Whether it is shopping for electronics, vacation packages, books, sports equipment or music, shopping online has become an integral part of our daily lives. According to survey results reported by the National Retail Foundation in 2007, a little over 30% of that year’s holiday shopping would have been done online. As we progress into the future, that percentage is likely to go up. With so much shopping being done online, there is huge potential to save money and there are many smart ways to do so. One such way is by using coupon/promotion codes when making purchases from online stores.
These coupon codes are very similar to the paper coupons you would use at your local brick and mortar retail store. In the latter case, you would need to have physical possession of the right coupon, cut it out (if required) and present it to the cashier while checking out at the retail store counter to get the required discount(s). Besides this, there are usually very limited ways to procure the coupon. You can either wait to receive it via snail mail based on coupon subscription services, borrow it from a friend, or print it from your computer. These limited sources often constrain the usage of such coupons.
Online coupons codes however, usually require only one detail: like the name suggests, the ‘coupon code’. It is usually an alphanumeric sequence that you need to enter in the appropriate field just before completing your purchase from the online store. If the code is valid, the corresponding discount reflects immediately on your total shopping amount. Below is an example of an Orbitz page, where it asks you to enter a promotion code (if you have one), before finalizing the purchase of the vacation package.
Orbitz coupon code entry example
Now the big question is: where do you get these coupon codes from. The best part about the information superhighway is that people are always more than willing to share information, and this includes coupon codes as well. There are hundreds of websites out there where people can share coupon codes that have actually worked for them. One of my favorites is www.retailmenot.com. Here you can search for the name of the online store for which you want a coupon code. The search results display not only the variety of coupon codes, but also the associated discount offers (BOGO, % off, free shipping, etc.), expiry dates, and most importantly whether it has actually worked or not. People can vote for a coupon code if it has worked for them, and you can decide to use it based on the number of votes that it has.
One drawback of this website is that it allows anyone to post coupon codes without verifying the authenticity of the codes. This results in a quite a few bogus coupon codes posted by some troublesome elements. But as I mentioned earlier, you can always use the vote percentage to decide on whether to try using a coupon code. To try out the code, all you need to do is type in the same code (or copy and paste it) in the coupon/promotional code field of the website you are shopping at and see if it applies the appropriate discount to your checkout total.
Besides www.retailmenot.com, my second option usually is to google for the online store name followed by the term “coupon code”. So if I were buying the Orbitz package deal in the example above, I would google for “Orbitz coupon code”. You then have to do some sifting through the results to find any valid coupon codes out there. Some other credible websites that share coupon codes are (in no particular order):
Here is an example to demonstrate how useful this money-saving tip is. Just a few weeks back, I booked a Vegas flight + hotel package on Orbitz for four of my family members. On searching www.retailmenot.com for Orbitz coupon codes, I found a code that gives $100 off per hotel room for 5+ nights of stay. And since I was booking 2 hotel rooms, this coupon brought down my total package price by $200!! Two hundred bucks for just spending a couple of minutes searching for the right coupon code sounds like a great deal to me. There are coupon codes out there ranging from the smallest of Yahoo stores to the biggest online retail giants. So the next time you’re looking to buy something online, don’t forget to spend a few additional minutes looking for those valuable coupon codes.
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