As a young professional who has to closely monitor Christmas
spending, I prefer to only give gifts that are meaningful and/or will be
frequently utilized. It can be frustrating when your “amazing gift idea” comes
with a steeper-than-desired price tag attached. Before exceeding your budget or
ruling out your great idea, why not try some of the following strategies?
Earlier today, I used these steps to purchase a gift for less than $60 (including
tax) that currently retails anywhere between $100 and $180 (without taxes!).
The way I see it: why should anyone pay 2-4 times more for the same product in the same brand-new, unopened condition? Especially when it won’t impact the recipient’s experience in any way? The extra money can be saved, used towards other gift purchases... even taking the gift recipient out for coffee or brunch!
While it’s certainly not possible to find products at such reduced prices in all cases, there is almost always a way to score a deal! The key is to become an active shopper. Here are some tips to help you find the best deals possible on that “perfect gift”:
Step One: Use
price comparison websites to identify a price point
The Canada Post
Price Comparison Shopper is a website that allows you to search for
products and identify retailers offering the lowest prices after factoring for
shipping + customs (when applicable). It also uses graphs to illustrate the
product’s pricing fluctuation over time.
The website does a good job of presenting information from a number of Canadian as well as U.S. retailers that will ship to Canada. That being said, it is also worth become familiar with other price comparison websites as for whatever reason, some U.S. retailers are not featured on the Canada Post website. Just remember to add duty/brokerage to the total cost of the product if not otherwise indicated.
Step Two:
Search for promotion codes or sales linked to competitive retailers
After searching on price comparison websites, you might
think you’ve found the most competitive retailer. Think again. Although useful
tools, price comparison websites do not consistently reflect sales and promo
codes that can further reduce the cost of the product you seek.
In other words, the retailer with the third-most competitive offer according to the price comparison website might take first-place after applying a promo code.
After using price comparison to identify 3-4 of the most competitive retailers, I suggest visiting their websites to see if there are any current sales that indicate further reductions on the listed price of the product. I also suggest searching for promo codes that can be used upon check-out. If you’re not familiar with promo codes, they are the online version of a coupon. How to find them:
My personal favourite is retailmenot.com. You can search over 140,000 online retailers! Users post active promo codes; admittedly not all work as described, however visitors can click “green checkmarks” to indicate which promo codes which have worked for them. Results appear to the left of listed promo codes. This gives you a good idea as to whether a promo code is reliable or not.
Step Three:
Compare the best retail offer with comparable deals on eBay
Is the item you are looking for available on eBay? What is the average price point? How does
this compare with the “winner” from your price comparison website/promo code
search? Are the eBay products of the same quality? Would the eBay seller’s
return policy meet your needs or those of your gift recipient?
Through eBay, you can participate in auctions and in some cases you can “buy it now” by matching a seller’s desired price. By setting up a paypal account, you can keep your payment information private from the seller.
As well, you can sign up to receive eBay bucks (2% of your purchase in the form of quarterly gift certificates for future eBay purchases good for 30 days upon issue). See ebay.ca for program details and restrictions.
In addition to eBay, there’s always local flyers classifieds to check, for example:
·
eFlyers for local businesses
·
Local newspaper
·
Facebook marketplace
It’s always wise to exercise caution with sharing of personal
information when interacting directly with a seller. It’s worth checking these
postings though: you might be surprised by all of the great deals you can find!
Step Four: If
you can’t lower the price, try to select the deal that offers the greatest amount
of loyalty points
Can’t find a product at the price-point you hoped for? Perhaps you can leverage the additional cost with the value of loyalty points accrued as a result of making the purchase. In addition to typical credit card points, here are several ways to accrue significant bonus loyalty points:
Airmilesshops.ca: By inputting your Air Miles account number, selecting the desired partner retailer and redirecting to the regular website for that company, you can earn many bonus Air Miles on your purchase.
Check back regularly for multiplier events! For example, a
retailer might normally offer 1 Air Mile for every $20 spent. Frequently there
are 2x, 3x, 5x and 10x the points events! Now is a great time to visit airmilesshops.ca as several retailers are offering
10x the points (until December 8, 2011).
Tip: Register for the Airmilesshops.ca Holiday Contest. You’ll earn
10, 25, 100 or 1000 bonus Air Miles on your next qualifying purchase ($40 or
more). See airmilesshops.ca website for contest details and restrictions.
Costco.ca is offering 1 Aeroplan Mile per dollar spent on Costco.ca until December 11, 2011. To register your Aeroplan card with Costco.ca, visit here.
You might be pleasantly surprised by how many points you can accrue on a single purchase: in some cases it’s possible to earn more than 1 Air Mile per dollar spent.
Anyways, this has been a longer blog entry: congrats for making it this far! I hope this is helpful information and that you learned something new.
Some other helpful tips as you shop:
Carry your smart phone or tablet while you shop. You can quickly check price comparison websites and determine whether the in-store price tag is competitive. I once saved myself from spending twice as much at Chapters by purchasing a book online… ironically from chapters.indigo.ca (combining online price + irewards + promo code + free shipping)
Smartcanucks.ca. If there’s a sale, coupon or deal to be had, this community of Canadian shoppers will know.
Know your retailers inside and out. For example, if you’re an Apple fan, it’s good to know that:
- They only have sales once-a-year on Black Friday
- They offer educational discounts to students, teachers, faculty and staff of colleges and universities
- You can earn Aeroplan Miles and Air Miles on purchases made online at the Apple Store provided you sign in and re-direct from the appropriate website
- Sometimes Apple participates in multiplier events associated with the above loyalty programs (eg. timing your purchase with the Air Miles10x the points event on now until December 8, 2011)
- When new models are introduced, older versions are often discounted
- Apple offers refurbished products at reduced cost (see website)
And after all of this… of course, some of the best gifts can’t be purchased or wrapped. Time spent with family and friends doing a favourite activity. Personalized craft projects and photo albums.
Good luck with your search for the “perfect gift”. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
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