Or How To Never, Ever Pay For Shipping
(Prosperity - Brian S. Glaser) When 'tis the season for shopping online? Just like those stores with walls, online retailers have sales seasons too, which aren’t always actively promoted (a lot of sites, like Amazon, seem to have everything on sale always).
The key to getting the best deals is knowing that web shops are either A) publicly held, offering stock to shareholders, or B) they want to be publicly held, and need to impress underwriting banks. As with other stock-driven companies, this mindset drives Web company CEOs to make their numbers each fiscal quarter.
This means that retailers with e-shops (including catalogue companies like Land's End and JCrew) will generally make a special offer at least once every 90-day fiscal quarter. Don't want to pay JCrew to ship that new A-line dress? Then don't - you’ll get an offer for free shipping (for a limited time, of course) in a month or two. Want a new GPS device? Tech e-tailers the whole 'net 'round will probably cut prices near the end of each fiscal cycle.
Of course, they won't always make this obvious. One important step to saving e-bucks is to sign up for customer newsletters. "Oh, great" you say, "now I can get even more spam." Turn the spam into bacon by setting up a separate e-mail account for your e-shopping, using a free webmail service (create something like shopsmart@yahoo.com, @gmail.com or @hotmail.com). Web companies are thrilled to have lists of prospective customers to show off to investors, (Did I mention our email list? Click here to sign up.) and they're likely to make it worth your while with a regular stream of coupons and exclusive offers.
The real-world calendar is also important to keep an eye on. Stores of every stripe run "holiday" sales all the time, but some are better bets than others. Every wonder what the heck President's Day has to do with shopping? Late February is near the end of the year's first fiscal quarter. Honest Abe might get you a better deal on a new laptop than St. Nick will, because any retailer that had poor holiday numbers can't afford another disappointing quarter - hence the free printer and free 2-day shipping thrown in for President's Day Weekend. Look at where other holidays fall in the calendar (Memorial Day is at the end of the year's 5th month, Labor Day winds up the summer quarter, etc.) and you'll become an expert at predicting when that new digital camera will suddenly be 25 bucks cheaper.
Learn to be an e-shopper who thinks like an e-seller and you'll save money, get what you need and never pay for shipping.
