Save Money Shopping Online

If you would be wealthy, think of Saving as well as of Getting. -- Ben Franklin

Americans are saving money by shopping online more and more every year. I'm convinced that if Benjamin Franklin were alive today, he would be an avid internet user, and would be shopping online and using the power of the internet to save money! I'm sure he would just love the internet--he was very interested in technology, as well as being frugal and getting a great deal.

The benefits of online shopping include saving time, saving money, no crowds to deal with, no waiting in line, no vehicle expenses, no kids to bundle up and load in the car, no bad weather to drive through, and quite often, no sales tax!

Online competition is intense, and many online retailers offer special online only promotions and coupons. If you have an idea what you want to buy, the online marketplace is a great leveler of competition. It increases choice and reduces prices for consumers, and remote areas of the country benefit the same as urban areas since it generally doesn't cost any more to ship to a remote area than it does an urban area. If you buy from a company that doesn't have a physical presence in your state, the odds are that you'll pay no sales tax on your purchase!

If you shop online, I recommend you visit the Federal Trade Commission's online shopping home page, as well as the American Bar Association's safe online shopping site. I also highy recommend you use the Firefox web browser, which is more secure than Internet Explorer and is considered the best free, safe web browser available today. Firefox prevents Spyware, contains active protection from online scams, and is fully customizable with over 1,000 useful add-ons to enhance your online experience.

We've personally bought a solid wood bookcase and high thread count sheets from Overstock.com, a Le Creuset dutch oven from Cooking.com, and a stand mixer from Amazon.com. We got great deals and paid no sales tax on any of it. For us, paying no sales tax adds up to nearly an additional 8% savings. And did we mention that getting these things delivered right to our doorstep was very convenient--especially for the large, heavy, solid wood bookcase?

We bought a "Cuisinart Prep 11 Plus" food processor and used the online comparison shopping engine at Shopzilla.com to find the best deal, which was at Etronics.com for $172, with no sales tax and free shipping. A local Sears store had it listed at $199.99 and would have charged about $16 in sales tax for a total of $216. In this particular case we saved $44 (20%) using Shopzilla to put thousands of stores in competition for our business. And it only took us about 10 minutes of effort!

Use our free online coupons to save money shopping online. You can also use the Shopzilla search box below to put lots of online shopping stores in competition with each other and find the best price for just about anything on the web. You'll not only save money, but you'll also save time and energy locating the best price!