A Tip on Shopping “Deal” Sites

I’m going to come clean–I had a problem. It was that feeling of excitement when one of my deal site emails would pop up–Gilt, Hautelook, Joss & Main–you name one, I loved it. Then, I had a moment of clarity…am I really getting a deal? So, I started doing a quick search before purchasing an item and discovered that often I could find the exact same item cheaper than what it was selling for on one of the “deal” sites. Here are a couple of examples from this week.

I’ve been looking to add a little color to my living room and (thanks to an additional 30% off email) headed to Gilt Home to check out what lamps they might have. Came across simple navy lamp by Safavieh.

On Gilt, the price was listed as $169 from $195–not a significant deal, but just enough that with the extra 30% off I had my finger over the “add to cart” button. An additional $7.95 would cover the shipping. Thankfully, I managed to pull myself out of the online shopping haze just long enough to do a quick Google search where I found the exact same lamp on Overstock for $138.99 and free shipping. Plus, the Gilt lamp was a final sale (always scary for me) whereas the Overstock lamp was returnable. No brainer!

Now, the key is checking because sometimes the sale sites are dealing with leftovers of discontinued merchandise so you won’t be able to find them elsewhere. On the same day on Gilt I found two lamps by Filament that I really liked and they weren’t available elsewhere.

Here’s another example from Joss & Main. I find that with their curator sales you get amazing choices and things that would look great together, but the prices aren’t necessarily better than what you’d pay elsewhere. In a current sale, this pillow caught my eye:

It’s called the “Maze Pillow” and is on sale as part of the Apartment 34 Curator’s Collection for $79.95 down from $119.00. Perfect, LOVE the pillow (it’s by one of my favorite design shops Jiti Designs) and LOVE a deal. Well, it’s 9.95 shipping and final sale. Again, thank goodness I wasn’t too quick on the trigger! A quick search of “maze pillow” on Google lead me to a number of vendors who carry this design including Joss & Main’s parent company Wayfair! On that site, the pillow is on sale for $87.99 but with free two-day shipping and it’s returnable! Also a no brainer. (As a side note, the Apartment 34 Curator’s Collection sale is REALLY good–love her choices.)

So, I’m not saying don’t buy from these sites, and I’m not saying there aren’t good deals to be had…just a word of caution to do a quick search before you hit that “add to cart” button!