WEBSITE MAKES YOUR ONLINE PURCHASES SWEETER
I'm a huge fan of shopping online. I love how it affords
me the convenience of shopping without having to leave
my room. In fact, I'm already way past the point of
wondering how I ever shopped without the Internet. And
I'm not just talking about holiday shopping. I mean
everyday shopping like buying clothes, shoes, groceries,
you name it. Faced with a choice of having to shlep down
to the store, park, pay money to park, take the
elevator/escalator, try and find the items I want, go
back to the car, drive home, unload everything that I
loaded into the car (you know, I'm exhausted just having
to type all that), or simply click a mouse and poof,
there all of it is waiting for me at my front door, I'm
going online.
There are some online frustrations however. One of them
is when I get ready to check out and proceed to the
final few screens. There sitting in front of me is
usually one field into which I can type some information
that I more than likely don't have. It just sits there,
taunting me. It's the field that's asking me to type in
a Coupon Code. It could also be the field that's asking
me for a Gift Code. Or a Discount Code. Or some kind of
code that holds the promise of even more savings. It's
like that secret fraternity handshake you never learned.
Or the secret password you didn't have that got you into
the next game level. Or that wink and a nod you'd see
the front door bouncer give to someone he knew and
they'd get to go into the night club while you and
everyone else had to wait in line. It's that same
feeling. You don't have that coupon code? Then you're
not worthy. You don't get our special deep discount,
free shipping discount. YOU must pay the full price!
But now there's a way to get those coupon codes. There's
a really wonderful website that actually makes them
available to you and they do it for free! No special
password, secret handshake required. Just surf on over
to DealLocker.com and you'll find a repository of
literally thousands and thousands of online coupon codes
just waiting there for you to use.
Deal Locker gets these special codes from active
participants who contribute them to the website, and
from the companies themselves. The Deal Locker staff is
constantly verifying these codes, updating them and
removing them when they are no longer active. Users
report back to Deal Locker when a code is no longer
valid so the accuracy is pretty good.
Companies also offer coupon codes to Deal Locker in
hopes to entice shoppers to their website as well. These
are what Deal Locker calls "Guaranteed Codes" and that
classification speaks for itself. But even if a code
doesn't work, what do you have to lose in trying it? If
it works, you'll get a better deal, free shipping, who
knows? And for the most part, the online companies
really like what Deal Locker is doing because the bottom
line is that they are selling more stuff because Deal
Locker visitors actually find out about what companies
are selling when they visit the website. If not for Deal
Locker, they might neve have known about the deal.
Recently, Deal Locker has added some additional features
like the Secret Amazon Discount Tool that lets you
search items being offered on Amazon by the discount
being offered. You pick a category such as Kitchen and
Housewares, pick a minimum like 70 percent off and it
will find all the items that fit. Very nice.
Another new feature is the ability to find products on
sites like eBay via misspelled words. Too often, items
can't be located by potential buyers because the seller
misspelled the item's name. Their TypoBuddy finds these
items and you might find yourself being the only bidder.
How cool is that?
If you've been shopping online, check out Deal Locker.
Like me, you may be a bit sad at first when you see all
the online coupons you could have used during your
recent shopping and discover how much money you could
have saved. Don't let that happen to you and check it
out right now.
www.deallocker.com
| Craig Crossman is
a McClatchy-Tribune newspaper columnist writing about computers and
technology. He also hosts the nation's longest running nationally syndicated radio talk show on
computers and technology, Computer America, heard on both the Business TalkRadio
Network® and the Lifestyle TalkRadio Network®, weeknights at 10PM Eastern
time. Visit his website at http://www.computeramerica.com |
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