Save Smart. Buy online and rake it in

If you plan to register with Amazon.in , get ready for a pleasant surprise. The website gives free trial to ‘Amazon Prime’ services to those signing up for the first time. Under ‘Amazon Prime’, delivery is made within one or two days for most products, while giving early access to discount offers and zero charges for delivery — no matter how low the order amount is. But once the honeymoon period is over, if you are still interested, you have to shell out ₹499 for a year’s membership.

Inaugural offers are dime a dozen. An offer from Citibank gives ₹1,000 cashback to new customers if they apply for the credit card online. Then, ICICI Bank gives ‘Provogue’ bags free for its first time internet or mobile banking customers. Ola and Uber are known for occasionally running offers of ‘free first ride’ to their new customers.

There is nothing fishy about these deals. Most online portals and service providers want you to experience their service or product. And they are willing to make initial losses — by offering such steep discounts — with the hope that you would come back for more and more, helping them break-even in the process. It pays to have your antennae out and lap up inaugural offers.

If you are driving your car, be aware of what that sticker on the bus is trying to telling you. Or what that pop-up screen is screaming at you before you hit the ‘close’ down.

Of course, this approach can make many offers escape your radar. That’s where websites such as Desidime.com or Coupondunia.in — that aggregate details of discount offers — play a crucial role. Information on coupon codes and discount offers is organised by portal names and shopping categories. So, if you are planning to use Ola cabs in Mumbai, click the section that lists all the Ola deals. Or select the ‘travel’ section to check discounts currently running for bus or airline tickets.

Desidime and Coupondunia directly give the coupon code for many popular portals, including Amazon, Jabong, Flipkart, ShopClues, Makemytrip, Uber and Ola. It’s quite possible that one in two coupon codes might not be valid. A discussion board is usually a good way to cross-check validity of offers. All in all, it pays to visit these websites before you buy any product online. For its possible you might be losing out on some attractive offers.

Also, sometimes it pays to cool the heels. ‘Green Tuesdays’ offer from Bigbasket gives 25 per cent discount on purchases made on Tuesday through ICICI Bank credit or debit card. Of course, it has monthly limit on such discounts of ₹400 per customer. So, by shuffling the way you time your grocery buying, you could get more discounts.

Take the case of a Bengaluru-based IT professional, who wanted to buy Apple iPhone 6s, but was willing to wait for the ‘right’ price. Last year, he downloaded Paytm app. Then came the irresistible cashback offer on its portal and he lapped it up. “At ₹50,000 it was the cheapest deal at that point in time,” he says.

Cashback offers usually give better deals during festive times. Last year, Flipkart’s cashback offers, ran during Diwali for a limited period of October 25-28. Moreover, the month of January usually witnesses good cashback deals that end with the Republic day.

Customers could make good use of this opportunity by getting a little organised. “I shop for clothes for the entire year during this season, says a savvy online customer. “Anniversaries, birthdays etc happen at various points of the year but I buy stuff beforehand and just mothball them”, she says. Moreover, there is more than what meets the eye. Many credit and debit cards run parallel cashback offers. If you combine the offers of these cards with that of portals, sometimes you hit the jackpot.

Lastly, read the fineprint carefully. The Bigbasket inaugural offer that was running few months back entitled a new customer to 20 per cent discount on his or her first order (worth at least ₹1,000). One savvy online customer, registered two accounts — one in her name and the other in the name of her husband. “ I availed myself of the inaugural twice”, she said sheepishly. However, a similar attempt made at another portal didn’t work.

Then, there are flight booking websites like ixigo.com that occasionally offer a flat discount of, say, ₹500 off per transaction. If you are an early bird, take the risk of breaking up the transaction. Say a family of four — booking two transactions of two tickets each to get ₹1,000 off. Of course, you run the risk (or pleasure) of not travelling with your near-and-dear ones.