I have to preface that I have not fully taken the plunge to shopping online but I know many people who have. After getting up and going shopping at 3 am on Black Friday I wondered if I had missed an opportunity to fully use technology to enhance my shopping experience. Many of the stores also support online retail and the deals that were present in the stores were also available online. Would I have been better off shopping from home in my pajamas instead of getting dressed and going out in the cold and rain to get the deals I desired? I decided that I didn’t have enough information to make an informed decision and should research some alternatives so I can make an informed decision next year.

First Stop Google Shopping. A colleague recently shared this resource with me and what is great about this site is that you can type in what you are looking to purchase and a list of possible matches comes up. Explore a match and you will see the company selling the item – how users have rated this seller, condition of the item – new or used, Tax and shipping, total price and base price. As a consumer you can compare offerings at multiple stores all from the comfort of your home. I realize that there are many sites that offer similar services but I did not have the time to review them all. A few others that I explored were:

•  BizRate is another site that also does similar comparisons- but doesn’t have the detailed information that compares shipping and taxes – so there is a little bit more work for the consumer

•  PriceGrabber – same information as Google Shopping more ads – but neatly presents the bottom line price with the best deal clearly identified on top
• Shopping.com – this site had the most detailed information on the product- but did not compare taxes and shipping on the items that I was looking at
• Smarter.com – I really like the name of this site- like shopping is going to make you smarter, but they show you the various stores that it is available and if you enter your zip code it shows you the total price with tax and shipping and in the searches that I did the smart choice was not necessarily the best deal when shipping to my home area.

As I said there are many other sites that perform similar functions, you just have to find the site you are most comfortable with exploring and navigating.

I realized that I had not taken the time to fully explore all the shopping elements available online. Students are taught the practicality understanding sales tax and the fundamentals balancing a checkbook and understanding credit card rates, but using the features online is not something that is shared with them at school. Wouldn’t a lesson or a unit on being a tech savvy consumer help most students? I even know a few adults that could benefit, myself included.

So as much as I enjoyed the people watching and deals to be had at three in the morning I would definitely explore all my options virtually before getting up and going out at that hour.