Tuesday Tip: Great Online Shopping Tips

by Cheryl Sklar

Online Shopping Tips Network 1 ConsultingThere are several ways to save when buying online – now, during the holiday season and even throughout the year.

Get price drop alerts.
PricePinx.com notifies you when an item that you want to buy is marked down. You sign up (free) and PricePinx allows you to request price drop alerts for any product on almost any retailer’s website.

Most people really love gift cards.
At CardCash.com, you can buy discounted gift cards or sell unwanted gift cards, so none of them go to waste. The service comes with a 45-Day Buyer Protection plan, to help protect you against gift card fraud. This also encourages you to use that card within 45 days – a lot of gift cards go to waste when people forget to redeem them.

Online Shopping ScamsBeware of scam artists.
Look out for “retail arbitrage,” where dealers buy hot products at low prices and then sell them higher on Amazon or eBay. To avoid this, Google the product name along with the phrase “best price.” There’s also “dynamic pricing,” where online prices can fluctuate based on your search history, competitors’ pricing or other data. To avoid this, open a private browser window, where you can shop incognito and bypass cookies, those digital bread crumbs that our searches leave online. To open a private browser window (in Windows using Chrome or Chrome), press Control + Shift +N. On a Mac, press Command + Shift + N.

Also, when you receive emails you may not be expecting or from anyone that you don’t know, click on or hover over the sender’s email address to make sure it’s a legitimate email. Many bad guys pretend to be Amazon or FedEx or your bank.

Investigate Amazon a little more deeply.
Their prices change rapidly. Check camelcamelcamel.com for the cost history of anything on Amazon. They can also track pricing and send you price drop alerts. Amazon Outlet is a huge warehouse where watches, toys and other items are typically 40-80% off. Many people don’t realize that Amazon offers daily rollbacks on household and grocery items. Under the Today’s Deals tab, click Coupons on the left sidebar under the section Deal Type.

Be happy.
gretchen-rubinAnd for when you’re getting stressed out and looking for ways to decompress and be happy, I found this great “happiness guru” who shares her wisdom about ways to be happy. Gretchen Rubin continuously studies the pursuit of happiness and good habits, sharing great ideas through The Happiness Project (among other books), her podcast, a monthly newsletter and constantly updated happiness tips.

Enjoy this crazy holiday season. Find ways to take time to relax, enjoy your family and friends, and appreciate all that is good. Here’s wishing you Happy Holidays and a healthy, happy New Year!

 

Cheryl SklarCheryl Sklar With over 26 years of experience in sales, marketing and general coordination, Cheryl uses her varied organizational skills to enhance the behind-the-scenes efficiency of Network 1. She strives to help things run smoothly wherever she can.

csklar@network1consulting.com or 404.997.7641

Network 1 Consulting is an 18-year-oldIT Support company in Atlanta, GA. We become – or augment – the IT department for law firms and medical practices. Our IT experts can fix computers, but what our clients value most are the industry-specific best practices we bring to their firms. This is especially important since technology, along with its associated regulations and threats, changes so rapidly. We take a proactive approach to helping our clients use technology to gain and keep their competitive advantage.

Tony Rushin Headshot

Tony Rushin: In his role as VP of sales & marketing, he is responsible for hiring, managing and coaching the sales team and always staying on top of (and meeting) the needs of clients. Under his leadership, the company has steadily grown each year.

Network 1 designs, builds and supports the IT you need to run your business more securely, productively and successfully. Whether you want to outsource all of your IT needs to a reliable, responsive, service-oriented company, or need to supplement the work of your internal IT staff, we will carefully evaluate where you are now, discuss where you want to go and implement and support a plan to get you there with as little interruption as possible.

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