Shopping online is growing not only in Singapore but worldwide. With the internet, it is easy for anyone to get what they need simply by purchases through websites or mobile app. However, similar to shopping offline, we are always looking to pay the lowest. Let us discover what are the 11 Tips and Tricks that all Smart Online Shoppers must know in order to get the best deals.
1. Getting the Right Credit Card
There are many credit cards out there that reward you for spending on various categories like dining, travel, petrol, groceries, retail spending, entertainment and online spending. And the rewards that you getting for spending on the different categories differ as well. In Singapore, below are the list of companies that you can get credit cards from.
- DBS/POSB
- HSBC
- Standard Charted
- UOB
- OCBC
- Maybank
- Citibank
- American Express
- ANZ
For online shopping, the credit card that i use currently is the DBS Live Fresh Card which gives me 5% cashback for shopping online or using mobile payments like Apple Pay, Android Pay or Samsung Pay. And not just cashback, you also earn points for your purchases as well so for spending online, you are getting cashback and points. Do make sure that you are using the correct credit card to be eligible for getting the maximum rewards for online shopping.
2. Compare among Different Websites
To ensure that you are getting the best deal for the item or service that you are buying online, search for it online and see which are the websites selling it. It will be good to record down the prices that are being sold on the various websites for easier reference. For me when i buy physical products, I will usually search on Lazada, Qoo10 and Shopee since they are the biggest marketplace websites in Singapore.
3. Use Cashback Websites to get Cashback for your Online Purchases
Do check out for cashback websites to get cashback from the websites that you are looking to purchase from. These cashback websites get paid commissions for referring customers to shopping websites and in return, the cashback websites share this commission with you so that you will return to the cashback websites and shop through them again. One of the biggest cashback website in Singapore is Shopback where they have more than 300 merchants on their website for you to shop from and get cashbacks.
For example, if you are travelling overseas and looking to book a hotel via Booking.com, you will be able to get 9.0% cashback for your hotel stay from Booking.com via Shopback. And combined with the 5.0% credit card cashback from DBS Live Fresh Credit Card, you would have saved 14.0% off your hotel stay from Booking.com
4. Subscribe to the newsletter of Shopping Websites to know the latest promotions
In order to increase sales, most shopping websites regularly send out electronic direct mailing (EDM) to inform users about the latest offers and promotions that they are having. Do subscribe to it so that you can find out the best deals that are being offered. Sometimes that promotion may not be easily found on the websites so it helps to be subscribed to the newsletter.
5. Search for the Credit Card and shopping websites on google to find out if there are any partnerships
To increase sales, some shopping websites may have tie up with credit card companies that gives you discounts for using certain credit cards.
Take lazada for instance, they have tie up with quite a number of banks such as DBS, OCBC, Citibank and Standard Charted. Below are the landing pages for the various credit card tie up and the day that it occurs.
- Monday: http://www.lazada.sg/citibank-credit-card-promotion/
- Tuesday: http://www.lazada.sg/hsbc-credit-card-promotion/
- Wednesday: http://www.lazada.sg/standard-chartered-credit-card-promotion/
- Thursday: http://www.lazada.sg/maybank-credit-card-promotion/
- Friday: http://www.lazada.sg/dbs-credit-card-promotion/
- Saturday: http://www.lazada.sg/citibank-credit-card-promotion/
- Sunday: http://www.lazada.sg/citibank-credit-card-promotion/
And these are the other credit cards with no specific days.
6. Be rewarded for being Loyal
To increase customer retention, some websites offer rewards to users for shopping on their websites regularly. For Qoo10, they offer Qoo10 points, Qstamp, mameQ and mameball. For Lazada, they have a ranking system of Bronze, Silver and Gold which require you to make certain number of purchases in the month to be reward with a voucher code of different amount. The higher your rank, the more discounts you get in the form of voucher code.
7. Use Voucher Codes
Search for voucher codes online which can help you to save huge amounts if you are buying something expensive and the voucher code mechanics works on a percentage with no caps. If there are caps, there is still ways to work around it by splitting your purchases to get the maximum savings. If using the voucher code "TENOFF" gives you 10% off capped at $10 discount, this means the maximum price of the items in the shopping cart should be $100.
For example, you are buying two items that cost $110 each and there is the voucher code "TENOFF". There are two ways to purchase it.
Method A
- Purchase both items in 1 transaction and get $10 savings.
Method B
- Purchase each item separately in 2 transactions and get $20 savings in total.
If the voucher code only allow 1 usage per day, use another person's account to make the purchase.
8. Record your Online Purchases
You should record all your online purchases for 2 main reasons. One is to ensure that the price you pay and the amount that you get charged by the bank is the same for local online transactions. The other reasons is to keep track of the items that you bought and to know whether you received it or not and if a cancellation or refund is made, you know how much you should be getting back and when.
9. Login to website, add the Items to Cart and exit the website
Some website with very robust CRM would send you emails and notifications if the items that you left in the shopping cart had price reductions. Instead of having to constantly check the website, use this simple tip and you will be alerted if the item becomes cheaper. This is helpful if you are not urgent on getting the item and can wait for it.
10. Constantly visit the website and click on the items that you want to purchase
To increase sales with ads, some companies use retargeting ads via Criteo or Adroll. What happens is that if you click on some products from the shopping websites and then visit other websites, you will sees advertisement of products from that shopping websites. They did it this way such that eventually you will succumb into buying the items. Some of the ads may also show you the latest pricing of the product so if the price drops, you will be "notified" via the ads and click on it to make the purchase.
11. Ask Around
Simply ask your friends if they have bought something similar to what you are looking for as a easier alternative to finding the best deals. High chance that someone who bought the item that you are looking for would have done all the work in finding the best deals. Simply ask them without spending time searching high and low for the best deals.
Below is the summary of the 11 tips and tricks that all Smart Online Shoppers must Know
- Get the Right Credit Card
- Compare among different websites
- Use cashback websites
- Subscribe to the newsletters
- Search for landing page with promotions
- Be a Loyal Customers
- Use Voucher Codes
- Record your purchases
- Add items to cart and leave the websites
- Constantly click on the items and look out for their ads
- Ask Around
What are some of the tips or tricks that you would recommend others to do when shopping online? Go ahead to comment and don't forget to subscribe via email or like the Facebook Page for the latest updates!
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