When big sales from e-commerce websites like Amazon and Flipkart come around, it’s a good time to be shopping online. But can you really be sure that you’re getting the best deal possible for that shiny new item you want? Here’s how you can make the most of your online shopping, and score the best possible deals.
Sometimes, savings is a waiting game. With websites like Amazon and Flipkart having big marquee sale days every couple months or so, it might be worth your while to wait for the next sale. While these sales offer unprecedented discounts on only a select few listings, most items should at least match their previous lowest recorded price, making it quite lucrative to wait.
As with physical sales, it can be important to arrive on time for online sales too. The products with the biggest discounts often have limited stock, and with many people wanting to take advantage of the low prices, they can run out quite fast. Make sure you check exactly when the sale begins, whether it's midnight or early morning. Being the early bird or burning the midnight oil can both save you some money with online sales.
E-commerce websites these days list out their biggest discounts in advance. So if you spot a sale you really want, or you already have a product you want to buy and are just waiting for a possible price drop, it can be quite beneficial to add that item to your wishlist before the sale starts. With everyone wanting to take advantage of the sales early, even the biggest websites can sometimes slow down or even crash on sale days, making it quite difficult to search for the product you want. You can easily and quickly access items in your wishlist, ensuring that you get the best price.
While this is not as common for big websites like Amazon and Flipkart, smaller stores or even things like flight tickets can sometimes be dynamically priced. This means that the store might increase the price of some items based on your browsing history or personal profile. To beat this, all you have to do is browse in incognito mode in your browser, where the website cannot access your browsing history.
With multiple sales on at the same time, and numerous e-commerce websites selling the same items, it can be a little difficult to manually track the price of all the items in your wishlist. This is where browser extensions come in. These extensions will allow you compare the price of a product across all websites with just a single click, making it easy to know if you’re getting the best deal. However, users should thoroughly vet any such extensions and look for store reviews before installing them, to make sure they’re safe and not using your data maliciously.
Most e-commerce websites have tie-ups with specific banks, where using their credit or debit card can get you huge discounts, sometimes as high as 10% off the price. Using these offers whenever possible can save quite a lot of money.
Smaller stores and brand-specific websites can often have coupon codes that get you a blanket discount on almost any item. While brands might often send you these coupons through promotional emails or texts, there are also websites that catalogue every coupon out there. It can be worth your while to search through these websites, and find any active coupons to save a bit of cash.
Also Read | Big discounts on iPhone 12, iPhone XR, others at upcoming Flipkart Big Saving Days sale