Have you ever had a friend or colleague say, "Wow, I just bought an MP3 and I paid the full retail price!"? Probably not since people don't usually brag about paying full price for something. There is nothing to get excited about when paying full price for an item from a traditional store that could have been bought online for less using a coupon. So why doesn't everyone shop online with coupons? Not that I have the full answer to that question, but many shoppers buy in traditional stores because they want it, whatever it may be, now and don't want to wait for the item to be shipped.
A smart shopper really can save a good amount of money on an item by using an online coupon. This may be a good time to do a quick summary about online coupons. Many online stores offer discounts to attract consumers. These discounts are called coupons, which are similar to the grocery coupons people clip out of the Sunday morning newspaper. Instead of using a coupon to get $0.50 off a can of baked beans, you use an online coupon to get $15 off an MP3 player, as an example. Online coupons offer a dollar off discount, a percentage off discount, or even offer free shipping on the order. Coupons are also sometimes referred to as discount codes, promotional codes, or offer codes.
There are hundreds and maybe thousands of websites out there that publish coupon codes. I have looked at quite a few of them myself. Finding a coupon code for a specific online store is clearly not a problem. You can start by Googling the store name followed by the word "coupons" and you will have more than enough results. However, the smart shopper will soon realize that many of these coupon sites have expired coupons and discount codes listed, but don't be discouraged by that. With some patience, a requirement of the smart online shopper, you will be able to locate a coupon site that consistently publishes current online coupon codes and any restrictions associated with the coupons.
To be a real smart online shopper, try combining online coupons with automatic free shipping based on shopping cart total. Some online stores offer free shipping coupons and other stores offer free shipping based on a minimum dollar amount spent. For example, there are opportunities where an online shopper can redeem a dollar off coupon and also get free shipping based on shopping cart total. For example, I just purchased a 20 inch LCD monitor from Buy.com last month using a $15 off coupon and free shipping. Buy.com, like many online stores, offers free shipping on many items that are priced above a certain dollar amount. Some online stores allow you to use multiple coupons on a single order, also called coupon stacking, but not many. Dell, for example, allows the shopper to stack certain types of online coupons in a single order. For the most part, you can only apply or redeem one coupon per order.
As I stated earlier, there is no shortage of online coupon publication sites out there, but not all are created equal. I have spent literally hours going through many of what Google considers to be the best ranked coupon sites. I will recommend two coupon sites so you don't have to spend your valuable time searching.
My favorite online coupon sites are CouponCrib [http://www.couponcrib.com] and ScottishWallet [http://www.scottishwallet.com]. Not only are these sites easy to navigate, but they also contain a long list of coupons that will enable you to save money and become a smart shopper. You will soon be able to gloat to your friends about how much money you saved while shopping online with coupons.
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