Smarter Ways to Shop Online

Online shopping is basically 20 years old. When Pizza Hut allowed customers to order pizza online back in 1994, it was considered revolutionary; the same goes for when Amazon.com first went live in 1995.

Depending on your age, you may see online shopping in one of three ways:

-- As something that's been around since the dawn of time

-- As a still relatively unusual way to pay for items

-- As a new idea that just may catch on one of these days

However you feel about online shopping, it is probably more complicated than you think. If you want to save money and find the best deals, you'll need to do a lot more than punch in your credit card number. Try some of these tactics:

Check out sale aggregators and cash-back sites. If you spend serious money online, you'll likely want to do more than just go to your favorite website and shop. Consider buying through a third party. Ebates.com, for example, gives a small percentage of the sale back to you later in cash form; FatWallet.com also gives cash back and has coupons and various deals.

Other big names include Rakuten.com, Dealnews.com, TechBargains.com and Yipit.com, the latter of which specializes in local deals.

Jennifer Spoerri, a publicist in San Francisco, calls herself a serious online shopper who subscribes to Racked.com and SheFinds.com. "Both aggregate the best sales online," says Spoerri, who doesn't have client relationships with either company. "Through a Racked email, I found out about an amazing Lululemon sale that wasn't even being advertised on their site."

Use a website designed to improve the online experience. Online shopping has caught on for many reasons -- not having to leave the house or wait in line are biggies. But it isn't always ideal. Sometimes you just want to touch and feel the stuff you're buying.

"It's easier to trust yourself in making a smart shopping decision when you can use all of your senses -- instead of just sight and sound -- to evaluate and make the purchase decision," says Roger Beahm, executive director of the Center for Retail Innovation at Wake Forest University School of Business in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

That's why some websites try to minimize certain disadvantages of online shopping. You may want to check out:

-- TrueFit.com. This site partners with 20 retailers, including Macy's and Guess, and is slated to add another 15 or so stores soon. All you have to do is answer a few body-related questions -- height, weight, body shape and the likes -- then, whenever you shop for a product from a store that's partnered with TrueFit.com, you'll get a recommendation on what size you need.

-- Searchbyinseam.com. Here, you can comparison shop at multiple online stores for your exact inseam.

-- Shoefitr.com. Have you noticed how sometimes you might be a size 8, and other times an 8 1/2 works better? Apparently, many footwear companies can't quite agree on standard shoe-size definitions. If you answer a few questions about your feet, this website claims to get you into the right shoe the first time.

-- Unroll.me. Ever wanted to rip your hair out at the sight of another store email in your inbox? Unroll.me can show you all of the subscriptions you're receiving, and then -- voilà! -- unsubscribe you from all or some of them. If you like your subscriptions minus the constant email barrage, it also allows you to receive them all in one daily message, meaning less clutter in your inbox.

Before you buy, look for more deals. If you haven't comparison shopped, you could be leaving decent money on the table.

Spoerri says she often goes to Amazon and eBay to see if either site has the item she wants before she buys it.

"I sometimes even deliberately misspell a designer's name to find the best deals," Spoerri says, since online sellers may not always proofread their listings.

"Honestly, nine times out of 10, it is cheaper on eBay. Of course, I always make sure I am dealing with a reputable seller who has more than 300 transactions and a rating of 99 or higher," she says.

Spoerri also always checks for current coupon or discount codes before making a purchase. As experienced shoppers know, sites like RetailMeNot.com and CouponCodes.com often have coupons for products or services just waiting for you to click them.

Prepare for the return process beforehand. Hopefully whatever you're buying will be exactly what you want. But if you're unhappy with it, especially if it wasn't all that expensive and you'd rather live with the money lost than spend time returning it, it's probably destined to sit on a shelf or in a junk drawer for millennia. Before you buy, think about your merchandise's exit plan, should you need one.

"If you aren't proactive about making that return, you'll never end up saving money by shopping online," says Lindsay Sakraida, features director at DealNews.com.

"Shop only at retailers that make returns easy," Sakraida adds. "Some will even include a return shipping label with the original shipment for scheduling a home pickup online."

There is even an app called Shyp that will retrieve your item and ship it back on your behalf for $5. But unless you live in New York, San Francisco and Miami, you can't take advantage of it yet.

Whether you return items yourself or have an app do it for you, you'll want to do some homework before pulling the trigger on any online purchase, says Jessica Foth, product marketing manager at Endicia, an online postage and shipping solutions company headquartered in Palo Alto, California. She recommends the following:

Read the return policy before completing the purchase. "It's good to be aware whether the vendor has a time limit for returns, if there is a restocking fee or other charges and whether or not returning to a retail location is an option," Foth says.

Hang onto the paperwork that comes in the package. Do so at least until you're positive you're keeping it, Foth says.

Find out your Return Material Authorization number. In most cases, you'll have to get this number from the seller. Write it down, Foth says, so if there are problems with the return, customer service can easily pull up your RMA number for reference. "This will help the vendor easily locate the processed return in case of any follow-ups," Foth says. She also recommends putting the RMA number on the package or shipping label as well as inside the package.

Keep a roll of packing tape on hand. "Consumers often aren't aware that they can use the original shipment box to conduct their return," Foth says. "Plus, if they've gotten a USPS return label from the vendor, packing tape is really the only thing needed to get that package out the door."

At some point, you'll need to take a leap of faith that you're prepared to make your online purchase. Of course if you overdo it, finding the perfect deal online can be just as time-consuming and annoying as driving to the store, fighting the crowds and buying what you need in person.