personal finance

How to be a smart shopper this festive season


All sales, be it festive season or not, are full of carefully thought-out and tactically executed tricks and strategies to lure consumers into buying things they don’t usually need. And upon careful scrutiny, we find that they are not as great as the claim to be.

This is why you should not jump the gun and spend mindlessly during sales. However, if you are keen on splurging during the festive season ‘bumper’ sales that are on at the moment, here are a few things that you could do to avoid denting your wallet too much.

Have a budget and stick to it

Outlining a budget and sticking to it is essential. Right from making a festive season budget to prioritising what’s urgent, have your expenditure plan ready. Figure out what you really need and allocate funds towards it. If you want, keep aside some money towards those things that you just want to splurge on.

Take your time to think about the items you really need and see what you can and cannot do without. Don’t be in a hurry to hoard, and remember to stick to your budget.

If you buying something using your credit card, make sure that on the bill due date, you pay off the entire amount and not just the minimum amount. If you rollover the outstanding amount, it is an almost sure shot way of landing up in a debt trap.


Do your homework


If you are planning on making a big-ticket purchase like a house, car, or an expensive appliance, it is important that you do your research. Make sure you know enough about the product and its features and its market price. Go with enough preparation of products and market pricing, it will help with the negotiation process. Keep checking for prices and compare them.

For instance, advertisements of real estate deals and freebies flood our newspapers and even hoardings on the road. However, upon closer inspection you find that you do not benefit too much monetarily from these deals.
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Get the timing right


Now, while it’s a good idea to shop during the festive season, you could get better discounts on cars at the end of the year because the new year means the next year’s date on registration, which will fetch a better price in a resale. But if you want to use the car for the long term, it makes sense to purchase it in December at a high discount.

Month-end or year-end are also good times to go on a buying spree as stores have to meet their targets and would be more willing to get rid of the inventory at a higher-than-normal discount. There are set times during the year when many major high-street brands have their sales. Year-end, end of season, monsoon, and so on, are some times during the year when you are almost certain to find sales.

Comparing prices is key

As with anything, compare prices to get the most economic deal. You could compare across e-commerce portals and offline stores if you have the time. If not, just compare across websites.

“Customers should practice a concept called ‘showrooming’, which means going to a brand’s retail outlet and then going online and comparing the prices, features of the product in question,” says Arvind Singhal, Chairman and MD, Technopak Advisors.

“A smart technique to employ would be comparison shopping. Compare MRPs across websites, see if you’re happy with the net price you’ll have to pay and check for authenticity of your purchase, the retailer and the product features. If you really wish to and have made up your mind to spend, compare the discounts thoroughly, go for what you think is the best bet,” says Harish HV, an independent consultant.

You could also try out factory outlets where the prices of the product are usually available at lower rates all through the year.


Do the math


If you have been saving up and do not want to let go of that ‘buy 2, get 1 free’, try and make sure that the least expensive product is as close as possible in monetary value to either of the expensive ones. The rationale behind this is that since the cheaper one is the one you will get free, you will gain complete value of the money you paid for the 2 most expensive ones, almost close to getting all 3 in the price of 2.

When you see schemes like ‘A%+B% off’, always remember that a flat C% off is better than the former. For example, a flat 60% off is more economical for you than a 40%+20%.
Click here to read all about marketing tricks that retails use to lure in shoppers.

Making the most of online shopping features

One of the advantages of shopping online other than the cashbacks and discounts are their certain non-monetary perks.

“An advantage for consumers shopping online is the option of returning the product and obtaining the full refund on it, use this option to the fullest,” says Harish HV. Return policies on most online platforms are very accommodating these days, since they give you enough time to make-up your mind on the purchase. These are applicable on products like apparel and other consumer durables.

E-commerce players like Amazon and Flipkart provide the option of exchange, refunds and/or replacements on almost all product. However, these may vary from product to product depending on the category. Normally, on fashion merchandise, there is a 30-day return period and on high-end consumer durables such as gadgets and electronics, the return-period is a 10-day one. Amazon marks the products eligible for a refund/replacement as ‘Fulfilled By Amazon (FBA)’ and when not applicable, the product is marked as ‘non-returnable’. These policies require you to comply with all the terms, conditions attached and the retailers also conduct quality checks on the item/s being returned.

You can return the product within 10 to 30 days from the purchase and the money gets refunded to your payment medium. However, one thing to keep in mind is to know whether the money gets credited to your bank account or the e-commerce player’s wallet that is linked to your profile.

Exercise control

A recent report by retail tech company, Ace Turtle, suggests that although there is more than 400 percent increase in orders during sales event days as compared to non-sales event days, average selling price drops by only 17 percent, “which is not a significant change considering the overall price fluctuations in the given period.” It is added that the average discount during non-sales event days is 47 percent which climbs up only to 50 percent during sales event days.

While some discounts may well be real, go for the purchase if you really need the item and were planning to buy it anyway irrespective of the sale or are sure that you will need the item in the future. Doing your market research beforehand about the price and quality of product on offer is also important to be able to recognise and avail of a ‘real’ discount.





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