure if there's any aussie readers here, but a good AU site is www.shopbot.com.au - its simple, quick and very effective. Similar to Google's shopping site (think it may be froogle.com?). The one big thing that Id assume differentiates shopping experiences between Aus and the US - You guys have 50 states, we have 6. Makes postage a dream.
Posted by:
baludealsguysep5
05 Sep 2009
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Posted by:
Peter
28 Oct 2009
I think coupons are more important than ever to people trying to save money on their shopping online. You might also want to checkout CouponSmarter.com when searching your coupon codes for US online stores.
Posted by:
lalita
26 Feb 2010
online shopping is the best way to save your time and discount coupon to save your money, both are saving plan.
Posted by:
Charles Gwa
08 Jul 2010
http://www.INeedABargain.com is a new bargain aggregator that pulls together offers from many well-known sites under categories.
Posted by:
gork
14 Oct 2010
What about Google Shopping? http://www.google.com/products
Posted by:
Mike
18 Mar 2011
If you want to get discount while online shopping so I will recommend you these sites Retailmenot, Couponrefund, Couponmom and Couponcodes4u. These are best sites for Online discount codes.
Posted by:
Kayoko
08 Jan 2012
I am wondering if price comparison sites are as important today as they were a while ago. Seems like most ppl just go to Amazon.com these days when they want to price compare and buy things like the latest smartphones or other consumer electronics
Posted by:
anusha
21 Oct 2015
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