HOW TO: Use Social Media For Holiday Shopping
So I thought I would fill you in on how I've been holiday shopping for the last two years. It's a little process that has made my life much easier & I wanted to share my "secret" with you.
As a quick background, for years now my family has been sharing their Christmas lists via email. That had been sufficient for awhile, with the downside being that we ended up getting so many emails back & forth whenever anyone had additions to their list. Using email for this purpose started to become overwhelming... And let's be honest, that's the last thing you want holiday shopping to be!
Thank goodness this lovely (& addicting) site came into our lives, because we quickly discovered that using a Pin Board as a Christmas list might just be the best thing we've came up with in a long time.
Let me tell you, pinning a Christmas list cannot be easier. Every year (about 4-5 months out from December) my sisters & I will each create a new Pin Board for the year ('My Christmas List 2013') & send out the URLs to each other via email. Then, individually we can start pinning things we find online at our leisure, & at any time we can check on each others' Christmas Pin Boards as well.
The section of my Christmas List 2013 pin board.
What I like about using Pinterest for holiday shopping:
A drastic decrease in Christmas list related emails. All you need to do now is check a loved ones Pin Board for any updates at your own convenience.
Pictures. Yes, I know you can attach pictures via email as well, but Pinterest makes it much easier. You no longer need to save an image to your desktop in order to incorporate it into your email.
Size, color & other product-related information all in one spot. With information nicely organized, it makes purchasing an item go flawlessly.
Ranking. I've started ranking items by 'Hotness', if you will. Three stars for items I would love to have, two stars for items I would like to have, and one star for items that I would like, but could live without.
So, before you sign off believing that's all I have for you. Think again. There is one more step in my only holiday shopping activities.
Have you met my friend, Hukkster?
I actually just recently discovered Hukkster through my sister & soon realized it was a great companion for holiday shopping lists.
For example, once I've picked an item from one of my sisters' Christmas Pin Boards, I'll following the link to the online store. Once here, I will 'Hukk' the item & provide any relevant information (i.e, color, size, etc.).
However, the most important feature here is that you can have Hukkster notify you when an item 'Goes On Sale', 'Drops At Least 25%' or 'Drops At Least 50%'.
Using the 'Hukk It' button on the ASOS website.
This is extremely nice because you'll receive an email alert whenever an item that you've Hukked goes on sale, or when it has dropped in price by the preferred amount.
Which means that I've been Hukking items from my sisters' Christmas Pin Boards for awhile now & buying items only when they go on sale. And I can only imagine that deals are going to get much better once the holiday sales start up (i.e., Cyber Monday is going to be insane).
So, if you're looking to save money this holiday season, I would definitely recommend trying out at least one, if not both, of the social media channels mentioned above when it comes to shopping, for the holidays or in general.
For instance, outside of the holiday season I've used both methods for things like birthday gifts, a bridesmaid dress, & other miscellaneous items that I've wanted to purchase but didn't want to pay full price.
Well, now that I've shared my holiday shopping best practices with you, I would love to hear your approach to online holiday shopping. Are there any websites that you can't live without? How about a holiday budgeting app?
