What you should pay attention to when shopping on daily deals sites
Daily deals sites (like Groupon) usually have some amazing deals that can save you a lot of money. They generally work like this: there is a product or service (for the sake of our example, we will say that the product is a “set of hair products”) that costs an amount of money (again for our example, it will cost £100) if you buy it from the official company that sells it or from a retail store. The deal site (we’ll call it “TheBestDealSite”) strikes a deal with the business and sells you a coupon that will give you 50% off (just an example) so you can buy it for £50. The offer usually lasts only for a number of hours/days and for a limited number of coupons.
Sounds like a great way to save money and it usually is. But there are a huge number of deal sites with thousands of daily deals both in the UK and around the world, so you have to be very careful where you’re buying and what exactly you’re buying. You should do a little research before buying an offer, paying close attention to its details.
Always check the original price of the product before buying a discount coupon
TheBestDealSite claims to offer you a whopping 50% discount if you want to buy a “set of hair products”, saving you £50 (the original price of the product was £100). The product is from a company called “GreatHairProducts” (again a fictitious example).
It seems like a good bargain, but before you make the purchase, you should go to the company’s website and check if the retail price of the specific product is really £100. Sometimes (thankfully not a common problem) you will find that the price of retail is lower and you don’t save the 50% you thought. But most of the time the deal site is telling the truth and you will also find the same retail price on the company’s website.
You may also find that the specific “hair product set” is not for sale on the company’s website as a set, but only as individual items. If this is the case, you should add the prices of the individual products to find out their total price and see if the offer makes sense and if you get the best possible discount if you buy it on the offer site.
Check the expiration date of the bonus
The offer will not last forever. Be sure to check until you can redeem the coupon. If it’s not clear in the deal description, ask the deal site (or business) for clarification before you make a purchase. Be sure to keep the emails you have sent and received to resolve any future disputes.
Check when you can redeem the voucher.
If the voucher is for a service (for example, a day at a spa) or for a product that you must be present to buy and use (for example, a dinner at a restaurant), in addition to its expiration date, you should check when you can redeem it too. Many times, these types of coupons can only be redeemed on specific days of the week and/or specific times. For example, you could buy movie tickets that can be used within 3 months of when you bought them, but only from Monday to Friday, so make sure this suits you before you buy the voucher.
How can you keep track of all available offers?
A great way to keep track of all the deals currently being offered by your country’s deal sites is to view them through a daily deals aggregator website. These types of websites collect available deals from all (or most) of the deals sites in a country and present them to you. This will save you a great deal of time as you won’t have to visit each deal site’s website to see their deals.