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How technology can help you with your holiday shopping

November 28, 2018

Posted by: Andy Simmons

How technology can help you with your holiday shopping

We’re reaching the inevitable point of the year where the Thanksgiving meal is finished, and our attention is now focused on completing our holiday shopping lists.

Although a recent study from Citi Retail Services says that 73 percent of shoppers plan to purchase gifts in-store, 57 percent say they’ll also make purchases this holiday season on a computer, and 42 percent will make acquisitions on a mobile device. Needless to say, technology has played a big part in how we shop for the holidays and will continue to do so in the future.

If you’re about to embark on your holiday shopping expeditions in the coming weeks, here are a few helpful tips on how technology can make things less stressful.

Track Social Media posts

Just because Black Friday and Cyber Monday are behind us doesn’t mean that retailers are through offering up discounts and savings. They’re looking to bring in lots of business during the holidays and can do so by letting customers know of savings on select products through their social media outlets. It’s a much more efficient form of advertising, with social posts being able to reach their target audience instantly. So, keep an eye on a retailer’s social activities to see what kind of deals they’ve got going on. You can even select to receive notifications on your phone from retailers when they make a post on their social media platforms.

Trust the analytics that measure your previous shopping habits

If you’ve ever shopped online at large retail websites such as Amazon or Target, you’ve probably noticed near the bottom of the page that suggest products you might be interested in. Those appear there based on your browser history, as websites can track what pages you visit and products you’ve looked at in order to determine those shortcuts at the bottom. Use these to efficiently shop online products without having to take extra time to find what you’re looking for. If you don’t want these shortcuts to appear, however, you’ll have to clear some of your browser’s history.

Take advantage of pickup item options

Ordering online and being able to pick up items at retail stores has become a recent trend, and now curbside pickup will be implemented as much as possible with shoppers looking to save time. Some select Walmarts even have a retail tower where you can scan a barcode from your phone into a port, and the tower delivers your purchased item right to you, so you don’t have to deal with checkout lanes.

Ask your home assistant

If you’ve linked up your Amazon account to your Alexa home assistant, you can order what you want without having to open up any web browser or mobile device. All you need to do is ask Alexa to purchase whatever item you’re wanting, and Amazon will ship it to your home.

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