(NAPSA)—With 70.9 percent of Internet surfers shopping online for products before making in-store purchases, online shopping is the most efficient way to have a hassle-free holiday shopping season‘. These 10 tips will guide your e-shopping experience with ease. 1.Do your homework. Check out retailer sites, online product comparison sites and savings sites. Find out what is available before you open your wallet and you'll save money. 2. Bookmark yourfavorite online savings sites. With two simple clicks you can easily browsefor your preferred websites and bookmark them to your computer’s “favorites list.” When you're ready to purchase gifts, open this list and shop away. This saves you time searching for websites again and again. 3. Promotional codes are an easy way to save. Your favorite retailers often extend special deals to valued customers. Find promotional codes by: Subscribing to e-mail newsletters from your favorite retailers that notify subscribers about available sales and promotional codes that might not be available to the general public. Looking for a code word, a series of numbers or a combination in catalogs, direct mail and on-offer cards from your favorite stores. Surfing trusted savings sites like www.coolsavings.com, where you can find a variety of offers from leading retailers and manufacturers. ' UCLA Internet Report Year Three More and more people are using savings sites online as part of their holiday shopping. 4. Let the savings find you. Various websites have features that simplify holiday shopping. Try Gift List on www.coolsavings.com. Check items you are interested in buying and the Gift List will notify you whenthere are special deals on those items. 5. Shop early. While many shoppers traditionally wait until after the holiday season for the biggest deals, sales may pop up before or during the holidays. In a slower economy, manyretailers offer the biggest discounts earlier to boost holidaytraffic. 6. Be aware of where you compare. Online product comparison sites are helpful in laying out the pros and cons associated with different brands. However, some sites only compare their advertisers’ products rather than all products in a category. These sites should not be taken as the end-all of product comparison, so visit several. 7. Avoid shipping and return policy frustration. Manyretailers offer free shipping as an incentive to buy online. Read the fine print and look for retailers with a variety of options. Some shipping deals and return policies only apply to certain items. 8. Keep records of your online transactions. Always print or save your order confirmation screen, product description and contact information for the retailer. If there is continued correspondence, such as a notification of an item on back-order, keep those in the samefile. 9. Be bold, but smart when buying online. A few simple rules will help you be a safe shopper. Use different passwords for each site, only buy from vendors you trust, look for an icon that designates a secure site for transactions andpay with yourcredit card. Visit FTC.org or Safeshopping.org for more information. 10. Search for printable coupons. Online printable coupons offered on sites like www.coolsavings.com are always there, (no waiting or paying for the Sunday newspaper!) and you can easily find savings for the products you want to buy. These tips are offered to you by coolsavings.com. Please visit www.coolsavings.com/tips for more information on how to shop and save online. Because CoolSavings works with the nation’s leading retailers, consumer packaged goods manufacturers and online shopping sites, they have the “insider’s insights” on discounts andspecialoffers.
