Online shopping was once a phenomenon that Pakistanis were most wary of. They couldn’t trust what they bought. But the fact that they could do COD (Cash on Delivery), some people would try and venture into it. Slowly and gradually, their trust started building up, more so from some specific sites. And with COVID bounding everyone within their houses, people started becoming more online shoppers than ever before.
If you think that you get wrapped up so much in this shopping that you end up spending more than you planned or you bought something you don’t need, then you need to become a pro.
But how to be a pro at online shopping? Here are five tips you can adopt:
1. Compare and contrast
Just like shopping in real life, you’ve got to think hard about what you’ve to buy. Shopping online for products like detergents and toiletries, compare the prices for the same product on different websites. Add the product to the cart only when you’re sure you are getting the best deal or one where you’re benefitting and not getting robbed. Buying things online means you’re not limited to one place; you can visit various online ‘shops’ with just a few clicks. Even if you’re sitting in one part of the world, you can order a product from miles away.
Image Source: TrustRadius2. The breathing exercise
Sometimes most of us buy things just for the sake of it, only to feel the thrill of tapping on that big “BUY NOW” option. To deal with this, you have to make sure when ordering the product that you check the delivery date and the price while breathing deeply to calm your mind. Being calm will prevent you from purchasing things that you don’t need that you added to the cart randomly.
3. The check-out traps
You know those seemingly harmless questions that pop up the moment you have decided to buy your things and are checking them out; Questions about express shipping and whatnot that end up increasing your final price. You need to differentiate whether you need these, or are they just trap to open your wallet a bit more? All these checkout traps end up doing is tricking you into wasting your money.
4. The big picture
Sometimes we tend to get distracted while online shopping, just like we did in real life shopping, moving towards the things we don’t need. A few experiments show that we tend to click on the product right in the middle of a row of five same products. Now that you know this change it up. Try to check the deals at the edge of the row too. Who knows? You might end up getting a deal that doesn’t waste your money as much as the other ones.
Image Source: HuffPost5. Real money, real expenses
When we shop in person, we pay with our own hands, either handing over the cash itself or the credit card. We feel a pain in spending with our own money. Online shopping numbs that feeling. We find ourselves more ready to spend that money; most of the time, we overspend because we have no checks placed on us. Try setting limits on your online shopping by setting your card in a way that you spend only a certain amount in a month. You either get a reminder if you’re exceeding that limit or you get to pay back the debt if you overspend.
So flex your fingers and get to the online shopping platforms. This time you will be much better at it.
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