Nowadays, nearly everyone shops online. But it can be a confusing experience, with ads chasing you around and pricing changing each time you check.
Learn how using a virtual private network (VPN) can result in a more satisfying shopping experience, among other tips.
Online Shopping And Its Frustrations
While automated online shopping to restock your laundry detergent might be the future, for now, we are stuck surfing the web looking for the best deals ourselves. Either way, we will still have to deal with delivery and return hullabaloo.
Isn’t it annoying to be browsing Amazon or Zalando for shoes, and then for weeks being bombarded with advertisements when just trying to get on with your day?
What’s more, how frustrating is it to check for flights on for example KLM.com and then getting higher prices each time you visit? At what point should you even book?
Then, when in Australia, it’s not possible to see the US prices for Amazon. Sometimes it’s good to know the price of a product in another country to not pay more than necessary.
There are less obvious concerns as well, such as shopping online when connected to public Wifi. Bank details and other data might not be safe on these types of internet connections and hackers could catch on.
Yikes! Of course, we will all still be shopping online, so what are the options for a better online shopping experience? We can’t fix shipping problems, but outside of that, there’s still a lot that can be done to improve your home shopping experience. And how a VPN can be useful?
Improving Your Online Shopping Experience While Getting Better Deals
Here are numbers of actions to take.
1. Clear browser cache and cookies before starting to shop
Online companies base their prices also on previous searches and purchases that are saved in cookies and cache. On Google Chrome the menu or option to clear these will either be top right or top left, saying for example ‘Clear Browsing Data’.
The downside is that autofill on URLs will no longer happen and that most websites probably sign you out. Weigh your options and set the browser to the desired mode.
2. Leave Items In The Shopping Cart For Days At A Time
Companies get anxious for consumers to buy products when shoppers put something in their shopping cart but don’t proceed to checkout and pay. There will be a good chance companies are going to email out discounts to the consumer to try and overcome their hesitance to buy.
So don’t be in a hurry. Apparently the more you click on the emails but then wait again, the better the deals. Waiting will also bring down those impulse buys!
3. Use Private Or Incognito Browsing Mode
Using a private browsing mode such as Incognito on the Chrome internet browser is a good start to not being stalked with annoying online advertising of whatever you searched before.
This is also a good tip in the case of buying someone a gift who lives in the same house and wanting to keep it a surprise. And when speculating visiting family at home across the globe during high season, nobody wants online ads that will just be promoting homesickness.
So use a private browsing mode to be one step closer to a more Zen online experience.
4. Use A VPN For Borderless Pricing
In combination with private browsing, using a VPN will usher in the chill as well as possibly better deals by unlocking geo-restrictions. Pricing may differ per region and connecting to a server abroad by using a VPN will allow consumers to see for themselves.
Using a VPN will hide the IP address so companies won’t recognize the shopper. This is also great for booking flights because this way flight companies no longer have the power to abuse a consumer’s desperation or need upon returning site visits.
Turn on the VPN before online shopping, and use a VPN that features a Kill Switch. When in Australia, a VPN will provide access to the US Amazon website.
5. Use A Separate Email Address For Deals And Coupons
Sign up for newsletters from favorite brands such as H&M, but create a new email address especially for this shopping spam.
This is handy because then there won’t be endless emails in your work or personal email inbox, but still, there will be access when needed. Great for Groupon and the likes as well. So go ahead and get signed up.
What Else Can We Tell You…
Finally, when it comes to shopping and especially for flights, try browsing on different days. Sunday afternoon might be a popular day for online shopping, but it may not yield the best prices. Monday might be expensive for booking flights but opinions vary on that.
Using a VPN is not just great for getting better deals and a breezy online browsing experience, it’s also great for privacy and safety. When using public Wifi, be sure to use a VPN to protect your bank and personal details from hackers. Using Paypal with a VPN might result in issues.
There are some great VPNs for shopping that are free too! Such a the free versions of Windscribe, Hotspot Shield or Proton VPN.
The downside with free VPNs is that they have a limited amount of countries and servers to connect to, and they often have a data limit. If you’ve always wanted to go to a different country’s Netflix, then a much more robust VPN is needed such as ExpressVPN.
In Conclusion
Shopping, but also browsing of the web and daily computer use can be way more of an enjoyable experience using these tips and a VPN. Whether a free VPN such as listed above will suffice depends on any further needs.