How To Bag A Bargain Online

Ok, I realise you can’t literally put a bargain in a bag, as you would when you buying from a bricks and mortar store, but there are plenty of saving to be had online. It is estimated that Australians spent $17.9 billion online shopping in the last 12 months. That’s a lot of shopping!  So how do you go about shopping in the comfort of your own home? You just need to know the rules of online shopping:

Work Out What You Want To Buy

Impulse buying inevitably ends up being buyers regret. Just as you would buying from a retail store, buying online can be a hazard for those who have no self control or need to do some retail therapy. It is incredibly easy to continue adding items to your ‘shopping basket’ online, before you know it there may be 10 or so items in there! Do you really need another stripe top, white shirt or black heels?

Before you even contemplate going online, go through your wardrobe, clear out any clothing and shoes that no longer fit, are worn out or well, just don’t like anymore. Ebay the clothing you want to sell, donate to charity the rest and bin the worn out pieces.  Then work out what you do need. New pants/blazer/skirts for work? New jeans? A new pair of ballet flats, perhaps?

Do Your Research

If you are after a particular item, do your homework before heading online. Look at your local retail stores and see what the average retail price is for that item,  find that item online and then find the best price you can. I recently did this with G-Shock watches we bought our eldest and youngest sons for Christmas. We saved over $200 on one and the other was half the price of the RRP.

Save time and money by using one site

Of course, it can take hours to scour the internet for the best deals for just one item, so how can you save time as well as money shopping online? On one site, of course! FashionLane offers just that, a website where you can find the best fashion sales from 110 online fashion stores. Instead of visiting every fashion store and going through their sales individually, Fashion Lane aggregates all sales and lists them, sorted by the highest discount.

FashionLane gathers products from many well-known fashion stores such as ASOS, The Iconic, SABA, SurfStitch, Sportscraft, Seed Heritage, Florsheim… and monitors product price drop daily. This allows shoppers quickly find the best sale for the day or week (time range adjustable) instead of searching sale sections of each store’s website.

Products are automatically sorted by discount so shoppers can easily find the best-discounted product.

New stores are being added every week. Product prices and availability are updated daily and there are automated and manual checks to ensure product information are accurate.

FashionLane works best when you have something generic in mind that you want to buy. For example, you might want to purchase t-shirts. You can go to FashionLane, mouse over Women at the top menu, then Clothing, then click on T-Shirts & Singlets. You should see all T-Shirts & Singlets sorted by highest discount.

Who needs to trawl through hundreds of websites when you can go to Fashion Lane and find what you are looking for, at the cheapest price? We love it!

Shop safe

Always protect your payment details when buying online. When using your Credit or Debit card to make purchases, make sure the checkout is secure by checking the URL contains https (not just http). Most online stores will also display a lock in the toolbar at checkout.

I always purchase items online via Paypal if it is available, as this gives you protection from fraudulent sites or disputed purchases (ie. if your purchase isn’t delivered, if it is faulty or you don’t receive the right item/s). It’s nice to have a backup and piece of mind if something goes wrong.

I hope these tips have helped with your online shopping journey. If you have any questions, hints or tips, please leave a comment below.

#SP This post was a sponsored post in conjunction with FashionLane in accordance with our Disclosure Policy.