Diana posted on January 17, 2008 10:01
A report on a news magazine website recently made a surprising disclosure about the incomes of certain types of online shoppers. Evidently, shoppers with higher incomes are more inclined to use the internet to make comparison price searches before they purchase. This fact seems to defy common sense since the poor need the price breaks the most. Research has shown that users of comparison shopping sites are reporting incomes above the average American household's.
One surprising demographic is shoppers on eBay. While more than thirty percent of all internet surfers browse eBay at least monthly, more than half of eBay's shoppers earn an income of more than seventy-five thousand a year.
Three-quarters of its buyers are over the age of thirty-five. Another interesting statistic reported by regular search engines is terms like "cheap" or "discount"
combined with a product name is used most frequently by the affluent searcher than not.
So what types of shopping websites do the poor surf?
Perhaps it is merely to fuel their daydreams, but the poor are browsing exotic cars, expensive designer clothing and high-end electronics.
Now that you know how to shop like you are not poor, here are some suggestions on how you can maximize the resources of the internet when bargain hunting:
1. Find the top comparison shopping websites by making a search through your favorite search engine. Some examples of a comparison shopping website are Froogle, BizRate and PriceGrabber.
2. Make note of the low and average prices for items, but do not buy immediately. Return to your favorite search engine to find websites that may not be advertising on the comparison sites. Sometimes that is where you find the real bargains.
3. When hunting for the best price be wary of the small retailers you do not know. Do not exclude them entirely, but be extra cautious in checking their credentials. Be sure they have a street address and a telephone number.
4. Always take into account the cost of shipping. With shipping added in, you may be better off in a store.
5. When comparison shopping locally, print off your internet comparison prices and take it with you. It may put you in a better position to dicker.
With all of this bargain hunting on the internet, is the humble offline garage sale becoming an endangered species?
Apparently not, you would think if you look at the garage sale listings on the Craigslist website. In April 2002 they had a mere two thousand garage sale ads and in April
2007 there were one hundred twenty thousand.
Take a page from the lifestyles of the "rich," if not so famous, and make the best use of the information at your fingertips. Now you know, if you did not already, that comparison shopping does not mean that you are poor.
Matia Bryson is the author of this article and
the eBay Shopping Home Study Course for eBay newcomers.