Use On-line Tools for Last-Minute In-Store Shopping

By now, it's a little too late for on-line orders to be delivered in time for Christmas, so if you still have shopping to do, you'll probably be doing it in stores. That doesn't mean that on-line can't help you. Before you head out shopping, you can still do a little on-line research to help you get the best deal.

One way is to shop on-line for in-store pickup. Many sites have better prices on the Internet than they have for the product in the store. Some of the major dealers allow you to place the purchase on-line and see if the item is in stock at a local store to go pick it up. Electronics stores like Circuit City are big on this. But so are other types of stores like Sears. So if you are shopping for a particular item you can still do some checking to see if has any Internet pricing (along with any on-line coupon codes etc.) to land the best deal before you set foot in the store.

Another way to use the Internet is to check whether the stores you're planning to visit have any printable coupons valid for in-store use. Although coupons are plentiful for various vendors on the Internet, sometimes the coupons are also valid for use in the store as well. You can do a Google search of a store's name and "printable coupon" and see if anything pops up.

You can certainly use price comparison sites such as pricegrabber.com to see what sellers might have the best price for an item. It might help you pick one store over another, if you really see a price break somewhere. It's not unusual for one vendor to cut a price on a particular model at a different time than other sellers, so sometimes it can be a significant difference.

Price-matching policies can also come in handy. Many major stores offer some type of price-matching. This can be handy if you're located close to one major seller and others would be more of a hike. If the one near you price matches its competitors, you can do a search of all the competitors and bring the best price you find to the store that's closest. If you show them the lower price, they should offer to match it (or for some stores' policies they'll even offer to beat it). In this case the specific model/item must be an exact match, so this works when you know the specific item for which you're looking.

Don't forget about possible price-matching after the fact -- some sellers offer to match a better price if you find it lower within some time after the sale, so hold onto receipts and maybe check on some of those items a couple of days after the holidays to see if a better/lower price is being offered. Hey, a refund of a price difference is nothing to be sneezed at either.

Finally, if you know someone wants a type of item and you're not sure of which make/model is the best fit (i.e. a 7-megapixel digital camera), you can type "7 megapixel camera reviews" into a google search box and you may come up with a variety of sources to read on what's the best value for that person on your shopping list (or for yourself if you're looking for one). Internet reviews can be taken with a grain of salt, but if models have a preponderance of good reviews from both a technical source such as a magazine as well as from most of the users, you can have a bit more confidence in the product.

Good luck with all your last-minute shopping!