CHRISTMAS SHOPPING - 28.11.2008

Bargain hunting online

Dream toys this Christmas

We picked four popular toys from the Toy Retailers Association (http://www.toyretailersassociation.co.uk) Christmas Dream Toys list and looked for the cheapest prices on the high street and online. We used price comparison favourites PriceRunner (http://www.pricerunner.co.uk) and Kelkoo (http://www.kelkoo.co.uk), as well as specialist comparison site Choose Toys (http://www.choosetoys.co.uk).

High street vs the Web

For three out of four of our selected toys, we found a saving of 10-26% online. Whilst we did find a cheaper price on the high street for the Star Wars helmet, it was just 4p less than the best online price. All in all a good result for the Web!

PriceRunner was the top performing comparison site and we liked the option to sort results by price including or excluding delivery and by retailer name. Kelkoo also performed well. It’s interesting to note the cheapest prices returned by these two sites were all from Amazon (http://www.amazon.co.uk). Sadly, Choose Toys could not match up to its competitors on price, and the prices quoted did not include delivery. Note that both Kelkoo and PriceRunner include eBay (http://www.ebay.co.uk) Buy It Now and AmazonMarketplace (http://www.amazon.co.uk) prices in their listings. Beware, however, we noticed that the prices quoted are not always to be found when clicking through to the site, perhaps because the comparison sites are not updated in real time.

Earn as you shop

Cashback websites pay you if you buy something at normal online retailers through the cashback site. Money Saving Expert (http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/ ashback-sites-comparison) offers a Cashback-Sites Maximiser search. Type in the name of the online store and it refers you to the cashback site offering the best reward for shopping with that store. It directed us to wepromiseto (http://www. wpromiseto.co.uk) that offered a 2.5% cashback deal for Amazon purchases.

Price comparison on the move

PriceRunner Mobile (http://www.pricerunner.co.uk/mobile?where=mobile&noLink=1) is a moile phone application aimed at “savvy shoppers” who want to see how high street prices match up to online offerings while out shopping. Enter your mobile number online to receive a text message link to a free download. The software installs quickly and offers a price comparison with basic product information. Note. Unfortunately it’s not compatible with all mobiles (click on PriceRunner’s FAQ to find out more) but an alternative site is offered at http://uk.pricerunner.mobi which you can access using your mobile browser. You can’t purchase products through your phone but you can submit an e-mail address online to allow you to e-mail product details to yourself to peruse later.