Benefits of School Supplies Online Shopping

Better TV.com

Audra Lowe: And also free school supplies I hear are also one of the main searches that
they are applying?

Heather Cabot: Well I don’t really think that’s telling about the era that we’re in
right now. People are really trying to save money and not only trying to
save money but people, some people are really are facing some dire
situations when it comes to their family budget and so we have never seen
searches for preschool supplies in the past.

Audra: Imagine all teachers are probably doing that?

Heather: And I that I think that could be part of it as well but I do think that the fact
that we’re seeing that at all not just searches for school supplies but people
actually typing in the word free means people are looking for nonprofits or
charities that maybe giving away school supplies for the start of the year.

Audra: Right and was your survey ever able to find out whether people are using
more online coupons this year than they were say lat year for example?

Heather: We know that people are searching for more online coupons this year and
we’ve seen a 50% increase in searches for printable online coupons so
those are a little bit different. Those are the coupons that you find online
but you print them up and take them to the store.

Audra: Yeah.

Heather: Which you would be very useful for example if you’re in a state where
they’re doing a tax free holiday because you could actually take it to the
store.

Audra: Right get in there, yeah.

Heather: And some people like to shop in the stores frankly I mean some people
especially for back to schools. Its fun to go with your child and try on
stuff, you know that I remember being a pilgrimage you know.

Audra: Yeah.

Heather: -- to go with my mo to buy special stuff in the beginning of school.

Audra: Those were the days remember?

Heather: Yeah.

Audra: It was so simple.

Heather: I know

Audra: But then how do you know that you’re getting the best deal especially
when you’re shopping online. There are so man things that you could
search for, so many things that pop up after the fact when you realize you
could have saved naturally 30%.

Heather: Well I think it really comes down to doing research and I think it also
comes down before you even start the research is making a budget with
your child. I really like the website practicalmoneyskills.com and they
actually have a back to school budget calculator on now.

Audra: I know.

Heather: So you can sit down with your child and make the budget and actually as
you buy things for the school your—it will tabulate it for you so your child
has a record of what you’re spending, what your goal is and you can do
fun things too like making an incentive program for your child and say
you know our budget is apps but If you come in under you know you can
keep the rest or you can do fun things to teach your child about what it
means to have a budget and so once you have that budget then I would
figure out what are the essentials that you need and go out and see how
much those would really cost so shop online a little bit but before you buy
make sure that you know exactly what things would actually cost in that
way when you find that coupon you know that, that mark down is really a
mark down.

Audra: That’s true because that’s the worst feeling in the world just to shop buy
something and after the fact see that it was on sale somewhere else or you
could have gotten a coupon so.

Heather: And what people should know is that because of the recession and because
retailers are expecting to for it to be not be a very good season they are
putting out all kinds of promotions so you want to make sure that before
you purchase something, especially if you’re purchasing online you open a
separate browser window and do one last search for that specific item you
know put it in you know blue Jansport back pack 50% discount or
discount or sale.

Make sure that you’re not missing something that may have just updated
in the last hour.

Audra: Yeah you never know.

Heather: Really.

Audra: Honestly. Alright well thank you so much Heather good to see you again.