How to Find Deals Shopping Online

In my years of shopping online to find unique and specific eco-friendly products that are often difficult to find in local stores, I have learned a lot about how to save money shopping online for these products as well. The main way that I have learned to do this is by finding discount codes. These codes are not always easy to find from retailers, so below are some tips on how to find them! I have also included other tips on how to save on expensive products such as buying used or refurbished.

I hope you find this useful!

Newsletter Sign Up

Usually if you scroll to the bottom of the page of a website you can find an option to sign up to their newsletter. Oftentimes a dialogue box pops up right when you click on the site to sign up to the newsletter. Even if the website does not explicitly state you will get a discount by doing this, you often will get emailed one anyways. If you haven’t ordered from the store before, this is a great way to get a discount on the item you’re buying. It will usually be at least 10% off but could be up to 25%!

Abandon Cart Page During Checkout & Wait 24 Hours

If you are unsure about purchasing a product but put it in your cart and go to the check out page of the website—only to abandon the cart by clicking the X on the top right of your screen—there is a chance the retailer will send you an email inviting you to continue your checkout process with a discount code for the item(s).

Consider Waiting Until Black Friday or Cyber Monday

If you don’t need your item immediately, input the following into your internet browser: “name of store” + “name of upcoming sale day.” For example, write “Peloton” and “Black Friday Sale.” Or “Sephora” and “Boxing Day Sale.” Some retailers even have their own yearly savings events, such as Sephora which has bi-annual blanket 10-20% (depending on membership level) sales on its entire store. You can typically find out in these searches if the particular item you want will go on sale during major retailer sales events.

Oftentimes you will find out in this search that the item you are looking for will not go on sale and so you will know not to waste time waiting for this possibility. I used this technique to discover that the Article sofa I wished to purchase would not go on sale on Black Friday, which allowed me to make my order sooner (which is often extremely important with big furniture items that can take months to arrive to your doorstep).

Install a Coupon Code Finder On Your Browser

There are many different coupon code finders out there, but the one I use is called “Honey” and I have it installed on my chrome browser. Once installed, you will see it at the top right of your browser and it will pop up when you are in the cart/check out page of an online store and ask if you would like to search for coupon codes. It is very hit and miss, but definitely worth having as sometimes you will come across a great discount from a coupon code the app finds!

Add it to “Droplist” and Wait for a Sale Notification

I use Honey for this as well. You can click on honey at the top right of your google chrome browser, and an option to add an item to “Droplist” should appear which allows you to track any sales on an item you are looking to purchase. You can set up the percentage of discount you want to be notified for, and then Honey will send you an email if the item goes on sale!

Check Out a Luxury Second Hand Retailer

For luxury fashion, check out Depop or Poshmark. I have purchased a few second-hand Everlane and Reformation items on Poshmark Canada and have always had good experiences. I even have my own Poshmark store to re-sell items from my closet that I no longer use.

See if the Brand Sells Refurbished Items

Apple is notorious for doing this. You can google the brand name + “refurbished.” Dyson has a store on Ebay where they sell factory refurbished items!