Online coupon sites: Can you really save a bundle?
(Long Island, N.Y.) When I heard some of my friends rave about those online coupons sites, honestly, I just didn’t buy it. You find a code or a coupon and you get some special deal just for clicking around and searching some site first. Yeah right.
Well, I recently decided to give it a whirl. Since gas prices have gone through the roof and I needed to do some last-second shopping for my summer vacation, I opted to hit the net and fill up my online shopping cart–sans filling up the tank with gas. Only problem was–I procrastinated too long and now I was in need of a bathing suit–pronto. It would cost me more in expedited shipping than it would in gas, so I felt like I was just spinning my wheels.
So I found the perfect suit online and just before I was prompted to “proceeded to checkout” I decided to try one of those coupon sites and see what all the hype was about. I typed in the name of the company that I was about to make $60 richer–and I spied a coupon code for FREE shipping–that was there for the copying. I kept scrolling and there was another code for “free expedited shipping”. I wrote the code down on a piece of scrap paper not too convinced it was going to actually work.
I’m a skeptic and really didn’t think there was a snowballs’s chance in hell I’d receive my bathing suit in three days, without any extra charges. Free three-day shipping for just typing in a an eight-letter code I found on a coupon site? Hmm–we’ll see about that.
As I was finalizing my order, there was a little box that you could type in a promotion code. I typed in that code and was blown away: It worked! Yep, it was free and I got my tankini in three business days! FREE! I love FREE.
I would have paid full price to rush it to my door step had I not stopped and checked a coupon site. So, Now I’m a believer. And I’m not alone. According to online-measurement firm Hitwise, visits to online coupon sites have increased 56 percent between the week of June 6, 2008 and the same week in 2007. With record breaking gas prices–it just make sense to shop and save at home.
If you’re a novice online coupon clicker like myself who really wants to get in on all those special promotions, discounts, super sales and not-so-secret codes, here’s the scoop on a really great money saving site you can trust: CouponCabin.com
It was created to give online shoppers an easy and fast way to save money while shopping online and features more than 950 online stores with more than 4,000 coupons and deals from 20 different product categories. CouponCabin.com sees about one million unique visitors per month and over 91 million clicks. Since the site’s inception, CouponCabin.com has saved shoppers a combined grand total of $250 million. On average, in only 90 seconds spent on the site, shoppers save about $13 per use.
Are you sold yet? I am. And this site is now the first place I’ll hit when shopping online–for anything. Just keep in mind not all coupon sites are created equal. It’s buyer (and saver) beware out there. Scott Kluth, founder and president of CouponCabin.com shares these tips:
- Be Safe – Only Shop at Secure Websites: Secure websites are definable by a yellow padlock in the status bar. By shopping at a secure website it ensures hackers are unable to obtain any of the shopper’s personal information.
- Save On Shipping – Search for Discounted or Free Shipping Coupons: Sites like CouponCabin.com have entire sections dedicated strictly to coupons for discounted or free shipping.
- Let The Sales Find You: Register for e-newsletters to stay constantly informed of sales and discounts.
- Stack For More Savings: Stacking is an online shopping trick that allows shoppers to use multiple coupons at once providing extra savings. If there are two promotional code boxes, make sure to use two different coupon codes to maximize savings.
- Shop For The Things You Want: Check listings for coupon codes that pertain to specific items you are interested in. Sites like CouponCabin.com have a link for “favorite deals” which allows shoppers to browse by category to view products with discount codes that may peak their interest.
