More people are preferring to shop online now because it’s cheaper and safer with contactless payment methods during the pandemic. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, online retailers in the U.S. took in about $870 billion in 2021, a 14.2% increase over 2020 and a 50.5% increase over 2019. That is about 13.2% of all retail sales in 2021 in the U.S.
But, as fun and convenient as online shopping may be, it can certainly pull on your wallet. Therefore, more people are interested in finding ways to save money when they shop online. People are trying to use sites to compare prices of their favorite items and searching for coupon codes on sites, be a subscriber at the brand's official website, or follow up the social media to know when there is a sale and get discounts to save money. Although those tricks are practical to some extent, fulfilling all those steps takes time and may only save a dollar or two.
Fortunately, there’s an easier way to find coupon codes and get the lowest price if you install the online shopping assistant, some browser extensions that will do all the hard work for you. They will help you compare prices and find the best discount codes. Some extensions even offer rewards or cash backs on your orders.
Browser extensions are plug-ins you can download on the web browser of your computer like Chrome, Firefox, Edge, or Safari. Some developers also offer mobile apps for customers. Since there are many money-saving browser extensions that automate the process of finding the best deals, you should choose the best to meet your shopping needs.
Here is a list of 5 of the best browser extensions that can change the way you shop and help you save money.
This extension will compare prices of the items you like between Amazon, Amazon's third-party sellers, and other popular online stores and offer you Honey’s top pick based on price, shipping, and Prime status to help you get the best deals.
The extension also tracks the price change of items. You can add an item to its droplist, you will be notified when there is a price drop.
Honey promised to help you find and automatically apply the best coupon codes to your cart at over 30,000 participating merchants. Consumers with honey can earn $126 yearly average savings and can get a 17.9% Average Discount.
Additionally, this money-saving tool offers cash back on your purchase through a rewards program called HoneyGold. And you can get bonuses if you first sign up or recommend honey to your friends.
You can download this extension on a browser like Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, and Opera.
The browser extension of RetailMeNot, called RetailMeNot Deal Finder will test promo codes and apply the best available codes at checkout. It also offers cash back to help you maximize your savings. Cash back you earned on your purchase can be redeemed via Paypal or Venmo.
The extension is available at more than 20,000 online stores, including Target, Macy’s, Wayfair, DoorDash, Walgreens, eBay, etc. RetailMeNot Deal Finder works on Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Microsoft Edge. Install it in your browser then you can enjoy saving freely with available coupon codes and exclusive cash back offers.
The extension developed by Rakuten, a cash-back website formerly called Ebates, is similar to Honey and is capable of helping you find coupons and offer cash back for your purchase. With one click, consumers can activate the cash back directly at the store sites and automatically test and apply discount codes at checkout. Shoppers now can enjoy cash back up to 10% at over 2, 500 stores. Besides, this hack tool can even show you which retailer sites offer cash-back in your search results on Google, Yahoo, or Bing. You can pick the site with a cash-back offer before you shop to get the best deal.
The money you earn goes into your Rakuten account, and you can withdraw it every quarter for a check or PayPal credits. You can even donate your money to some charities directly. The extension is available in Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge.
CouponBirds SmartCoupon Finder
This browser extension developed by CouponBirds is also a free money-saving assistant. Once you click the ‘apply codes’ button, it will test all valid coupon codes in seconds and finally apply the best discount code for your order.
The extension is available at over 60, 000+ online retailers across the web which means shoppers can get the best discount from almost all the online stores they like, such as Walmart, Macy's, JCPenney, AliExpress, and more! Moreover, users of SmartCoupon Finder can save up to $300 a year on average. This free extension also offers rewards for shoppers and a $5 welcome bonus for a new user’s first sign-up. It’s free and easy to use and effective to save money which makes this money-saving tool popular and trusted by over 200,000 shoppers.
CouponBirds SmartCoupon Finder is free to install in Chrome, Firefox, and Edge and it also offers a mobile app for iOS.
The capital one shopping extension is an online shopping assistant that does almost all the work for shoppers. It shows the price comparison of the same product in different online stores while you shop at Amazon, Target, Best Buy, and more. So, you can buy the product from the store which is selling it cheaper.
When you add items to your online shopping cart, it will check and apply coupon codes to help you get the lowest price. Besides, you will earn rewards credits while you shop at its partner stores and cash in your rewards for gift cards at those stores. Capital One Shopping extension is available for Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge, and Safari. There’s also a mobile app for iOS and Android.
For shopping enthusiasts, those browser extensions for coupons are the best way to save money. Shoppers can easily get the best coupon codes and discounts by installing and using these extensions. Those money-saving tools not only save you money but also save you time. Finding coupon codes and deals, especially valid coupon codes which are not expired or fake is really a time taking process.
But now those extensions will do all the finding and testing work for you to help you get out of this frustration. Right now, there are plenty of great coupon extensions in the browser web store and you are free to install one or more of them to compare and get the best money-saving experience.
This article was written in cooperation with Terry