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Online Shopping Tips

Online shopping is growing rapidly, and if you are just jumping on that cyber bandwagon to find the latest deals and steals on your favorite products and services, then you need to know a few tips when you do online shopping.

• When paying for your online purchases, make sure the site you are on is secure. You can view whether a site is secured and encrypted by looking for the SSL Encryption image. You can also tell if a web page is secure if in the URL it starts off with ‘https:’ with an (s) after the http.
• You also need to decide whether you want to pay using debit or credit. It is often better to use credit cards because it is simply an extension of credit; whereas your debit card is linked directly to your bank account, and hackers can easily hack it if you go to an insecure site.
• Keep in mind when you shop and buy online that you may have to pay a restocking fee if you need to return the item you bought. You can view each site’s return policies before you purchase the product to make sure you know what you’re getting yourself into before you buy. Electronics and large items often require a restocking fee if you return them.
• Use online coupon and promo codes. CouponAmigos showcases coupon codes for shoppers to use so they can save money during checkout. If you visit a popular shopping site, you should peruse through our list of merchants to see if we have any coupons for you to use.
• Try to plan what you want to purchase online. If there are multiple products you want to buy online, check to see if there is free shipping available, or if you can buy from one retailer so the products will ship all at once. This saves time and money out of your pocket because you will likely qualify for free shipping if you reach a certain dollar amount with one site.
• Look for sites that offer free shipping. There are retailers that have coupon and promo codes that you can enter in to receive free shipping once you are finish shopping. There are other retailers that require you to have a minimum dollar amount that you need to spend before you qualify for free shipping.
• Check the retailer’s ratings online. If you are unsure of a retailer, you can search and read reviews from past customers. You can also check out other consumer reporting organizations to see if the company you want to shop at is reputable.
• Review the company’s customer service satisfaction ratings online. If a company has poor customer service ratings, you may run into a difficult time if you need to obtain any information from them, such as tracking numbers, returns, and refunds.
• If you decide you want to shop on Cyber Monday, you need to make sure you have all your coupons ready to go and to be on the sites you want to purchase from as soon as the sales start. You can even put all the products in your cart and save them until the sale starts so you are not going around on the site looking for the products you want to buy. This gives you a better chance at getting the product before it becomes sold out.
• To get prepared for Black Friday sales, you can search for coupon codes that can be used in the store at checkout. You should have these up on your mobile device so you are ready to show them when you are checking out at local retail stores. For online Black Friday deals, you can search through the stores advertisements a week before the sale begins so you know what you want to purchase and where to go online before it becomes sold out.
• Green Monday is another great shopping holiday, especially if you want to buy from an auction site, like eBay. You would have to create your own account if you want to bid on auctions so you can get a discounted deal on your favorite products.
• Make sure when you are shopping online on Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Green Monday is to prepare your accounts online by completing all the billing, shipping and payment information so you can reduce the amount of time at checkout before the products you added to your cart are sold out.

These are a few helpful tips for you so you can shop online safely during the holiday season and the times in between. Check out what we have for online coupons to your favorite retailers.