The Top Five Tips to finding the Best Prices Online

It’s all very well to say that the best prices can be found online, but if don’t have a great deal of time, you’re reasonably new to the web, haven’t yet used it a lot for shopping or haven’t a clue where to start with price comparison, the whole process can be totally baffling, because there are so many options.

Also you’re probably not just looking for what are traditionally the best types of products for price comparison, such as appliances, cameras, audio equipment and computers – you may be searching for clothing, beauty products, gifts and home accessories.  So where do you start?

1.  Do your Research

If you’re looking for anything based on a specific product, you need to do your research first.  It’s not enough just to put Sony Laptop, or Canon Camera, into the search engine or price comparison site, you will get the best results if you know exactly which one you’re shopping for.  So pay a visit to somewhere such as which.co.uk, where you can find unbiased reviews of most products, or pcadvisor.co.uk for computers, mobiles and cameras.

Also take a look at the product manufacturer’s website – they won’t necessarily be offering you the best prices but if you know the brand you want but you’re just not quite sure of the exact specification, you can choose here, and then go on to price compare.
 
2.  Price Comparing. 

There are literally hundreds of price comparison websites, and one of the things that you have to remember is that every retailer shown has paid to be there, and in some cases has paid to be at the top of the list.  You will find a great choice from a number of different retailers in the same place, but you won’t find all the retailers together, anywhere, so you need to check more than one.

They’ve grown up hugely in terms of design and usability and some of them offer attractive shopping experiences rather than just lists of products.  My favourites are kelkoo.co.uk, pricerunner.co.uk and shopping.com.

For clothing, accessories, homewares and gifts I would pay a visit to shop.com.  These are not traditionally products for price comparison but shop.com have made a very good job of bringing these types of products together from places you may or may not already know.

3.  Food and Drink

The price wars are on and every one is competing hard for your business.   Comparing a shopping basket (or large trolley) of food and drink items can be quite difficult and all the supermarkets will be running different offers at different times as well as trying to undercut each other. 

This is a great time for you, the customer, so have a quick browse round your favourite online supermarkets and grab the offers when they come up.  This may mean you will have to buy in advance as offers always have an end date.  For example Tesco are currently offering £5 off a bottle of Smirnoff Blue Label vodka, but the end date is December 1st  – so if I want that offer I need to buy now.

4.  Clothing and Accessories

Now one of the fastest growing areas of online retail there are sales and offers going on pretty well all the time.  Most of the large designer online boutiques, including Matches Fashion, My Wardrobe and Browns have permanent sale sections.  ASOS has its Outlet, and there are great bargains to be found at The Outnet and Yoox. 

Also keep your eye on the department stores, such as John Lewis, Debenhams, and House of Fraser, all of whom have excellent special offers, particularly in the lead up to Christmas.

For seriously good, short time only discounts and real bargains you should sign up to vente-privee.com, Cocosa and Brand Alley and make sure you get their emails about the next big offering.  They all run specific designer sales that only last a few days, and if you want to grab that top designer handbag for an astonishing discount you need to be there at the start, because they get sold out extremely fast.  Yes they will all send you more emails than you will want to read, but for discounts they’re unbeatable.

5.  Voucher Codes and Coupons

I’m sure you’ve heard about these – you can’t have missed them and again there’s another price war going on.  If you read a lot of magazines (particularly Grazia) you’ll have seen them; 30% off at this store, 15% off at that one, free delivery here, a free pizza there and a code you have to use with each one.  Take a look at myvouchercodes.co.uk, vouchercodes.com and vouchercodes.co.uk if you have the time to browse and want to take advantage of some short term deals on the web.

About the Author

Author of six books on shopping online published by John Wiley under the franchise The Shopaholic’s Guides. Founder of http://www.thesiteguide.com and http://www.glamoursleuth.com. Web consultant.

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