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A lot of people who live in metropolitan areas will never have this problem, but I live in a town of 6,000 people in rural South Dakota. There’s no Wal-Mart or CostCo, and we only have four fast food restaurants to speak of. If I want to go any store of any decent size, I have to travel 45 miles away to Sioux Falls, which is a city of 150,000 people or so. I usually only get out there once every couple of weeks, so I end up buying quite a bit of stuff online. I’ve got an eBay rating of near 100 just from the stuff I’ve bought over the last few years, and I’ve picked up quite a few tips for shopping through the internet. Here are some tips to make sure you get the best deal when shopping online.

Selecting the Best Product – If you want to order a digital camera, you don’t just go to your favorite store and pick out one, or just buy one that looks okay from some shop online. You want to read an electronic equivalent of consumer reports. We know that they’re not all made the same, and we want some reviews of what we’re going to buy. Google comes in very handy here. Search for terms such as “digital camera reviews”, do lots of reading, and pick out one that looks good. After you found a digital camera or whatever product that looks good, search for reviews of that specific product, and make sure it’ll meet your needs.

Finding the Best Price – There are a few price comparison engines out there that’ll find you the best price on the one specific product that you’re interested in. Two good price comparison shopping tools are PriceGrabber.com and Google Product Search (formerly called Froogle). They’ll go through thousands of online retailers and find you the best price on the one product you are interested in.

Ensuring the Retailer’s Reputability – Just as there are some stores you would never shop at in real life, there are stores that on the internet that you just shouldn’t go to. This could be because of their customer service problems, high prices, or shady business practices. You can pretty easily know what stores not to shop in by asking around in real life, but that’s not so easy online. Fortunately there’s a service online called Reseller Ratings which allows consumers to post their reviews of online retailers they’ve dealt with. It’s really a solid service, and you should always make sure that the retailer you are dealing with is reputable before ever making an order online.

Look For Specials – Let’s say that you’ve found a pretty good deal on a new computer from Dell. You have it configured just the way you want it, and are very happy with what you’ve selected. You still might be able to get a better deal. Open up Google and search for the retailer’s name and then the word coupons, (ie “Dell Coupons” or “Dell Dimension 9150 Coupons”) and you might be able to get a little bit better of a deal. When I ordered a new system, I was able to get free shipping and an upgrade on my hard-drive for nothing by searching for coupons online!

Order – Once you’ve selected a product, have found the best deal and are sure that the reputation of the reseller that you’re dealing with is reputable, go ahead and get the product that you want! Be sure to look through the box when it does come, it’ll often contain some extra coupons! If you had a rebate, make sure you send it in right away!



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