5 Ways to Make Your Online Shopping Experience More Cost-Effective

The holiday season is upon us. It's a fun time with a fraught lead-up, typically. But last year, a miracle happened. I slashed my shopping time in half and somehow acquired over 90% of things on my shipping list.

I've done a deep dive into my shopping habits, good and bad, and brought the best to the surface.

Feel free to use these five tips to control time and money spent shopping. I'll be recycling all of them to make online shopping faster and more affordable in 2023.

1. Use the Fakespot Chrome extension

Amazon reviews have a way of gripping me by my feet and dragging me under. This one said one thing; that one said the opposite. Whom do you trust? How do you know?

The solution was installing the free Fakespot extension, which helps me spot fake reviews. It's especially useful on Amazon. I can see low-quality reviews at a glance. If curious, I can dive deeper into ratings, which are ranked alphabetically for quality and by stars for recency.

One time-saving perk: Fakespot will hide ads and order Amazon products from best-to-worst reviews, hiding scammy products with a click. I often use these settings when searching for something with a million near-identical copies, like protein powder.

2. Shop used and refurbished

The spirit of the holiday season gripped me like a kid holding a candy bar. I wanted -- no, needed to buy Mom the ultimate holiday gift: a pair of AirPods. I rushed to the Apple Store, checked the price tag, and promptly blacked out.

Big-ticket items can break your budget like nothing else. Shopping for used and refurbished items is a great way to slash costs without forgoing quality. eBay, Poshmark, and Mercari are my go-to stores for all things clothes and electronics. Typically, I can buy lightly used items for 30% to 50% off.

My mom got her AirPods 30% off. How I did it: I plugged "refurbished AirPods" into Google and found BackMarket, which offered me a one-year warranty and a huge discount. I took it, returned them when they malfunctioned, and then got a fresh pair for Mom.

3. Search, not browse

Two weeks more until the deadline, and I was done. I was done. My swivel chair spun in circles. A miracle. Definitely, a miracle. It was my first time getting my shopping done weeks ahead of time. The reason: my highly specific shopping list, which made it possible to search, not browse.

Searching versus browsing is the difference between shopping for five minutes versus five days. It takes 15 minutes to browse Zara shirts, 10 minutes to stress over colors and sizes, and 24 hours to waffle over buying this brand instead of that one. Browsing takes time.

How long does it take for me to search and buy a "red M Zara flannel?" Maybe 10 minutes.

The key to searching, not browsing was asking friends and family to be specific about their holiday wish lists. Once I knew what to look for, shopping online became as easy as checking boxes. Sometimes it's fun to browse, but searching is often a more cost-effective way to shop.

4. Buy direct

Mobile apps like Shop are great for window shopping. I like how clean the Shop app is -- it's less cluttered than, say, the Ministry of Supply website. And I can buy all my brands on Shop. But it's often more expensive than buying directly from store websites.

Two reasons: rewards and promotions. Many retailers offer membership rewards that buyers can only earn by shopping through the store website. In the same vein, many stores offer site-only promotions, such as codes you can type at checkout to redeem 15% off.

You can get the best of both worlds by browsing on third-party apps and switching to the original website at checkout. Sometimes, I save a little extra by doing so.

5. Swipe the right cards

I have a confession: unlike many staff members at The Ascent, I really like store credit cards. Not all of them, but the ones I have save me lots. The key is knowing when to swipe the right cards.

That's because I'm the kind of shopper who spends tons of money at my favorite stores. Take Amazon, for example. I spend hundreds of dollars per month on everything from protein shakes to ethernet cables. By swiping my Prime Visa at checkout, I get 5% cash back on my purchases.

The disadvantage of store credit cards is that they're only useful at specific stores. When I shop outside of Amazon, I prefer to use all-arounders: cash back credit cards that earn me up to 6% cash back no matter where I shop. It makes shopping a little more affordable.

Simple and cost-effective

If I had a nickel for every time I read a "5 Ways" list, only to immediately forget about it, I'd have, like, 20 nickels. The thing is, tips and tricks are only as useful as they are simple.

Here's one simple, two-step plan for shopping cost-effectively:

1. Install Fakespot
2. Make a shopping list

That's all it takes to dodge scammy Amazon reviews and make shopping more cost-effective. I'm excited to shop around eBay for specific items this holiday season. It's a little intimidating, tackling that list, but it's nice having a plan to keep things fast and affordable.