5 Apps To Make Holiday Shopping Easy

Image via Wikipedia

Using technology to save money this holiday season.

Saving money is hard enough as it is, but for many of us, this holiday season is going to be tighter than ever. Especially for those who are struggling with the rising cost of living, are underemployed or looking for jobs, saving money on gifts is really important.

The problem is that shopping for the best bargain when the malls are packed with other holiday shoppers isn't easy. It can get so crowded and frantic that it is tempting to just buy it where you find it and leave it at that. However, if you have a smartphone, getting the best deal is easy with a few great apps.

Here are 5 great apps for saving money this holiday season:

Price Check by Amazon - This app is amazing. You can search for items by typing in the description or name or even by scanning the barcode. The app will search Amazon to find the best deal.

RedLaser by Ebay - Redlaser is sort of like Price Check, but it searches local stores and online stores, not just Amazon. It has the same barcode scanning ability as Price Check but it can keep lists of products you've scanned previously.

Gift Plan - This app doesn't actually find deals, but it gives you the ability to organize and plan your gift lists. You can create a profile for each person you will be shopping for and keep track of their likes and dislikes and, more importantly, their sizes. By having all of the information handy, you can take advantage of great sales without worrying that they will be the wrong gift, or accidentally buying more presents for one person than another.

Shopkick - This app turns shopping into a game. Like Foursquare, this app gives you points for visiting specific places. The difference is that you get points for doing specific actions at participating stores. As you rack up points, you can cash them in for discounts and gift cards to places like Target and Best Buy.

Lemon - One of the more frustrating things about holiday shopping is keeping all of the receipts that pile up. The Lemon app allows you to take a picture of the receipt. The Lemon service stores the image and the location of the store for safe keeping. You can also keep track of your purchases and organize them. When you shop online, you can even have the receipts sent to Lemon directly.

Holiday shopping doesn't have to be a pain. With these apps, hopefully yours can actually be fun this year.

What are your favorite shopping apps? Let me know in the comments.

By Melissa Kennedy- Melissa is a 9 year blog veteran and a freelance writer for PhillyJobsBlog and Beyond.com, along with helping others find the job of their dreams, she enjoys computer geekery, raising a teenager, supporting her local library, writing about herself in the third person and working on her next novel.

Related articles

• Does Finding A Great Deal Stress You Out? (manhattanjobsblog.com)
• How Holiday Spending Has Changed (salesheadsblog.com)
• Why Being Thankful Is Important To Your Job Search (phillyjobsblog.com)

3 More Online Shopping Pitfalls (And How to Avoid Them)

Online shopping is fun and can save you some money, but there are still challenges for even the savviest of shoppers. When I started writing the post "3 Online Shopping Pitfalls (And How to Avoid Them), I had planned on making it 6 Online Shopping Pitfalls, but once I got going, I realized that I had a lot more to say on the subject than I thought. So, here is my "But wait...there's more..." moment.

It is no secret that I love online shopping and I probably buy more things online than I do from brick and mortar stores. In fact, my friends tease me and say that I would buy groceries online and have them shipped to me if I could. I laugh, of course, but what I don't tell them is that if I could, I would. Trust me, I've checked.

So, let me share some more of my online shopping tips to help make your holiday shopping a little easier. Here are 3 More Online Shopping Pitfalls (and how to avoid them)

• Take a good look at the return policy – Return policies vary tremendously from store to store. There are websites that offer free shipping both ways and who have liberal return policies and other sites that charge shipping and restocking fees for any returns. Recently, I purchased a couple of shirts from a well respected company's website. When I tried the shirts on, I realized that I should have ordered a size smaller. I checked the website to get information on their return policy and was amazed to find out that not only do they not pay for the return shipping, they also charge a $10 restocking fee for each item returned. I had purchased the shirts on sale for $15 each, so after paying for shipping to send the items back to them and covering the restocking fee I would end up with about $1.50 in credits that could be applied to purchasing the smaller sized shirts. But, just because a company has a tough return policy, doesn't mean they aren't a good place to do business. But, if you know the policy ahead of time then you can make sure that you only buy things from them that you are sure you won't need to return.
  
  
• Always read product reviews – One of the challenges of online shopping is the fact that you can't hold or touch the product before you buy it. You are in a position of having to chose a product based on a text description and a picture. Many times, when you receive the item, the color is different than you imagined or it doesn't fit the same on you as it did the model in the photo. While this may not be a problem most of the time, it is a good idea to read the customer reviews of the product before you buy it. Based on what other people had to say about their purchase can give you clues about what to expect. They will let you know if the product looks much different that the photo, if the sizes run big or small or if there are other issues with it.
  
  
• Price comparison – The internet makes it really easy to comparison shop and no matter what sort of item you are buying, it can save you a bundle. When you find the item you want to buy, do a quick Google shopping search to see what other companies are charging for the same item. Just copy the item name with all the make/model information and paste it into a search engine and you should get a list of other vendors who are selling the item along with the prices they are charging. It doesn't always pay to go with the cheapest website, especially if a company you know and trust to get it right is offering it at a slightly higher price. Be sure to factor in charges like shipping into your comparison. There are also website who have discount codes and perks like free shipping for certain companies, so be sure to search for those to see if there are any other ways to save.

Online shopping is a lot of fun, and the savings and ease is worth the time and effort of finding companies worthy of your business. Never forget that your business is valuable, so make sure that the companies you deal with deserve it.

Happy Shopping!

Are you looking for a job in the Philadelphia area? Be sure to visit PhillyJobs.

By Melissa Kennedy- Melissa is a 9 year blog veteran and a freelance writer, along with helping others find the job of their dreams, she enjoys computer geekery, raising a teenager, supporting her local library, writing about herself in the third person and working on her next novel.

3 Online Shopping Pitfalls (And How to Avoid Them)

I have to admit, I love online shopping. For me, visiting my favorite online retailers is a way to window shop, look for the best deals and a great way to do product research. And, with the record high sales that many retailers reported after Cyber Monday, it seems that I am not the only one who enjoys shopping from home. With the holiday season in full swing, many people are looking online to find that perfect gift.

Shopping online is fun and can be a huge money saver, but it can also have some pitfalls. Finding the best deals, avoiding scams, looking out for extra charges and preventing big headaches can be tough. So, here are 3 pitfalls of online shopping (and how to avoid them):

• Shop with companies you trust - It is a good idea to do some research on a company before buying anything from them. A quick Google search on the company name will bring up pages of customer reviews and experiences with the company. Keep in mind that most companies don't enjoy 100% customer satisfaction, and unhappy customers are more likely to want to discuss their experiences than the ones who had no problems with their transactions, so just because a company has a couple of bad reviews doesn't mean you shouldn't shop there. The key is to pay attention to what the reviewers are saying and look for common threads. For example, if many people are complaining about shipping issues, then you would be safe in assuming that the company has shipping problems and may not be worth dealing with.
  
  
• Don't be tempted by a "too-good-to-be-true" deal – While there are many sites that offer one time only deals on small numbers of goods, they are well-established, well-known and have great reputations. But on the whole, if a site is offering deals that seem to good to be believed, then they probably are. For example, I love to shop for shoes. But, like many shoe-addicts, I have expensive taste without the budget to support it. Most of the time, I just window shop. I do however, keep a close eye on each designers new lines and look for great deals. Recently, I started seeing ads on my Facebook page for discounts on couture shoes. A pair of Christian Louboutin pumps for $150? You've got to be kidding me! M. Louboutin charges much more than that for his French, red soled shoes, and last I checked, he isn't desperate for cash or going out of business, so why the deep discounts? I did a quick Google search on the company and found pages and pages of complaints about that site and others like it, who are using pictures of these much sought after shoes to scam people into buying them, only to send them very poor knock-offs that aren't even worth the postage. A little more research on the website and their returns and payment policy revealed a very telling way to spot the scam. Which brings me to the next point.
  
  
• Never use a site that asks for, excepts or even mentions using Western Union – Always read over the shipping, returns and payment policies of any online vendor. If there is any mention of using an escrow service or a money transfer through MoneyGram, or more popularly, Western Union, do not do business with them. Wait, let me say it one more time. Do not send them your money. They are a scam and there is no way you will end up with anything more that a big headache and an emptier bank account. You should never send money to someone you don't know through Western Union and you should never use it to pay for purchases. The reason scammers like this method so much is that they can receive the money in whatever country they are in and it is the same as giving them cash. With a credit card or PayPal, when you feel that you have been taken advantage of, there are options for recourse. Wiring a couple hundred bucks to someone across the world in hopes of getting discounted products is just plain stupid. The scammers are laughing their heads off at the “greedy Americans”, because to them it is just a game. If you have some money laying around that you just want to get rid of that badly, consider giving it to a charity like the Salvation Army and Toys for Tots. At least you would have some good feelings to show for your troubles.

Shopping online can be fun and save you money. The key is to pay attention to the details and be sure that the company you do business with deserves it. By reading the fine print, you can save yourself frustration and headaches.

Watch out for my next post, 3 More Online Shopping Pitfalls (and how to avoid them)

Are you looking for a job in the Philadelphia area? Be sure to visit PhillyJobs.

By Melissa Kennedy- Melissa is a 9 year blog veteran and a freelance writer, along with helping others find the job of their dreams, she enjoys computer geekery, raising a teenager, supporting her local library, writing about herself in the third person and working on her next novel.