How to Get a Great Deal when Shopping Online

Hi there! Again it’s been a month since the last update, and again I felt sorry about that. I intend to post here regularly, but it seems that I still have some difficulties adjusting my time to my new schedule. Anyway, since I live in Australia now, one way or another I have to be able to purchase several items online, whether I like it or not. Back in my home country, it was such a mess whenever I try to purchase something online. Not only did the currency rate make the price seems expensive, the delivery service couldn’t be trusted either. Not to mention some sellers in eBay blacklisted my country. When I moved here, I had the time to set up my account and after that I started to shop online. It gives me the convenience of being able to buy something from all over the world, without the currency conversion, only using Australian dollars. Anyway, since I started to shop online, I had to research for an item before I decide to buy it. I’ve learned the hard way, some of my friends also learned that if you don’t do research first, you’ll end up paying more than you’re supposed to. Here are some guides to get the best possible experience when shopping online.

Please note that because I’m currently in Australia, all of the websites I will mention and figures are of Australian origin.

1. Always try to find discount coupons, rebates, or codes

The best thing about internet is that people can share what they want to share without any restrictions. And that also goes to coupons and discount codes. Several sites such as www.ozbargain.com.au provides many discount codes and coupons for various websites. And it also provides any best deals or offers that a particular website can make (I spotted a 1TB 3.5 inch external hard drive only at A$150 whereas the retail price is beyond A$200). But beware though, a discount codes and coupons usually have an expiry date, so you should check back more often with the site. Rebates, or with a more popular term, cash back, can be a good offer to save money, since you really get the feeling of getting back your money. The downside though, cash backs are usually take a longer time. It may take up to 3 or more weeks to have your money back, and probably after that time you wouldn’t worry too much about that $20 you spent in the first place.

2. Do some several comparisons on the item you would like to buy

It’s $39 on this site. I decided to buy it. Besides, who can get a Logitech speaker for just $39? Turns out that, the next website that you click would probably have it sold for just $29. It really pays off to do some research, and sometime a research and comparison could really save you a lot. I try to compare the price of a PlayStation 3 console with 80GB hard drive. The market price is about A$650, bundled with the Killzone 2 game and a HDMI cable. After I did some research, I could get the console, and one selected game with only A$560, and it’s brand new. Think about that A$90 you could save when trying to compare from site to site. Even for the simple things such as the HDMI cable. The retail price for 5 meter HDMI cable is about A$20 to A$25, while after some comparing and research, I got it for just A$10. There are several sites that provide searching bots for comparing such as www.shoppingbot.com.au and some review sites even give the best minimum available price. However, take a note that the site may not always give you the best available price, so you also have to do some research first.

3. Beware of fake deals

The old rule still applies, if it is too good to be true, it probably is. Or there’s probably another deal that’s even better than the previous one. Well, in the internet world, the latter is true. There are several sites (which I won’t mention it here) that gives fake deals. I know it sucks, but they’re still there. Once I tried to do some search about the price of a monochrome laser printer before I decide to buy it. One site listed it at A$120 with A$20 on shipping price. Sounds good enough because the retail price for a monochrome laser printer is above A$170 (at least that site listed it that way). Turns out that some site even give the same product with only A$99 with A$15 postage. Even better yet, there is a store that sells the printer for A$99 with $20 cash back, only you have to pick it up at the nearest store. So do beware of sites that claimed that you’ll save some percentage for buying at their site where actually in other site you can get a much better deal.

4. Take a note of the postage and stamps

At the previous point I mentioned about the shipping price. Yep, it’s one thing that you can’t avoid when shopping online, the shipping price. After all it’s still impossible, at least for now, to materialize the items you bought straight in front of your monitor. When you shop online, some sites are nasty. They don’t even list the shipping price before you check out the items in your shopping cart and confirm the deal. Several sites are better, they give either the list of shipping price to certain areas, or a flat rate. Few sites are even better, they give free postage to certain areas, usually applicable with some minimum payments or number of items. There is no rule or mathematics for calculating the right shipping price, if the shipping price seems reasonable, then go for it. A mobile phone case might cost the same with the shipping price, around A$10 (A$20 with the shipping) in eBay, while the shipping cost for a handbag or other big items should be around $10 to $40, excluding the postage insurance. And on that note, please do consider the delivery time. If the item you ordered came from another continent, please be slightly reasonable with the shipping price and delivery time.

5. Refund policies and customer protection

Some sites do have refund policies listed when you bought the item. Please do read the policies and understand it first before you commit to buy. Things can get a bit rough when you don’t understand about the refund policy. A friend of mine once bought an iPod Touch 2nd generation from a certain seller. Turns out when the item arrived, it’s the transition generation from 1st gen to 2nd gen iPod touch (you know, the John Lennon cover). However because he read the refund policy (and he knew about it), he asked for refund with the seller and the seller happily (not precisely happy, I presume) refunded his money. If somehow he didn’t know about the refund policy, or in worse case, the seller did not provide a refund policy, then it would surely be a loss for him. Anyway, eBay does offer buyer protection from Paypal and also most of the sellers have refund policy. Please do read them when buying items because unlike EULA, you could really get the benefit from it should something go wrong.

That said, there are still many strategies for buying and shopping online. Several sites such as www.catchoftheday.com.au provide one-day deals, where they sell a single discounted item (with only several in stock) for only a day. I’ve seen a 40 inches HDTV went away with only A$1599. That’s really a great deal. But the principles stay the same, always try to research, research, and research about the item you want to buy, at least give a couple of hours researching before you finally decide to buy that item. And who knows, before you know it, you’ll save a lot of money. So, have fun shopping online and see you next post..!

jovee~