How to get the best deals online: A Cyber Monday holiday shopping crash course

Not into online shopping yet? Um, have you SEEN what Black Friday looks like?? Not for me, my friends. I'm all about the more evolved joys of online shopping. More stores, more styles, more sizes, less pushing and MUCH better deals.  

Which brings us to the important business of today, Cyber Monday, the official online kickoff of the holiday shopping season. We're all about to throw down big bucks for the holidays - for gifts, entertaining and stuff for our homes and ourselves - and I want to make sure you're saving the most money possible.

Here's my advice for getting the best deals online:

1. Sign up for store newsletters, deals and alerts - let the deals come to you!

More than once, I have stood in The Gap with a friend who wanted to buy a regular priced item in-store when a 40% off deal was happening online. It's as simple as going on your phone and ordering the things you want from the stores you already shop at for a savings. But you've gotta know when the deals are happening. 

I sign up for store emails to know (a) when new merchandise is in and (b) when they're having sales and offering online-only discount codes. I wait for those codes to shop. And you won't always find them on the retailer's website. Just last week, online retailer ASOS advertised a 20% off discount code on their website when I had a 30% off discount code from them sitting in my inbox. 

It pays to be in the know. 

And if you don't like emails from retailers flooding your inbox, send them to a shopping folder or create a separate email account for shopping that you can visit when you're interested or have the budget. That way, you're not inundated or overly tempted. 

2. Browse and save your cart

One of the money-saving advantages of online shopping is this: you get to see and think-through your cart total instead of showing up at the store cash register only to be suckered into a total you didn't expect and are potentially to embarrassed or carried away to rethink or walk away from.

When you're shopping online the totals are clear and even if you're okay them, I recommend you DON'T BUY RIGHT AWAY.

Here are two reasons:

(1) You can avoid making the same impulse-purchase mistakes you'd make in-store by saving your cart or adding items to a wishlist and sleeping on it. There's so much more stock available online, there's really no rush. Take your time. 

(2) You should wait for the next sale. Sure it might be 10% off now... but does that store often have 40% off deals? Online sales come so frequently, you have the luxury of waiting and using comparison tools and getting the best deal.

3. Use a planning app like Santa's Bag

During the holidays you have so much stuff to buy, I recommend you browse for everyone and organize your budget and ideas in a single place so that when the time is right and you get that deal alert, you can pull the trigger on your purchase strategically.

I like the "Santa's Bag" app because it helps you organize gift ideas for everyone on your list, your max budget, overall and per person, and the links to the stuff you're thinking of buying. As you buy things your budget and checklist adjust accordingly.

4. Use an all-in-one deals site like Ebates.ca

Adding one little layer of clickthrough can save you a LOT of money when you're shopping online with a deals site like Ebates.ca. It's the pioneer in cash-back shopping and my go-to site because they literally pay you to shop.

Here's how it works...

It's free to join, takes 15 seconds, then you can shop your favourite retailers as you normally would but by starting your online shopping process at Ebates.ca you get additional "Cash Back" rebates. That's on top of whatever sales the retailer is already having. So, you're saving an additional 4%-30% just for going through the Ebates site or app.

You can access almost all the same the stores you would normally shop online -  I do most of my fashion and beauty shopping online so my go-tos are stores like Anthropologie, American Eagle, Forever 21, Steve Madden, Sephora, Adidas - they're all there. There are 650 stores to choose from.

When you're holiday shopping, the savings really start to add up. Here are some Cyber Monday examples:

I like to use the app because I do my online shopping on my phone or my tablet. I like that you can pull up the store information and see things like their latest deals and coupons, their shipping fees and the return policies. 

It's also a good way to find out what the latest coupons and deals are and shop that way. I get their deal alerts as push notifications on my phone. And I look at the "Today's Best Deals & Coupons" section. Or I type in the the name of the stores I'm interested in and the Ebates site shows you if there are any sales happening at the moment. 

Since today is Cyber Monday, Ebates is offering double Cash Back at over 200 stores so you are bound to find great savings from your favourite retailers.

5. Use Google Shopping results

I like using the new Google's Shopping search result to see which retailers are offering the items I want online and to compare prices.

I like that you can adjust the price range to filter results.

6. Get free shipping

There are a few ways to get free or cheaper shipping: 

• Wait for a free shipping deal offer, they happen very frequently
• Bundle your purchases to qualify for free shipping
• Buy items from retailers that are closer to you. For example, I might want an item made by a UK company that's also carried by a Canadian retailer who will ship it to me for cheaper cheaper.
• Consider signing up for something like Amazon Prime if you shop Amazon a lot.
• Go back to your all-in-one deals site, like Ebates, and check the free shipping section to see what stores offer it.

7. Clear your browser cache and cookies

Retailers are more likely to offer discounts to new customers so make sure to clear your cache and cookies after shopping. Travel sites are notorious for this. It'll also stop the ads for the things you've browsed from following you around Facebook and the rest of the web all day. 

If you have any questions for me about online shopping use the comments section of the CBC Life Facebook page, I'll be checking them out. Happy holiday shopping and saving, everyone!

Jamey Ordolis is the senior producer of CBC Life and is a tech contributor for The Goods and CBC Radio.