September 20th, 2012Top Story Be a Better Shopper: How to Save Money, Make Quick Decisions, and Write Good Reviews By Thorin Klosowski If you're as addicted to the internet as I am, then chances are you spend a lot of money buying things online. It might also mean that, like me, you waste time debating between two products, or hunting down the perfect deal. Here's how to cut that research time, save some money, and share your knowledge when you're done. Below, we'll walk you through the best ways to find those deals and make a choice between different products. It doesn't stop there, though: You can also leverage all that research to get yourself discounts and other perks by writing reviews—which, in turn, helps other people who might be making the same buying decisions. Be a Better Shopper Finding the best deal online can take a little work, but it's always worth it to save a little cash. The deal is just part of what you're looking for, though: You also have to sift through product reviews to pinpoint what you want. Photo by Chris Lott. Find the Best Deals Every Time Being a true deal hound is second nature to most internet shoppers, but you can use a lot of tools to make the process even easier. We've walked you through how to get great deals before, and the basics are pretty simple: We like using the Invisible Hand and PriceBlink browser extensions, which automatically tell you if something you're shopping for is priced lower elsewhere. It's simple, effective, and ensures you'll end up with the best deal. Before you check out, it's also a good idea to hunt down coupons. RetailMeNot is the easiest web site to use. Just type in where you're shopping and you'll get a list of current promotions. Oftentimes you get free shipping, or at least 5% off a purchase. Finally, don't forget that different times of the year provide better deals than others. If you don't mind being patient, you'll get huge discounts provided you wait for the right time. Learn Use Reviews Better (and Stop Wasting Time on Decisions) Reviews aren't usually objective. The writer, whether they're an amateur or a professional, is going to inject a little of their own opinion. That's not a bad thing, but it does mean you need to learn to take some reviews with a grain of salt. A missing feature might make one person upset, but it doesn't matter to you at all. What matters is that you make an educated decision as quickly as possible. So, before you start reading reviews and picking out what you want, write down a list of features you care about. Obviously this doesn't work with every purchase you make, but for things like computers, cameras, or similar big ticket items, a feature list is a good way to save you money. When you're reading reviews, make sure you're not swayed by features you won't use and you pick the product that suits you best. We make a lot of stupid mistakes when shopping, but the other big problem is that you have a billion things to choose from, and even easy decisions can become really hard to make. With an unlimited number of choices at your fingertips, making a quick decision is almost impossible. The solution? Just make a choice and move on. If you're worried about buyer's remorse, or that you're making the wrong choice, pick a store with a good return policy. Using something like a pro-con list is great to help you find what you're really looking for, but don't waste hours picking between two similar products. With a good return policy, you can also buy a few different products and compare them side-by-side to make sure you get what you really want. If you have to, give yourself a decision time, force yourself to make the choice, and move on. Learn to Spot Fake Reviews Online Fake online reviews come in two main forms: people paid to write praise, and trolls. Both are equally effective at skewing a product review, and both are pretty easy to spot. To spot a positive, but fake user review, The New York Times suggests you look for a few key things: A focus on who the reviewer was with. Reviews that seem to use "I" or "me" too often. High adverb use. High verb use. Way too many exclamation points. The Consumerist also points out that it's good to look for reviews with empty adjectives, and glowing praise with no downsides. NPR suggests you ignore the star rating and just read the review. Basically, if a review of a product, hotel, restaurant, or whatever else sounds too good to be true, it probably is. To spot trolling reviews, you essentially follow the same steps as above, but watch out for overtly negative reactions that don't talk about upsides. You'll often find these types of reviews in cases where brand loyalty is a factor, or when a reviewer receives something that's just dead on arrival (which is bound to happen with certain kinds of products). Unless you see a lot of these types of reviews, you can usually ignore them. After You Shop: Why You Should Review and Rate Your Experiences Once a product is in your hands, or a meal is in your stomach, it's easy to walk away thinking you're done with the experience. However, writing a quick review is a huge help to other shoppers and businesses. They're not hard to write, and you can get immediate, often money-saving benefits by doing so. You Help Yourself and Other People Make Better Choices It's no secret that when you write a review or rate a service you're helping other shoppers (who were once in the same boat as you) make better choices with their purchases. This could be highlighting a great purchase you've made, or by warning people away from something that turned out terrible. When you're reviewing products and services, you're not just helping others make better choices. You're also helping yourself. Since many sites use your own reviews to recommend new products, you're making it easier to find the things you actually want, and you'll stop getting those crazy recommendations for things that don't matter. Obviously you don't need to waste time on simple or cheap things like HDMI cables or a pack of spoons, but for anything that could potentially break, or might be a risk, your review is helpful to someone out there. You Can Help Keep Your Favorite Local Businesses in Business Web sites like Yelp, Google, and Foursquare have become powerful tools for people to find great restaurants close to them. But an effect of that is that some smaller places get swept under the carpet. When you hit up a new restaurant or store that you end up really liking, be sure to toss together a quick review or rating when you leave. You don't have to spend hours on a food critic worthy review—a few sentences about your experiences is enough to bring in someone who might be on the fence. It's not much if your favorite shop is struggling to stay in business, but it's certainly better than nothing. A Good Review Can Help You Nab Great Deals Writing out reviews isn't just some altruistic endeavor. It's also a way to get discounts and free stuff from certain retailers. One of the easy ways to do this is to review enough products on Amazon to get enrolled in the Amazon Vine program. Start writing good reviews on Amazon, and eventually you'll get invited in. The selection of free products varies, but occasionally you can snag some cool stuff. Another option for books is the book-centric social network Goodreads. Write enough positively received reviews, and authors and publishers will often seek you out to take a look at a pre-release version of their books. For food buffs, Yelp's Elite reviewers get invited to all types of free events and parties. Getting to that elite status is simple enough—review a lot of businesses, write solid reviews, and participate in the community. Eventually you'll get upgraded to an elite member. Even without elite status, you'll occasionally get a discount because you wrote a review on Yelp, or you simply because you found them through Yelp. Write a Good Review by Keeping it Simple Writing a good online review is about brevity. The main goal for something like Yelp, or Amazon, or wherever else is to provide your personalized insight. You don't need to repeat anything already in the product description, or get long-winded with a description of how amazing your BLT was. When we walked you through the best ways to write an online review, we pointed out that it's good to stick to relevant details that matter to everyone. Don't bother explaining too much about your circumstance. Instead, stick to the experience itself (with a product or store), and talk about what you think. Also, remember that a positive review is just as useful as a negative one. If you had a serious problem with a product, or if it broke after six months, go and write that review—even if it has been a while since you purchased it. Timeliness is rarely a necessity with reviews, and long term experiences are great when you're talking about big budget items. The goal of shopping for and then reviewing products is to help make your voice heard to people who matter. When you shop smart and follow through afterwards you're rewarding people just like yourself. It's not a bad feeling. Title image by Dominick Rabrun. You can find his illustrations on his personal web site, or works in progress on his blog. Click to view

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