5 Habits of Smart Online Shoppers To Save More This Festive Season

Ever wondered how others crack the best deals in town and end up saving a hell lot more than you during festive sales? Been envious of how some people have the knack of finding the choicest of things at the greatest of discounts? You can be one among them, too. For that, all you need to do is start adopting a few good habits of that smart online shopper out there, who has been hoarding all the good stuff until now.

Here's what they are:

Stop Choosing Cash On Delivery

Everything has its share of cons but that does not mean that you overlook the pros and stop adopting new things in life. With banks offering increased security through OTPs and e-commerce sites providing safe payment options, you should now shake off your fear of making payments online. It is not only a lot more convenient but also a great way to save some money every time you make a payment. A number of well-known banks are offering great discounts going up to Rs 2,500 on payments made via their debit/ credit cards this festive season. This is over and above the deals and coupons already available on the products. So, it's time you finally stopped choosing Cash On Delivery when shopping online. Follow the security guidelines given by your bank, check that the site you are purchasing from has a lock icon on the payment URL; and use your card knowing that you are in safe hands, saving money every time you shop.

Use Online Wallets

This is one way of warming up to the idea of making online payments: use an online wallet instead of a real one. Why? Because, online wallets like Freecharge, Mobikwik, Paytm, Oxigen etc. always offer some amount of your money back to you on every payment made via them. Simply add some money to an online wallet and use it to make payments on your food orders, ticket bookings or any other shopping to save a few extra bucks every single time. As the cashback keeps accumulating, you can keep shopping more with all the money saved!

Buy Gift Cards Instead Of Gifts

Yes, it's the festive season and you have a long list of gifts to buy for others as well as yourself. However, this year, the online discount trend suggests that you ditch gifts in favour of gift cards for everyone, including you. For one, with a gift card you are giving the freedom of choice to your friends and family and secondly, you save money. Until now, gift cards were nothing but fancy-looking cash, but not anymore. Now, with so many offers on gift cards, you can give someone a Rs 1000 gift card by spending just Rs 900 or even less. Apart from flat discounts on various gift cards, e-stores like Amazon India are also giving cashback offers on adding gift card balance to your account and they are giving away free gift cards for shopping via that gift card balance. That is how smart shoppers save more than others all the time.

Stay Alert

Since, you can shop anywhere, anytime online; e-stores announce some of their best deals and discounts at the most unpredictable hours, especially during festive sales. Now, it is impossible to keep checking these sites all the time. So, how do smart shoppers manage to grab all those surprise deals? They stay alert; actually, they set a number of alerts for everything. With online shopping increasingly becoming a way of life, there are sites like DesiDime which let you set Price Alerts, Deal Alerts, Whatsapp Alerts and Channel Alerts. So, now you can simply choose a product and the price you want it at, and get an alert in your inbox, whenever your product witnesses a price drop. Similarly, you can also get alerts about the kind of deals you like, the best deals of the day and the most unexpected deals of the sale season, on Whatsapp or on mail.

Do Not Shop Alone

Grabbing your favourite products at the best price ever is not the singular aim of smart online shoppers. They also make sure that they get what they want without any compromises on quality. However, in the online world how do you ensure the authenticity of a product or the trustworthiness of a seller? Just the way you do it offline- by interacting with fellow shoppers. And the only way to do that online is through DesiDime, an online shopping community, where you get to interact with over five lakh experienced shoppers in its forums. You can ask and answer questions about any online deal/ coupon/ product/ seller here; you can access genuine store and product reviews and you can also give and receive amazing shopping advice here.

Always Look For Coupons before Hitting Buy Now

You have to be fairly new to online shopping if you have not yet started stalking coupons while shopping. Coupons can help you save a lot more, especially when you shop in bulk. You can find coupons for various bank offers, for minimum cart values, for new customers, for exclusive brands etc. So before hitting the buy button, do a quick Google search; e.g. If you are shopping on Amazon India then search for Amazon coupons and you will get a list of sites with all the Amazon coupons listed in one place. See what fits your bill and save a few hundred rupees more!

That's how you save more as well as shop smart online!