While online shopping is a lot convenient from traditional brick-and-mortar stores, it can be equally draining. Discovering the best deal at your favorite brands can be daunting. But who said the deals and offers are the only ways you can use to save money shopping online?

Discover 9 savvy and less-known ways to save good all the time.

1.   New: Curbside Pickup

Curbside shopping isn't entirely a new business model, but it has seen rage due to COVID breakdown.

If you're unaware, curbside shopping means when you buy from a store online and the store offers you a set location, like a warehouse, to pick your items from there anytime. It saves you delivery charges. Besides, you can save yourself and others against COVID.

Before buying, check whether the store you're buying from offers curbside pickup. If so, avail the offer. Then, you can pick your item when on the way to work, coming back home, or when you're simply driving by. Here are some big retailers offering 'click and collect' services:

●      Walmart

●      Target

●      John Lewis

●      Zara

●      Nike

●      Starbucks

Visit the website of the retailer you buy frequently from, from their FAQs page, check if they offer curbside pickup. Or, speak directly to their customer support.

2.   Get all at once

Popular and common, but if you're unaware, listen to this:

You can score major discounts when you buy items at bulk. You might get offers like 'free shipping', 'two items free when you buy five', or '20% percent discount after spending X amount'. 

That's true for the products you use more often - like your personal care items, wearable, or even your meds.

3.   Wait, Bait, and Hunt

Wait for it - even if you're tempted to get that item delivered at your door-front right now, or you want to book that flight now for the next month.

Brands run sales and discounts every now and then. All you need to do is to keep track of them through their social pages. Whenever they announce a new sale, well, you're already armed to hunt.

Plus, wait for seasonal or holiday sales like Christmas, Easter, Eid, or Black Friday. Every brand, whether it's related to clothes, accessories, gadgets, or even grocery, runs hot offers during those days. Plan out your time, make a full list, and buy all those necessary items at bulk to score even more bargains. Here's a detailed resource to help you discover when the next sale is coming, and what to buy at that time:

4.   Get Free Cash backs & Rewards

If there are products you frequently shop for, like your wearable or personal care products, get them from the same brand every time. Brands love loyal and repeat customers because that's where their most business comes from.

And to keep you coming again and again, they give you exclusive cash back or side gifts. Avail that.

See if they've memberships or reward programs. Join them. You can get early bird discounts, members-only offers, and a lot more.

Cash backs and rewards are mostly famous with airlines and credit cards. But as the competition in the retail industry grows, retailers are making their offers sweeter. Visit those brands you frequently buy from, check if they've such programs or rewards. Join, and save money every single time you shop.

5.   Join their Mailing List

It's one of the simplest ways to save money while shopping online. Here's the plan:

Create a new separate email. Join the mailing list of the brands you love. Most probably, you'll get a discount offer just by joining their mailing list. But, here's when it gets even more interesting:

Brands frequently update about their next big sales and discount offers in their newsletters. Email list is always the first one who gets to know this. In fact, sometimes their offers are only exclusive to their subscribers.

So, join their newsletters, and wait for the next biggest offers from your favorite brands, mailed straight into your inbox. You don't have to do any work for this one.

6.   Sneaky "Cart" Game

So, this is a less-known savvy trick you can play to get a discount or a free shipping offer. Here's how it will work:

Make a list of items that you don't need urgently. Visit your favorite brand online; make sure you're signed in there. Find those items, and 'add them to cart'. Don't proceed to checkout. Leave it like this, and close the tab. You'll receive follow up emails to complete your purchase, as long as the items stay in the 'cart'.

Brands might play psychological tricks like 'few items left in the inventory' to create a sense of urgency, and try to make you complete the purchase. But, you're smart.

Wait until they give you a 10% discount or free shipping offer. You know what to do next. And you can do this all the time - perfectly legal, and savvy.

7.   Go Anonymously

Browsing anonymously can help you save money while shopping online. Wondering how exactly? Listen to this:

Whenever you visit a website, you see a pop up related to 'cookies'. When you click 'allow' or 'accept cookies', you're giving permission to track your web activities. Based on that, brands can set 'dynamic pricing', higher or lower, depending upon your location, or previous purchases. If you're a frequent online shopper, you've probably experienced this: you visit their website, you see the set price, and when you come back the next day to buy, the price sky-rocketed 20% higher, "surprisingly".

But, you can outwit that by anonymous browsing so they won't be able to track you anymore. Then you can easily get the unbiased prices, and get the desired product in the desired price range. Here's how to shop online without revealing too much about you:

●      Clear your 'cookies', 'caches', and 'browsing history'.

●      Log out of your emails, or any other social account in your browser.

●      Or, open an incognito tab, and shop from there.

●      Or, even better, use Tor Browser that doesn't let anyone track your web activities.

You can also compare prices through different websites to see which one is best for your wallet. Here are your reliable options:

●      Google Shopping

●      Price Runner

●      Kelkoo

Make sure you do the same every time, like clearing the cookies, history, and cache. And shop from an incognito tab or Tor Browser.

8.   Make a List of what you 'need'

You want to save money while shopping online? Make a list, and stick to it. Here's why.

Shopping online is easy, seamless, and 'customized' according to each visitor. You're not worried about the fatigue of carrying the shopping bag with you to home. You're relaxed sitting on your couch, probably drinking coffee. You search for a product that you actually need, and you see relevant products in the suggestions. Those look attractive because of high end product photos, enticing titles, and descriptions. You're distracted, you click on them just to see, and the next thing you know, you've already added two extra items in your cart. That's when you're breaking your bank without even realising.

So, here's the plan:

●      Make a list of everything you actually 'need'.

●      Don't hover over anything else, just to even see.

●      Process the payments, close all tabs, and you've won. 

Do this every time before shopping online for whatever need you may have.

9.   Search for discounts, vouchers, and offers

Obviously. The popular way to cut through prices online is to avail discounts and voucher codes, given by brands. But, do you know, right now, how many brands are running hot offers as we speak? You don't because there are hundreds of brands in the UK, and how can anyone possibly know that? It's almost impossible to keep track of all of them. But...imagine...if you could?

Here's how:

Visit websites like "Findbestvouchers" and "CouponBlender", to update yourself with the latest discount codes, vouchers, and offers every hour. All at one place.

Type your desired product category in the search bar there, and you'll be amazed to see the deals on different brands. Copy offer codes, apply at the checkout, and save money. Every single time. It's that easy.

Wrapping Up

Getting the best deal is always fun and exciting, but that doesn't mean you need to get low-quality products that might provide little to no value out of your money. Find the best products, with authentic positive reviews, and use one of above savvy ways to save money while shopping online.