How to Find the Best Deals When Shopping Online

Start here, because it decides whether the rest is worth doing. Before trusting any discount badge, spend a minute comparing: search the exact model at two or three other retailers and check what the item typically sells for. A "30% off" sticker means nothing if every other store sells it at that price every day.

A simple rule: if the sale price clearly beats what the item goes for elsewhere, buy. If it's sitting at the everyday street price, close the tab. There is no deal, just a badge.

Search the store name plus "promo code" before you pay. Sites like RetailMeNot collect working codes, and extensions like Honey try them automatically at checkout. On small and mid-size stores this routinely knocks off 10 to 30 percent. On giants like Amazon it rarely does anything, because Amazon barely uses sitewide codes.

A less known trick: check the brand's ads. Every Facebook page's running ads are public under "Page transparency," and brands sometimes advertise stronger offers than anything shown on their own site. You don't need to have seen the ad to use the promotion it links to. Reddit deal threads are worth a search too; codes get shared there that never make it to the coupon sites.

Direct-to-consumer stores run automated email sequences aimed at people who almost bought. You can use this. Add the item to your cart, sign up for the store's email list (the welcome code alone is often 10 to 20 percent), then leave without paying.

Over the next few days many stores will send a series of escalating offers to close the sale, and the best code tends to arrive near the end of the series. Use a separate email address for shopping so the promo flood never touches your real inbox. The only requirement is patience: this works when you can wait a week, not when you need the thing tomorrow.

Cash back portals like Rakuten and TopCashback pay you a cut of the retailer's affiliate commission, usually 1 to 20 percent depending on the store. Rates differ between portals for the same retailer, so check a comparison site like Cashback Monitor first and click through whichever portal pays most that day.

Then pay with a rewards credit card. That's the second layer: the portal pays you, and the card pays you again on the same order. Add a promo code and 10 to 25 percent off an ordinary, non-sale purchase is a normal outcome, not a lucky one.

Deal communities surface promotions faster than any individual can. The Slickdeals front page shows whatever the community has voted best right now, but the search box is the real tool: look up the exact product you want and you'll find active codes, expired ones that hint at price cycles, and owners telling you whether the thing is any good.

Fair warning. Browse these sites long enough and everything starts to look like a bargain. A discount on something you weren't going to buy is not savings.

If the purchase isn't urgent, the calendar is the biggest discount available. Retailers concentrate their real markdowns around Memorial Day, July 4th, Labor Day, Prime Day, and Black Friday. Waiting three weeks for the next event often beats every trick above combined.

Between events, the discounts move to open-box and returned stock. Amazon marks down packaging-damaged and returned items year-round through Amazon Warehouse; the condition grades are worth understanding before your first open-box purchase.

• Compare the price at two or three other stores. Real low, or badge?
• Search "store name promo code" and let an extension try the rest.
• Search the product on Slickdeals.
• Click through the highest-paying cash back portal.
• Pay with a rewards card.
• Not urgent? Note the next sale event and wait for it.