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Whether you’re shopping online or at stores, tech can help you find the best deals, navigate malls, track your packages and alert you to sales. You can utilize these apps, browser extensions and websites to save time and money with your shopping, during the holidays and beyond. Use these tech tools to help save your time, money and sanity!
Mr. Rebates
Mr. Rebates is a free service that gives you cash back when you shop online at participating retailers. Earn rebates when you arrive at a shopping site from its link at Mr. Rebates. Get rebates ranging from a few dollars to 25% and more. Let your rebates add up and then request a check be mailed to you or get a direct deposit into your PayPal account. I’ve received over $1300 in rebates from Mr. Rebates since I signed up with them.
You can also earn rebates by referring friends who join Mr. Rebates. When they shop using Mr. Rebates you earn 20% of their rebates.
Mr. Rebates is also a fertile source of deals and coupons. You can search by store or category to see which sites participate and find out what deals they’re offering.
You can sign up directly with mrrebates.com or through my Mr. Rebates referral link.
My full review of Mr. Rebates: Mr. Rebates – It Pays to Shop!
Coupons at Checkout
Coupons at Checkout is an Internet browser that automatically finds coupon codes when you shop. When you arrive at your virtual shopping cart, Coupons at Checkout will highlight the Coupon Code box with a red border if coupons are available. Click on the box to see the coupon codes without having to leave the website.
Coupons at Checkout is available for Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer.
My full review of Coupons at Checkout was published yesterday: Coupons at Checkout – The Easiest Way to Save Money and Time!
Invisible Hand
Similar to Coupons at Checkout, Invisible Hand is a browser extension that works in the background when you shop. When you arrive at a product page, Invisible Hand will alert you with a yellow banner at the top of the page showing you where else you can get a lower price. If you’re at a site with the best price, Invisible Hand will tell you that too.
Invisible Hand is available on Chrome, Firefox and Safari.
My review of Invisible Hand: Invisible Hand – For Economical Online Shopping!
Rather-Be-Shopping
Rather-Be-Shopping is another excellent source for savings. This site lists thousands of coupons and can alert you by email when your favorite retailers offer deals and coupons.
Kyle, the owner of the website, makes it his mission to find you great savings. When he finds out about a coupon, he verifies the savings are real. He also takes requests if you want him to cover a retailer that’s not already on his site.
Kyle’s blog is a treasure trove of tips and tricks, giving you the inside scoop on shopping. Be sure to check out Retailer’s Big Secret: Crack the Price Tag Code, a must read article that helps you decipher price tags so you can predict which items will have price reductions at your favorite stores. Who knew that the price difference between $19.99 and $19.98 means far more than 1¢? Kyle even includes a printable cheat sheet you can take to stores to remember the price codes when you’re out shopping.
My full review of Rather-Be-Shopping: Rather Be Shopping: Your Personal Site for Savings!
ShopAdvisor
ShopAdvisor is like having a personal assistant whose job is to constantly monitoring prices for you. This service can alert you to price drops on your coveted items so you don’t miss out on a sale price.
ShopAdvisor can find you the best price now or alert you later when the price of an item is lowered. ShopAdvisor also tracks pricing history so you can predict the best time to buy a product.
You can also use ShopAdvisor as a shopping list to remind you to buy items later. You can even import your shopping list from Evernote into ShopAdvisor.
ShopAdvisor is free and available online at the ShopAdvisor website and via apps for:
ShopAdvisor is available for US retailers.
My full review of ShopAdvisor: ShopAdvisor – Your Virtual Shopping Assistant.
FastMall
Navigating shopping malls can be challenging for even the most experienced shopper. Use the FastMall app to give you information on over 1250 shopping malls in 31 countries around the world. You can search for a mall by name or have the app find the malls closest to you.
FastMall can help you locate stores within in a mall with its interactive maps and help you figure out the quickest way to get around using stairs, escalators and/or elevators. This app even shows you where the closest restrooms are when you shake your phone.
You can also use FastMall to find current deals at a mall that you can redeem using your phone. You can share the deals with others on social media from within app.
FastMall is free and available for
My full review of FastMall: FastMall – Shopping Made Easy with Tech!
Deliveries
Keep track of items you order with the Deliveries app. Deliveries can track your packages, show you where they are on a map, and give you scheduled delivery dates and times. Yesterday the app was updated so you can add delivery dates to your calendar directly from the app and share delivery information with others via email, text message and AirDrop.
Deliveries is available for $4.99 for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch and as a free widget for your Mac. You can use iCloud Keychain to sync your delivery information between your Mac and your iDevice.
My full review of Deliveries: Deliveries – Your Powerful Tracking Tool.
Your Thoughts
Do you use tech tools when you shop to save you time and money? Which tech tools are your favorites? Let us know in the Comments section below!
Hi Carolyn,
I love these. They’re so helpful. I do most of my shopping online so I’m anxious to try a few of these out. One of the sites I’ve used for coupons that I like is ‘Retail Me Not’. I’ve had good luck with them for almost any site I shop at.
Anyway, these are all great ways to find things and save. Heaven knows we all need that!
Thanks,
Liz
Hi Liz, Yes, these tech tools are a must have for online shoppers. The browser extensions work in the background, I forget they’re there until I see the yellow banner of Invisible Hand or the red border of the coupon code box for Coupons at Checkout.
Mr. Rebates has been amazing. It took me a while to remember to go through Mr. Rebates when I shop online so I used a bookmark to remind me. Now I’m in the habit so I can save more effectively.
Happy shopping, Liz!
Hi Carolyn,
I’m all in favour of cutting the cost of shopping. For British readers try http://www.mutualpoints.com/ I collected 15,000 points with them once and they sent me a cheque for £100! I also own 11 shares in the company!
I’ve just been shopping to Poundland and stocked up on notebooks and pens. I spent a fiver on Christmas decorations too. I came close to being called Scrooge last year. The pens are 5 for a pound and a woman told me her son wanted a Parker pen. They are at least £12 for one pen! They aren’t that good either! They look nice but I want something that writes good and feels good when you are holding it.
This weeks photos aren’t great. I’ve done some really good edits, but not on my own photos. I was working on a video art project. I need lots of young ladies to model for me…
Hi Mike, I’ve never heard of mutual points. That’s great that they have sent you a rebate cheque.
I agree with you about pens. I lose mine too frequently to invest in an expensive pen.
I will definitely be by to check out this week’s photos!
Hi Carolyn,
As naïve as I am, most of my shopping is just being done online. I never knew I’ve been missing a lot on discounts.
Of the mentioned lists, I think I will give Mr Rebates a try.
Thanks for sharing carolyn
Hi James, You’re not alone. Many people shop online without realizing there are great deals available. Or maybe they think finding those deals is a supreme hassle. But by using these tech tools you can make shopping much easier, saving you time and money!
Definitely check out Mr. Rebates, if you sign up now you can start saving with your shopping immediately. I suggest that you bookmark the Mr. Rebates site so you remember to go there first when you want to shop online. You can only get rebates if you shop using their links.
Happy shopping, James!
I look at dealnews and slickdeals from time to time to find great deals. Slickdeals forum sends a notification email whenever the product I am looking for has a deal. It is very handy. I also use google shopping to find the cheapest offering. I just learned invisiblehand from you and installed it to chrome browser. Thanks,
Hi Frank, Thanks for sharing your favorite shopping tech tools with us. I will have to check those out!
That’s great you’re using Invisible Hand. You’ll enjoy Coupons at Checkout too!
Itested more than a dozen shopping apps,in the process getting some of my holiday shopping done early. I narrowed the list to five because using them all at once can get time consuming. You want to beat others to the best deals, after all.
Hello Hitam, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! You’re right, using too many tech tools for anything can become overwhelming. I like that Invisible Hand and Coupons at Checkout work in the background so you don’t have to worry about using them. They just appear automatically to help you save.
Hello Carolyn,
This list is quite impressive…I never knew my online experience could be this good! Before I finished this post, I installed Invisible Hands Chrome Extension.
Thanks for this super informative post! I eagerly look forward to the savings in the coming days!
Do have a great day!
– Terungwa
Hi Terungwa, Thank you, I’m glad you discovered a new tech tool to help you find the best deals when you shop! I hope that you have a wonderful shopping experience with Invisible Hands, Terungwa, and that it saves you a lot of money!
Carolyn,
I like the FastMall and Invisible Hand app very much. It’s very common that, many time we caught up situations to locate the right shop while visit new malls.
Either we may need to run mall entrance to see floor map or ask someone!. I think this would surely help when we visit new malls. Cool. Just downloaded. When I open, Did noticed, It dynamically downloads the map on specific malls to locate and looks very intuitive. Let me check when I visit next time 🙂
Same goes to Invisible Hand app as well. This app would surely help during the time of checkout and saves our money, if not rushing to place order.
The app could drag back to check other prices as similar feature we see at Cnet product review pages on right-side corner. I like that handy info as it helps to know the market price. 🙂
Thanks for the nice tools suggestion and have a great holidays ahead Carolyn.
Hi Vijay, Yes, both of these tech tools are very handy to help you shop. If you shop at more than one mall, FastMall is especially handy. You don’t need to download apps for each mall. Chances are that FastMall will cover them, I haven’t found a mall yet that isn’t on FastMall.
Yes, Invisible Hand is extremely useful. You don’t have to hunt for the best deal, Invisible Hand will do it for you!
If you like Invisible Hand, be sure to check out Coupons at Checkout. It’s the same concept as Invisible Had, except with coupon codes.
Thanks for stopping by, Vijay, and for your kind wishes! 🙂
These are wonderful tools. I haven’t really used any of them. This is perfect especially for the Christmas season.
Hi Jeremy, I’m so glad you like these tools. They should save you a lot of money with your holiday shopping!
Hello Carolyn !
To shop online , i always used google search to find the best deal on a particular product as it indexes all sort of coupon sites,ecommerce portals. To be honest,I have never heard of the services that u’ve mentioned in this list as they’re not famous in India.I’ll check out the links to see what kind of deals these sites offer.Thanks for sharing the information.
Hi Pramod, Yes, Google Shopping is another useful tech tool. Thanks so much for reminding us of that tool!
I hope you have a very wonderful shopping experience, Pramod!
Hey Carolyn,
I’m familiar with the first four and I’ve been interviews on Kyle’s b log too so I was aware of what his site offered. You introduced me to the other three and I so appreciate that too.
I think the other three will come in pretty handy too. Now I’m not a big mall person and that’s probably why. I don’t shop in them enough to know where all the stores are and I do prefer to get in and get out so that will come in handy for sure.
I’m always tracking my deliveries to make sure they’re on their way or not being held up. You do make things convenient for us though.
Always appreciate cool new time savers Carolyn so thank you again. The holidays are closing in now once again so we better be on top of things.
Thanks and have a great week.
~Adrienne
Hi Adrienne, That’s great you’re already using some of these tech tools. Excellent point, those who don’t shop a lot may need Fast Mall to navigate the malls because they’re not familiar with the stores or layout.
Yes, if you track deliveries, the Deliveries app is very handy to have to track all of your packages from one place.
I really enjoyed Kyle’s interview of you at his great blog. He does a wonderful job with interviews.
I hope you have very enjoyable shopping experiences this holiday season, Adrienne!
Great round up of apps Carolyn! I use all but Coupons at Checkout … and I think I will be adding that new one to my arsenal of shopping apps.
Hi Carol, Yes, as a shopping pro you will love Coupons at Checkout! Saving time and money is always a great thing, right?