3 Tools Every Online Shopper Needs to Find the Best Deals

Online shopping has its perks – the convenience, variety, and immediacy of it all can’t be highlighted enough, but there are a few things that require some secret hacks: knowing when the sales or price-drops are coming, how to score discounts, and the best way to get the goods to your door. We’ve found three apps that will give you an edge to make you the ultimate deal-hunter and cyber-shopper.

Honey

Honey is a Google Chrome extension that scours the web, databases, newsletters, and social media for any coupons or discount codes associated with an online store you’re currently shopping on. So, for example, if you’re about to purchase some sneakers, you can hit the Honey button before paying, and have any discount codes applied to your cart before checking out. Honey finds discounts for over 30,000 merchants from various retail industries, so there’s a fair chance that your favourite shops are covered on their discount-radar.

What’s even better is that Honey has its own built-in Droplist, allowing you to keep tabs on prices of items you’re after, and receive notifications when those prices change. Also, if you’re shopping on Amazon, it has an integrated comparison tool, so you can check the various deals from sellers on Amazon.

So, if you want to hit up the big international retailers, whether it be Amazon or Forever21, Honey will help save you some much-needed Rands during these times. Of course, getting that now-discounted product to SA is the next hurdle.

Distill

Distill Web Monitor is a really handy online tool, which is used to monitor changes on webpages; however, it works really well when it comes to monitoring price-changes. All you do is create an account or install the extension on your browser, pop in the URL of the product you’re in the market for, select the price as the variable you’re monitoring, and boom – Distill will keep an eye on the webpage, and notify you via email or a pop-up if the price changes.

You can even set certain amounts to receive notifications or specify how often you’d like Distill to scan the webpage. Of course, this works amazingly when monitoring overseas deals, sales, and product-prices on international online stores (you know, with us being out of the loop with communication from international retailers). So, if you’re trying to keep tabs on when Asos, BestBuy, or other US or UK retailers are having sales, this tool will work for you. Of course, getting that now-discounted product to SA is the next hurdle.

Here’s how you get the goods: Postbox Courier

In order to get some of the best deals around the world, you need a trusted and efficient courier service that understands the global shopping world. Luckily we’ve discovered a super easy, reliable, convenient, and affordable way to get those packages back to the good ole S of A. South African-owned, Postbox Courier offers express courier services to and from South Africa ensuring the package you buy will arrive at their door in a matter of days!

Postbox Courier can save you time and money on international shipping costs and offers a reliable alternative to the current courier and postal services we already have here in South Africa. With depots in the US, UK, Hong Kong, UAE, Australia, and South Africa, you can essentially shop anywhere, and use the respective country’s depot details as your delivery address. Once the Postbox Courier team receive your goods, they’ll forward them to your address back home in South Africa.

So how does it work?

Furthermore, your online purchases can then be grouped into one delivery and be shipped directly to your door throughout the world, so if you buy a few things through Amazon and some other items from Asos, you can bundle them together and send one package to SA, saving you time, money, and the management of multiple products and tracking numbers. Postbox Courier says they can save online shoppers up to 70% on their shipping costs from South Africa so it’s a no-brainer really!

How much does it cost?

The cool thing is that registration is FREE with no monthly subscription charge. Users simply sign up on the Postbox Courier website, get allocated personal post-box addresses at all of the company’s worldwide depots and can then use the system’s online tracking functionality to send and track their parcel shipments all the way to their front door.

To find out more about Postbox Courier and just how easy the service is to use, read our full review here or visit the PostBox Courier website here.