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Whether you view yourself as a varsity-level shopper or dread the thought of holiday shopping, these tech tools can make the job easier and may save you money. You want the best equipment in sports, why not use the best tech tools for shopping?
Avoid the crowds and get great deals when you shop online. Shipping gifts to your loved ones is much easier with online shopping than making a trip to the post office. Get online coupons, access wish lists, search for available items, read reviews and see suggested items when you shop online.
Offers.com
You could hunt the Internet for the best sales, deals, coupons and prices, or you could let Offers.com do the work for you. Offers.com lets you shop by category, store or product name to find the best offers on the Web.
Find Black Friday and Cyber Monday offers, get shopping tips and learn what not to buy on Black Friday.
You can find sales, coupons, special deals and more. Get the Offers.com browser extension to make saving even easier.
No need to sign up for an account, just visit Offers.com and start saving.
Coupons at Checkout
Coupons at Checkout is a browser extension that helps you automatically enter coupons when you check out at online stores in many countries around the world. You don’t need to register for an account or log in. Just download the browser extension and start shopping.
Have you ever shopped online only to find a coupon code box at checkout? Did you leave the site to hunt down coupon codes? Did you eventually get back to that site and make your purchase?
Coupons at Checkout highlights the coupon code box in red when a coupon code is available at that site. Click on the box to see available coupon codes and their success rate.
You don’t have to leave the page you’re on to see the coupon codes from Coupons at Checkout. Just copy and paste the code and click the Apply button right on that page.
You can check out my full review: Coupons at Checkout – The Easiest Way to Save Money and Time!.
Learn more and download the extension at the Coupons at Checkout website.
Mr. Rebates
Get rebates when you shop online by starting at Mr. Rebates. You can earn rebates on purchases from stores such as Amazon (2-5%), Walmart (5%), Samsung (5%), The Body Shop (10%) and more.
You can also check out sales and find coupons at Mr. Rebates. Refer friends and earn rebates every time your friends start their shopping at Mr. Rebates.
Rebates are paid to you via Paypal or check. I’ve earned over $1000 since I joined Mr. Rebates 10 year ago.
You can join Mr. Rebates by using my referral code Mr. Rebates, or sign up directly at mrrebates.com.
Check out my full review of Mr. Rebates: Mr. Rebates – It Pays to Shop!
Curbside App
Curbside is making shopping easier with its app. Order products at stores such as Target, Best Buy and CVS using the Curbside app. Please your order and wait until the app notifies you that your order is ready.
Head to the store and pick up your items. At 121 Target stores around the US, you can have your order brought out to your car. No need to wake sleeping children, fight for a parking spot or brave bad weather, Target becomes a drive-thru store!
Curbside works without any extra fees or shipping charges. Curbside is currently available at Target stores in San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, New Jersey/New York, Chicago and Philadelphia.
This video shows you how Curbside works:
https://youtu.be/EjcSgyfLgWY
Find out more and download the Curbside app at shopcurbside.com.
Amazon
The Everything Store is filled with items and ideas to help you shop online. You can check out reviews to learn what others think about the products. Make the most of Amazon by using its best features.
Prime
Amazon Prime membership offers free two-day shipping on eligible items, Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Music, free unlimited photo storage, Kindle Owners Lending Library
Learn more about the benefits of Amazon Prime at Is Amazon Prime Worth $99 for You? Here’s How to Decide!
Try Amazon Prime’s free 30-day trial period to get free shipping on Prime-eligible products during the holiday shopping season. Be prepared to be spoiled by free shipping!
See, The Motley Fool, Ever Wonder How Amazon.com Pays for All That Free Prime Shipping?
Wish Lists
Make shopping easier for others and get what you really want with Amazon’s Wish Lists. You can add items to your Wish List by clicking on the Add to List button under the Add to Cart button and choosing your list.
You can keep your Wish List public or private and choose to share it with others.
Click on Your Lists on the right side of the top menu bar to see your list and check out lists of others who have shared their wish lists with you. You can also search for a Wish List for a person or organization.
[tip] Check to see if your favorite school or charitable organization has a Wish List for you to donate items easily! [/tip]
Deals
Check Amazon’s home page regularly for Daily Deals, Lightning Deals, Black Friday Deals and Cyber Monday deals. If you’re shopping for a special item, especially an Amazon products such as a Kindle ereader, Fire tablet or Amazon Echo, check frequently to make sure you don’t miss out.
Product Reviews
Amazon Product reviews are extensive. You can view the most helpful or recent reviews and see video reviews of products. Verified Purchasers actually purchased the products from Amazon.
After you’ve searched for a product, sort your results by Average Customer Review to see which products other shoppers liked best.
Freeshipping.com
Are you a power-online shopper? Then check out Freeshipping.com. Freeshipping.com has partnered with over 1000 sites that to give you free shipping, free returns, exclusive coupons and a 10% rebate on your purchases. This site will help you comparison shop between sites to help you find the best deals.
Partner stores include Walmart, Target, QVC, Best Buy, HSN, Macy’s, Bath & Body Works and more.
From 12:01 am Black Friday (November 27) through 11:59 pm Cyber Monday (November 30) you can get 20% cash back when you start your shopping with freeshipping.com.
Check out their blog post: Get Ready to Earn 20% Cash Back at 20 Top Retailers from Black Friday thru Cyber Monday!
The thing is, Freeshipping.com isn’t actually free. Membership costs $12.97/month but you can try it free for seven days. If you shop a lot online, the membership cost may be worth it to you for the savings you can get.
Learn more at Freeshipping.com.
Infographic
Learn about 2015 shopping trends from this infographic:
(Click on infographic to enlarge)
Infographic from Offers.com
Your Thoughts
Have you used any of these tech tools to help you shop? Do you have any shopping tech tools you recommend? Which tech tools are your favorites?
Share your thoughts in the Comments section below!
* Shop and Shopping Bag graphics (edited) courtesy of Pixabay via Creative Commons
Voice of America
If your native language isn’t English, check out Voice of America Learning English. This site helps you learn English with podcasts speaking each story and word definitions at the end of articles.
My Voice of America Learning English article this week is: 15 Tech Gift Ideas for 2015.
Black Friday is near and this list really helps and this year am really gonna buy many things from Amazon and will surely checkout their Prime service.
Hi Gautam, Yes, the holiday season is a perfect time to use the 30-day free trial of Prime from Amazon. I did exactly that a few years ago and have been a Prime member ever since then. Amazon has added a lot of benefits to their Prime membership since I joined. If you’re a frequent shopper, the free 2-day shipping may be reason enough to join.
I agree with you. We just have to be more prudent and smarter when we are shopping. Being tight financially doesn’t mean you have to compromise on what you buy as a gift. Like you have mentioned, there are websites and apps that can make it more affordable for everyone. This is a great write up and guide, especially with Christmas just around the corner. 🙂
Hi Tekkaus, Yes, these tools can save you both money and time. Have you ever found the perfect gift for someone but the store didn’t have the right size available? Online shopping can avoid that issue. You can see quickly whether an item is available.
You’re right, no one has an unlimited budget. You can make the most of your budget by using these tools.
Happy holiday shopping, Tekkaus!
Great article.
The voice of America was very interesting.
Hi Jerry, So glad you enjoyed this article as well as my article at Voice of America Learning English. Stay tuned for more useful and fun articles at The Wonder of Tech!
For how many days these deals will we available? Will it be available even after cyber monday?
Hi Nevil, Great question! Yes, I have noted in the article when deals are limited in time, such as with Freeshipping.com. The rebates with Mr. Rebates do change over time, both with the amount of the rebates and the participating retailers. Best to check with Mr. Rebates before you shop.
I hope you find good deals using these tools, Nevil.
Hey Carolyn,
I’ve already seen a few I’m going to use although I’ve done most of my shopping already. Struck out today with one of the items I was going after so now have to find out where to get it and who has the best price.
I remember Mr. Rebates from last year I believe and that curb app, well for this time of the year I think that baby is going to come in very handy.
Thank you for sharing these and I’ll continue sharing this post too. I KNOW others will find it helpful too.
~Adrienne
Hi Adrienne, That’s great you’re ahead of the game! I hope that the rest of your shopping is successful, and you do have a better chance of that with these tools.
Yes, I still use Mr. Rebates 10 years later, so very cool to get rebates on things I am buying. The rebates really add up over time and it’s so very easy to do.
Thanks so much for your awesome sharing, Adrienne!
Hey Carolyn,
List of the collection is fantastic, One of my favorite app during holidays is, Shopular, Already used by more than 1 million shoppers, this app lets you know about current deals while you’re shopping. In other words, you can walk into the shopping mall, and get alerts about discounts from your favorite nearby stores. In that way, it’s similar to other apps, like SaleSorter, that pull information on current markdowns at shoppers’ favorite stores and push those alerts to consumers.
Hey Christina, Yes, I’ve used Shopular before, great suggestion! Thanks so much for sharing your shopping tech tool with us!
Hi Carolyn
I have never been doing much online shopping for the Holiday’s, but with this guide maybe this will be the year where I buy most of my gifts online.
Hi Thomas, I hope you had a very successful shopping season. Happy holidays!