The best buys for the holiday season are online

The holiday shopping season is enough to drive anyone a little crazy, but with a little forethought and a small investment in time, you can save big! Here are a few essential tips for the shop til you drop season that will allow you to buy what you want for less. In this series you'll receive valuable advice on how you can benefit from shopping online intelligently!

Shopping Online
You may love to browse with your senses, but if you're into saving green, shopping online is where it's at. Online stores offer a pelthora of discounts and offers that can save you a lot of money, and using my step by step method, you can buy almost anything for less than you would at a retail location:

1. Go to the store - in order to avoid disappointment, bad fits, or just plain ordering something you don't want, it's best to go to the actual store and try it out before venturing into the world of e-commerce. Having viewed the item that you will actually get will save you a lot of trouble in returns.

2. Conduct an online search - see what is out there and compare. Google provides an excellent opportunity to see where the item is being sold. You can also use spiders that crawl various online stores and return a range of prices, such as Froogle, but be careful because not all prices are acurate and not all stores are searched.

3. Once you find the best price take a look at whether or not you will be charged tax and shipping fees. Sometimes the lowest price is not always the best because these additional costs will hike up your final cost.

4. Search for coupon codes - Type the store name and "coupon code" in the Google search field and see if there are any additional discounts available. Even free shipping codes can save you a bundle!

5. Sign up for a site that will give you rewards or cash back for shopping online. Upromise or ebates are good sites that have a variety of online retail partners. Make sure you then shop through the link on their site so that you can claim the reward, usually in the form of a % back on your purchase.

6. This is a general piece of advice - if you have a favorite store or you are casually shopping for something in particular, it pays to sign up for a site's newsletter - you can receive valuable discount and coupon codes in the e-mail newsletters they send out, especially during the holiday season!

7. Don't forget to visit deal websites that compile sales and coupon code information for you. www.Slickdeals.net is a great site that has amazing bargains - I have it as my homepage!!

Happy holidays and happy shopping!