Welcome to Saving Money with Andrew!

Online retail is a highly competitive environment, with many retailers focused on growth and volume rather than profit. So, there are many opportunities to save on your purchases. My favorite tip for online shopping is to always use cashback (anywhere from less than 1% to more than 15% off your purchases), combined with a 2% rewards credit card (another 2%), but there are plenty of other tips to save even more. This tip is a small one, but might work on your next major order.

An [Anonymous Reader] writes:

Yesterday I was shopping at a website I will not name and I put a bunch of stuff in my shopping cart b/c I couldn't decide what I wanted yet. The total came to $141.89. And I came back today to narrow it down and without me making any changes, the total is now $57.72 and they added discounts for "buy 3 get 3 free" and "shopping cart abandonment 10%"

So it pays to let things sit in your shopping cart for a day or two sometimes!

Hope you're doing well,

[Anonymous Reader]

I was intrigued, but suspicious. A 60% discount, just for leaving something in your cart for 24 hours? A website my reader wouldn’t name? It all seemed too good to be true. But I knew I could trust [Anonymous Reader]; she’s a good friend with a keen eye for discounts. So I decided to dig further.

What I found surprised me. Shopping Cart Abandonment is a real thing. According to Denmark’s Baymard Institute, co-founded by Christian Holst and Jamie Appleseed,[1] 70% of shopping carts never make it through checkout, much to online retailers’ distress. E-commerce consultants recommend a range of strategies to combat the problem, but the practice most appealing to shoppers like us is to offer a coupon code, sometimes quickly, sometimes after several emails.

The confusingly-named Krazy Coupon Lady (she seems quite sane to me) has a useful list of retailers that will send you coupons if you leave items in your cart,[2] but I’m certain this is only the tip of the abandoned-cart-coupon-sending iceberg. Try it for your next major online purchase, and let me know what happens!

I hope this has been helpful. If you liked it, please press the “like” button and share it with your friends! Also, if there are any topics you’re interested in, please send me your requests. And finally, if one of these tips helps you, I’d love to hear about it - just send me an email and I may (anonymously, of course) mention your story in a future post.

[1] I promise I’m not making this up.

[2] Another useful list can be found here.