Buying online can save you cash but you can save even more if you don't cut down on shipping costs. Some merchants will offer free shipping if you buy items worth a certain amount of money but what if you don't want to spend that much? That's why you should plan to buy things online in one batch. And if you can get friends in on it, anytime you want to buy anything, you can buy whatever you need together and you'd save some cash on shipping fees. How else do you think someone who buys stuff regularly online can slash their shipping fees?
One other way is to sign up for the "promotions" that online companies have, Amazon and eBay have a lot of promotions that will literally slash your shipping costs, also, there are other promotions that will significantly reduce the purchase price of the item, so that you PROBABLY end up paying the shipping but a lot less on the actually purchase price of the item! I say- do not bypass those promotions! use them!
I do try to buy online in one go whenever possible. But if that’s not an option… well, I don’t like to buy stuff I don’t need, so I’ve considered looking for gifts for my friends to meet the free-shipping threshold on certain sites. The extra nice thing about that is I have plenty of time to consider whether something is really suitable for that person. I don’t always feel like I have the time to do that when I’m browsing brick-and-mortar shops.
When I go to Listia I only search for free shipping items. I don't waste my time with anything else. When I go to ebay I look for free shipping but I also look to see if the cheaper one with shipping costs is less than the more expensive one with free shipping.
I couldn't agree more. I used to buy stuff on a piecemeal basis and though it looked as if only a small amount was charged, if I sum up all my piecemeal shipping fees, I swear I'd be able to buy a pair of Converse shoes already. Now that I've seen the error of my ways, I make it a point to bulk buy. I list down what I need first and buy all of them in one or two batches. This method can save you a lot of money.
You can simply message the seller to hold the shipping for you until you say so so that you can save on shipping charges. The small sellers will be happy to comply. The big sellers, not as much. They have a lot of items and buyers, so they ship it as soon as you paid for it. This is only applicable on Ebay, I'm not sure about Amazon.
