Retailers are throwing out more offers than ever before: Here are 5 ways you can take advantage

Everybody loves a bargain. With the Covid crisis making us watch what we spend, many retailers are coming up with inventive ways to tempt us to part with our cash. Many are using online campaigns to get our attention and, if we know where to look, it’s possible to find some gems here and there.

Here’s a look at some of the best ways to take advantage of the post-Covid special offer boom.

Discount apps

If you’re looking for a place that has all of the best offers in the same place, then an app is a handy tool. Many of them guide you to discounts available at the moment, some offer cashback on purchases made through the app - while others offer both.

Ibotta is one of those. Its geolocation feature targets the best deals based on your location, and it has around 275 different retailers, so you’ll shouldn’t be too far from one. It also connects to store loyalty card accounts, so you’ll automatically receive rewards.

For an even bigger selection of vendors, the Honey app has thousands in its database, including restaurants, travel providers and clothing stores. Like Ibotta, Honey finds discounts and promo codes, plus it lets you add special items to a Droplist for future price drops.

A great app is never far away, and with so many retailers handing out offers at the moment, it’s one of the most convenient shopping methods out there.

Sales campaigns

One of the oldest and most effective forms of marketing is the classic sales campaign. You’ll recognize this from the traditional January and Easter sales periods, as well as the more modern Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Often, it’s just a case of looking up your favorite retailers and seeing what sales offers they have on their websites, but to save you the hassle of looking for each one individually, some websites put them together for you.

Money Saving Expert is a famous UK-based advisor site which has a great online sales section that customers from many countries can make use of. The rest of the site is dedicated to helping you save money on things from energy bills to travel insurance, too, so it’s always worth a look.

Large websites like Yahoo also regularly provide similar lists, letting you know the amounts you can save by clicking on the links via their site.

Free gift cards

The gift card is a marketing tactic used in many sectors: give the customer a freebie to get them using the site, in the hope that they will stick around and spend more money later on. Typical examples include free trials on TV subscription sites or no deposit bonuses in online casinos, and it’s good to know how to use them to your advantage.

Amazon has an interesting take on gift cards through its Amazon Trade-in scheme. They accept unwanted electrical items that you may have lying around and give a gift card or special offer in return. Possible items include cell phones, tablets and speakers: simply send them in and get a gift card amount depending on the value of the item. You can check how much your item would get you by simply using the site’s search function, and they even send you the item back free of charge if it’s rejected once it gets there.

For more conventional examples, websites such as Slickdeals.net show you where to look for the best offers out there, adding new cards daily and offering Deal of the Day notifications that are delivered straight to your inbox.

Referrals

One of the main aims of any business is to expand its customer base so that it brings in more sales. A referral program is a tried and tested way of doing this: customers introduce more customers and earn a fixed amount of money for each one that signs up.

Companies looking to weather the uncertain economic climate are big on referrals at the moment, which is why there are some great programs out there. Referral Candy puts together updated lists of the best ones around, including information on how you could set up your very own should you need to push your business.

Either way, it’s a smart way to make some cash while getting your friends to enjoy the same brands as you!

Points plans

Points-based rewards systems have been around for years with airlines giving regular passengers discounts through air miles. The system has expanded a lot in the last few years, however, to the point that you can find a great program in most sectors.

Websites such as The Points Guy are dedicated to finding the best points-based credit cards, earning you points for every purchase you make on them. These can accumulate into some pretty spectacular deals, scoring customers huge discounts and sometimes even freebies.

Supermarkets and retail stores also offer points-based purchases, with Gap and Target offering tempting programs that will get you totting up points as soon as you enter their shop.

So, if you’re finding things a little tight at the moment, check out these deals to make a bit of cash while shopping. Small amounts can accumulate very quickly and before you know it you could have a hefty amount to spend on future purchases!