Maximize Your Budget: Shopping Research

What can you do with a history degree? Shopping research. While I make impulse buys (I’m human), it’s common for me to spend a long time researching products before I make the purchase. I find that when I do some shopping research, I end up with better quality and am happier with what I spent my money on. This is an important step when it comes to picking out a good one.

7 Tips for Shopping Research:

1. Consider how long you are willing to wait for this item.

If it’s something like a hot water heater, you probably don’t have a lot of time to research brands. However, if it’s something like moisturizer, you might be able to delay the purchase for a week or two until you can find what you like best and hopefully at the best price possible.

2. Don’t let a low price fool you.

It’s enticing to go with the lowest price, but sometimes you get what you pay for. A truly better quality item that will last much longer or be more effective might be just $10 more. The better value in that case is the higher priced item since it meets your needs better and will last longer.

3. Read reviews, but take them with a grain of salt.

I tend to trust views from retailers who sell multiple brands instead of from the brands themselves. Also, it’s common for brands to gift products to people in exchange for a review, but this can happen with major retailers too. Even Though these reviews should be unbiased, I personally approach something free with a little less scrutiny than I do something I paid for. Remember when we could eat Costco samples? Those free snacks were the best and tasted way better in store than at home.

4. Don’t listen too much to bloggers or influencers (including me!).

This is not because they may be gifted or sponsored by certain brands. Yes, that happens, but even so I find that these blogs can still give quality reviews. Sometimes those bloggers might accept the free product or sponsorship because they already love and use the product. The real reason is…. That is only one opinion. What works for them might not work for you. If it’s a clothing item, they could have a different body type or lifestyle that isn’t like yours. If it’s skincare, every person has unique skin and what worked wonders on their skin just might not work for you. Yes, take a blogger’s opinion, but keep in mind that there’s a lot to be said for collecting multiple experiences.

5. Talk to the sales associates.

If you physically visit the store, talk to the people who know the products best – the people who sell them. Yes, they are trying to make a sale, however, depending on the store, they may be quite knowledgeable about the products you want. They can help you figure out which items will work best for you. Take skincare for example, a sales associate at a place like Sephora can help you find products that match your skin type as well as values that are important to you, such as an SPF that won’t cause a breakout and is also ocean safe. This is also helpful if you are a tactile or visual person who needs to feel or see something in person.

6. Ask your friends.

My mom did this with a washing machine – she asked her friends on Facebook about which machine they liked best. She looked at which brands people recommend the most and from there looked at store reviews and prices to find the right machine for her.

7. Get familiar with the return policy.

If all else fails, you can hopefully return the item you don’t want. Even with good research, you can still miss the mark on finding what you want. This is especially important for big ticket items where restocking fees or delivery charges may be incurred. I don’t know about you, but I like to be mentally prepared for those situations.