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I love online shopping – the convenience, wide range of options, and being able to save money! As online shopping continues to grow in popularity, there are many opportunities for shoppers to find discounts, cashback offers, and earn reward points when making online purchases.
Here are my five top tips that can help you pay less when shopping online.
1. Search for Discount Codes and Coupons
Before completing your online purchase, it’s worth taking the time to search for coupons and discount codes. Using coupon aggregator websites like Finder, or even a quick Google search, can help you find available discounts. You can also use browser extensions like Honey, which automatically apply discounts for you. Some banks and credit card providers also offer exclusive discounts and deals to their customers on various products and services.
Additionally, you can find more discounts, coupons and vouchers listed on our posts Free Samples Australia and Birthday Freebies Australia.
2. Take Advantage of Cashback Offers
One of the easiest and most rewarding ways to save money when shopping online is by earning cashback on your purchases. Cashback websites and apps like Cashrewards and ShopBack offer a range of cashback deals across various retailers and products. Additionally, some banks offer credit and debit cards with cashback offers. Keep in mind that cashback may take a few days to weeks to be processed and credited, and there may be a minimum withdrawal amount to transfer your cashback into a bank account.
3. Collect Loyalty Points
While loyalty points may not directly translate to cash savings, they are still valuable for when you redeem them in the future. You can earn loyalty points by using credit cards that offer rewards programs, through specific loyalty programs like Everyday Rewards and Flybuys, or frequent flyer programs like Qantas or Velocity. You can also use dedicated browser extensions to make it easier to earn points, like the Qantas Shopping Points-Prompter browser extension.
4. Abandon Your Cart
This tip isn’t always 100% successful, but it is worth trying! When shopping online, select and add your products to the shopping cart, sign into your account on the website, then start the checkout process…but stop before paying and leave the website. This is cart abandonment. Sometimes you’ll receive an email soon after (or even a day or two later) with a discount code to lure you back to the website and finish checking out, but like I said, it’s not always guaranteed to work.
5. Use Gift Cards
If you are like me and earn gift cards through completing online surveys and market research, make sure you use them when making online purchases to save even more money! If you tend to lose track of gift cards, add them to your phone using mobile wallet apps like Google Wallet. You can also purchase discounted e-gift cards to use as payment for your online shopping. Some companies such as banks, insurance companies and motoring/roadside assistance groups offer access to discounted e-gift cards to use at major retailers, or alternatively you can purchase them through the Shopback app.
Happy shopping!
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