Mastering the art of online shopping and savings does more than land you great deals on getaways, products, and cool services. It teaches you a valuable lesson to take your time, dig around, and use a mix of opportunity and resources.
This can be applied to all areas of life.
If you check out the article 5 Online Shopping Savings Trickshere on FingerClickSaver then you’ll find three items which give you leverage and control of your money (when not online):
· Reading user reviews
· Finding online deals
· Using social media
With just these three you have the upper-hand when talking with sales people. It shifts the power so you’re in control and shuts down their aggressive behavior.
Let’s take a moment to consider how these three can be applied.
User Reviews
Marketing and advertising do a great job at removing our logical thinking. They’re crafted to get under our skin and really create an urge to have it.
User reviews, on the other hand, are real accounts. They are experiences from those that own the product or have experienced the service. And boy-oh-boy will these swing positive or negative.
We can use user reviews on the fly thanks to our smartphones.
Next time you’re in front of a product – take your phone and see what people are saying. Or tell the sales person to give you a moment and dig up some dirt.
Quote & Estimator Tools
Many businesses and websites offer tools to receive quotes and calculations. This eliminates the “pushy” feeling you may get as if you were face-to-face with a salesperson. You get the information you need and do not feel the pressure to act in that very moment.
These tools and quotes provide a detailed breakdown of the offer and its associated cost.
Situations could include:
· Soliciting quotes from a long distance moving company to compare rates
· Using a budgeting calculator to determine your spending and savings
· Plugging an estimator with details to determine the value of a home
This non-confronting way of learning gives you the knowledge to approach sales people and stick to your guns and get the best deal possible.
Online Deals
Next, we have online deals.
How many times have you gone to a store and thought “wow that’s an absolute bargain” and snagged it up on a whim?
Turns out that many businesses will mark up the prices of in-store items before applying the discount which effectively makes the deal worthless.
Again, we have the power of our online saving savviness on our side.
We can hop online with our phones and double check the pricing. While in store we can look at the competition. This is also handy when using the store website and having them price match with the site.
You may find out that deal isn’t quite the deal.
Social Media
And then we have social media.
Social, in the focus of our topic today, combines the user reviews and sales in one go.
A search for the product or service keywords on Facebook or Twitter should bring up discussions which could be quite eye-opening. What looks good in the store or from what a salesperson is telling you may be complete malarkey versus what’s really going on thanks to insights from social media users.
Social media is an incredibly useful learning tool – so take full advantage of it!
Obviously, take some of it with a grain of salt but compare real discussions with how marketing and advertising are trying to trick you into making the purchase. At least you have a voice of reason.
Conclusion
Being savvy at manipulating the Web goes well beyond what you can do online. It unlocks your questioning in all areas of life. You’ve been given the chance to peer behind the veil. Now you’re armed with a skill that will save you money and time.
Do you agree?
Kidal Delonix is a contributor to Mr. Hoffman's blog. The views and opinions are entirely his/her own and may not reflect Mr Hoffman's views.
