February 27, 2013
Are you one mouse click away from finding a better deal? Online shopping, with Amazon as the top online retailer site, is becoming the preferred method to search for products and find the best deal. We have put together a list of tips and advice to help you enjoy shopping online.
Most shoppers start by entering search words into Google, Yahoo, or Bing. Most shoppers begin browsing and start with broad terms such as “luggage”. After viewing the results and looking at some websites the shopper narrows down their focus and may know exactly what they want such as “Tumi Alpha Brave #22472”. However are you aware of the advanced search queries that one can use to assist in the search? Since Google is the most popular engine the following are typical queries that will make your search more productive.
Operator Example Find Pages Containing
tumi luggage the words Tumi and luggage
Tumi OR Samsonite either the word Tumi or Samsonite
“To each his own” the exact phrase to each his own
virus –computer the words virus but NOT the word computer
*shoe Only the word shoe, and not the plural or any tenses or synonyms
~auto insurance insurance info for both the word auto and it synonyms: car, truck
define:insurance definitions of the word insurance from around the Web.
red * blue the words red and blue separated by one or more words
When shopping online one should check to see if there are any sites that are offering special discount coupons, free shipping or sales. Examples of modified searches based on searching for a good deal on Tumi would be “Tumi coupons”, “Tumi Sale”, “Tumi Free Shipping” , “Tumi Discount”. It is likely one will find promotions using such terms and land upon a great deal.
Sometimes it is beneficial to read what other buyers have said about their purchase. An excellent starting point is to read the product reviews on Amazon. Another site that is popular for research is www.epinions.com. An up an coming review site for local businesses such as restaurants is www.yelp.com One tip is to search for the name of the product and add the word “reviews”. An example is “Tumi Alpha Bravo reviews.”.
Shopping online is fun and the variety of product selection is overwhelming. We hope that this article provided some useful tips to make your online shopping experience more productive and help you find the item you are looking for.