How to Maximize Savings When Shopping During a Sale

It’s safe to say that Filipinos love to shop, especially when there’s a sale. Whether it’s an online holiday promotion or an in-store payday sale in a mall, you can bet that there will be Filipinos flocking to get the best deals.

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To get even more value for your hard-earned money, here are some shopping tips during sales:

Compare Prices

Whether you’re shopping online or in-store, it pays to compare prices first before you make a purchase. This is particularly true for products where the brand doesn’t matter as much, like toilet paper, plastic trash bags, and other common household supplies. However, this can also apply if you’re comparing prices between trusted brand names for more important purchases, such as when you buy medicines online or other health-related products.

Check Offers from Your Credit Cards and Memberships

Most of the time, banks will have special offers for customers who use their credit or debit cards during sales. These include straight cash discounts, percent discounts, as well as buy one, get one (BOGO) promos. Membership cards may also give you bonus points if you buy certain products on sale.

What’s great about these kinds of promos is that they often apply to a variety of items, including vitamins and supplements, home goods, as well as food products.

Follow Your Suki on Social Media

Nowadays, practically every brand is on social media, your favorite sellers included. If you haven’t followed their pages yet, now is the time to do so. This is because brands and retailers use their social media channels to let their customers know about their latest promotions, new products, and other updates.

By following your suki on social media, you’re always updated about sales and other promotions. You also won’t miss out on limited promo codes, discounts, and other bang-for-the-buck offers.

Sign Up for Email Alerts

In relation to the above-mentioned tip, it’s a great idea to subscribe to email newsletters of your favorite brands and sites. Some companies give their subscribers first dibs during sales or even giveaway limited promo codes, which you can use to save more money when you shop.

If you’re wary about flooding your inbox with too many emails, make use of filters and folders. There are also apps and browser extensions that automatically collate emails from your subscriptions so that you get an all-in-one update.

Look for Free Shipping Offers

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If you’re a fan of online shopping, then you’re already familiar with different kinds of vouchers. The most popular among them is arguably the free shipping vouchers. The amount may not be that high, sometimes only costing Php 30 or so depending on the location, but it can quickly add up especially when you shop often.

As such, it’s definitely a good idea to take advantage of free shipping offers from your favorite online sellers and marketplaces. Usually, there are certain conditions for free shipping such as reaching a certain purchase amount. Sometimes, there are also promos for specific products or brands.

Of course, don’t buy something just because there’s a free shipping offer. It’s better to reserve these vouchers for your regular purchases such as groceries, or for ones that you saved up for such as a new gadget.

Shop Early

Filipinos are expert bargain hunters, so you can expect a rush of shoppers when there’s a sale. Particularly for e-commerce sites, in-demand products can get sold out within minutes during a big event. Thus, when it comes to sale shopping, the saying “the early bird catches the worm” is a good principle to follow.

For online shopping, you can pre-load your shopping cart with the item you want and then just complete the purchase during the day of the sale. Make sure to set an alarm on your phone so that you can check out ASAP. For in-store shopping, it’s best to go to the mall or shop early. If the sale is spread across multiple days, go on the first day so that you have the freshest batch of items to choose from.

Use Referral Codes

Last but certainly not least, there are plenty of shopping websites that issue referral codes to their existing users to attract new customers. Usually, these codes benefit both parties: your referrer will get a reward (e.g., cashback voucher or loyalty points), while you enjoy a discount on your purchase.

If you’re trying out a new website, using a referral code is definitely a wise idea. You can also time your purchase during a sale, so that you can rack up the savings. Of course, make sure that the shop allows the use of multiple discount offers in one transaction.

There’s nothing wrong about wanting to maximize your savings during a sale—that’s not being a so-called kuripot but rather wise with your spending. With these tips, hopefully, you can stretch your budget and get more value out of your hard-earned money.