7 Tips for Online Shopping this Holiday Season

This content was made in partnership with Microsoft. All opinions are my own.

It’s officially the holiday season! This year, I’m doing almost all of my Christmas shopping online. I’m also partnering with Microsoft Edge to share a few tips to help you save money and time while shopping this holiday season.

One of my favorite things about the holiday season is shopping and giving gifts to my friends and family (gift giving is one of my love languages). Even though I’m not planning on seeing extended family or friends this Christmas, I’m still looking forward to getting everyone gifts.

While I usually do 60% of my shopping in-stores and 40% of shopping online, this year I plan on doing almost all my shopping online. I’ve personally using Microsoft Edge, an internet browser, to save money, find the best deals, and stay organized this holiday season.

Here are 7 tips for online shopping this holiday season:

1.Ask family/friends what their top 3-4 items are on their Christmas list

Before you start adding things to your shopping cart, I recommend reaching out to your friends and family to see what might be on their list this holiday season.

My family typically starts talking about Christmas on Thanksgiving. My family usually does a Secret Santa or White Elephant Gift Exchange for Christmas and we use Thanksgiving to decide which one we’re going to do. But since my extended family and I didn’t get together physically this year, I’ve started asking in our cousin group chats what my cousins, nieces, and nephews have on their Christmas list.

I have some family members who know exactly what they want (like my sister, who specifically requested skincare products). I also have other family members, like my aunts, uncles, and cousins who always say they don’t need anything and would be happy with any gift.

2. Create themed gift ideas or segments

If you have friends or family who don’t have anything specific on their Christmas list, I recommend creating segments or themed gift ideas. To save online shopping time, I usually pick a theme or segment for all my aunts and uncles each year. Each set of aunt and uncle get the same type of gifts, but they all might get different scents, flavors, or prints.

Here are a few themed gift ideas:

• Bath: hand soaps, hand towels, candles, bath bombs or bath salts
• Sleep: blankets, pillow sprays, pajamas, or sleep masks
• Office: pens, notebooks, paper organizers, or books
• Make-up: lip loss, make up travel bags, make up brushes, or make up wipes
• Kids: books, arts and crafts kits, or toys

3. Create a budget

Creating a budget is essential before beginning to online shop for the holiday season. I recommend thinking about the number of people you’re shopping for and how much you’d like to spend per person. If you’re shopping for 10 people in your family or friends, you might decide to spend $50/person = $500 total. If you’re shopping for 20 people, that $50/person becomes $1,000 total.

Personally, when I’m shopping for the holiday season, I have my Cortes family (mom, dad, sister, brother-in law, plus all my aunts, uncles, cousins, nephews, and nieces) and my Ellendt family (Brandon’s family + future in laws, nieces, nephews, and grandparents). I have a lot of loved ones to shop for so it’s important for me to set a budget before I start to shop.

4. Keep track of your shopping list with Collections in Microsoft Edge

One way I’m able to stay organized online shopping during the holiday season is using the Collections feature in Microsoft Edge.

1. To create a collection, click the [+] button on the upper righthand corner of your browser page.
2. Next, click “Start new collection” and give it a new title
3. To add to your collection, all you do is click “Add Current Page”.

Because I’m shopping for my family (the Cortes side) and Brandon’s family (the Ellendt side), I created collections for both families to stay organized. I also created a collection for my own Christmas list. Both my family and Brandon’s family always ask what I’m looking for Christmas, and having my links and items saved to one place has saved me so much time. I’m able to pull up my collection, click on a specific item, and send them the link to the item without having to go through the whole search process again.

I used to have a dozen tabs open of different retailers when online shopping for my family and friends. I used to get so frustrated when I accidentally closed out the tab that I wanted to go back later that day. I love being able to save items to my collections and knowing exactly where the links are.

5. Save money by seeing what coupons are available with Microsoft Edge

Whether you have a large extended family like me or you’re shopping for a few loved ones, saving money during the holiday season will help your budget. Microsoft Edge makes it super easy to see what coupon codes are available for retailers’ websites.

When you’re on a product page of a retailer, you’ll find blue tag and red numbers on the righthand side of the URL or web address. Clicking on the blue tag will show you:

• If you have the best price
• The option to compare with other retailers
• And what coupon codes are available to try. You can automatically click on the coupon code and it will copy it for you to paste at check out.

6. Compare prices with Microsoft Edge

Aside from showing you what coupon codes are available, Microsoft Edge also shows compares prices with other retailers. Instead of having multiple tabs open of other retailers to compare the price of the same item, you can have one retailer page open and the web browser will tell you whether or not you have the best price.

I think this proactive price comparison is awesome for electronics like wireless headphones or earphones, video game consoles, or even kitchen products like air fryers or coffee makers. Again, if you want to stick to your budget this holiday season, you probably want to get the best deals possible. Microsoft Edge does the research and verifying for you, so you don’t have to spend additional time searching through other retailers’ websites to make sure you’re getting the best deal.

7. Don’t forget about shipping and delivery times

Since I’m doing 90% of my holiday shopping this year online, my goal is to be done with ordering by December 13^th. Millions of people are also online shopping this holiday season. There may be unexpected shipping delays so I recommend placing your orders as soon as you can so gifts can arrive on time.

I hope you enjoyed these tips for online shopping this holiday season!

You can download Microsoft Edge here.

What other online shopping tips do you have?

Thank you for reading!

Love,

Emma