Are you shopping online to save time, money and gas?
‘œTime is money.’ ‘“ Benjamin Franklin
TIME.com recently reported that visits to online shopping sites are increasing. You would think people would be buying less these days. But wait ‘“ it makes sense that consumers are searching progressively more online instead of driving around, looking for deals and ultimately wasting time, money and gasoline.
In the column, Bill Tancer, an online search expert at Hitwise, points out:
When I draw a chart, I start with a hypothesis. In studying online shopping’s relationship to our shaky economy ‘“ from high oil prices to the housing crisis and talks of recession ‘“ I expected that a chart of visits to online retailers would show a precipitous decline. According to the latest Reuters/University of Michigan Consumer Index, consumer confidence has reached the lowest level in 28 years. Yet the facts show that my hypothesis is completely wrong: Visits to online shopping sites are up compared to the previous year.
What are you buying online these days that you didn’t buy online a year or two ago?
1. Home-delivered entertainment items like DVD’s (e.g. have you made the switch to Netflix, instead of driving to Blockbuster?), CD’s, books, etc.
2. Computers and electronics
3. Clothing and accessories
4. Health items like vitamins and prescription drugs
5. Groceries (if you live in Seattle, now there’s AmazonFresh, otherwise, I’m not sure what healthy, organic options you have.)
6. Any item that can be bought used.
The Time.com article continues:
Online comparison shopping engines such as Shopzilla, Shopping.com and Pricegrabber, have, as a category, increased at a rate of 59.9% over the previous year’¦ The online classifieds website Craigslist.org is up 93.4% comparing the week ending May 31, 2008 to the same time period in 2007.
It appears more people are shopping online looking for deals and buying second-hand items too. But PC Magazine suggests that you can even find the best gas prices on the Web:
A site like GasBuddy.com or GasPriceWatch.com lets you search by ZIP code or city and state to find the cheapest per-gallon price in your neck of the woods. If you’re already on the road you can access GasBuddyToGo.com from your phone’s browser, or send a text message or e-mail with your city, state, and ZIP to gas@gasbuddy.com and you’ll get a reply quoting the five lowest-cost locations in that area.
Or instead of the cheapest, why not pre-pay at today’s prices’¦ kind of like the USPS ‘œForever Stamp’ version of gas. Mashable reports:
MyGallons.com is a new web site offering you the ability to pre-pay for gas at today’s prices, under the assumption that prices will continue to rise. For example, if you buy 20 gallons at today’s price of $4.10 on MyGallons and the price is up to $4.50 next time you fill up, using your MyGallons card would save you $8.
But be careful. MyGallons received some recent bad press. Although they’ve announced a new payment network because of it’¦ still, proceed cautiously if you decide to sign up.
Finally, whatever you’re buying, just make sure you’re a happy online shopper’¦ as it’s been reported that sad shoppers spend 4 times as much money.
So what are you buying these days online? And are you saving money and gas because of it? Please feel free to comment below.
Love this post..
I do most of my “shopping” online usually looking for used.
I start by going to Amazon to find out what the current cheapest price for New is. This works well as Amazon seems to carry just about Everything.
Then I run a check on Ebay to find out what the Market is actually paying.. the trip to Amazon lets me know if the Ebay Price is also Unrealistic. Like anything else you have to do a little research before you buy something so you won’t be ripped off. Sometimes new at Amazon is cheaper than used on Ebay…especially with free Super Saver Shipping over $25.
A final Google of the item name plus the word “price” or “cheapest price” usually gets me some more hits to check out before making my buying decision.
Two points to be made here.
For those who will say they don’t want to “Waste Time” searching on the Internet it is a a LOT less time and expense to spend 10 or 15 minutes searching than to drive to a store while spending a couple of dollars of gas in the HOPE that the store has what you want…remember they could have it but its “out of stock” so you just wasted a trip.
Secondly for those who say “EEEEWWWWWW” at something used.
The Difference between Brand New and Used is the length of time it takes to open the Box its packaged in.
~ Roland
I like Roland’s approach. I do basically the same thing except instead of googling for “cheapest price”, I run a froogle search. Also, sometimes I check out retailmenot.com to see if there are any discount coupons listed for the store I am making the purchase at.
Dima
Although I consider myself a fairly web-savvy person, I don’t do much shopping online. Like the Roland, the previous commenter, I tend to do my research online. I’m not a big spender so I don’t buy much of anything online. The only exception would be books. I prefer going to the library but for gifts, I spend most of my online cash at Amazon. That’s about it, but I am curious about Zip.ca (Canada’s Netflix).
I do a decent amount of price comparison shopping online. I like the idea of finding the cheapest gas prices using the web – I’m going to try that next time I need to fill up!
For Unspending…
I read enormously as well and usually buy a lot of books however I only use Amazon as a last ditch.
For older out of print I use http://www.bookfinder.com but you still have to do a little digging as a book may be listed multiple times with so much as a single letter difference in the Title or Author name….I do check Amazon for the “Buy It Used”.
The other place I trade is Edward Hamilton the largest purveyor of remaindered books in the world.
He finally put up a website a couple of years ago http://www.hamiltonbooks.com but there is a catch…from his paper catalog (newspaper size and monthly with thousands of books up to 99% off cover price) you only have the choice of paying with Check or Money Order and shipping is a Flat $3.50 no matter how many books you buy.
From the website (updated daily) you may use a Credit Card but shipping is $3.95 for the First Book and $1 for each additional book…but you have the option of filling in the Order Blank and printing it out and sending the check or money order and shipping reverts to the Flat $3.50.
I usually go for the Bargain/Clearance section and I’ve spent $100 and gotten 40 mostly hardback books for that including shipping…and some of them are Signed Copies including the current one I’m reading.
~ Roland
Roland: Love this comment. Really! I plan to save it offline and ask you down the road if I can reprint it as a guest post. We can call it Three Easy Steps to Finding the Best and Cheapest Used Items Online. Those were great tips on buying used books as well!
Dima: I’m getting ready to buy a swimsuit online at JCrew.com so I took your advice and checked out RetailMeNot.com. Unfortunately, when I searched for JCrew coupons this is what popped up:
Maybe I should scan the swim collection at BananaRepublic instead.
Unspending: Here’s a current review of all the Netflix alternatives in Canada… in case you want to comparison shop these services from the comfort of your laptop!
Erica: Please stop back and report on if the gas search was a success!
Thanks for that link Nina. I wasn’t aware of these alternatives!
I confess I have been swayed to buying used clothes, shoes, underwear and cosmetics- and recently learned that it saves gas to have groceries delivered which many places do for free (multiple deliveries per van trip!) But I suggest always making sure the company you shop with will send packages styrofoam and bubble free, all-recyclable (and preferably recycled materials).
Moorea: You’re one of the best when it comes to the frugal economics of buying used! As always, thanks for your contributions to Queercents.