Get Hot Deals Before Everyone Else!

July 19th, 2010

If you want to be first to learn about the latest hot deals at your favorite online sites, most will accommodate you now with several alert options. From general merchandise on Amazon, Target and Walmart to apparel and housewares from Kohl’s and JC Penney, to computers and electronics from Newegg and Dell, you can stay informed through social networks, texting, and RSS feeds, in addition to the standard email newsletters.

Amazon offers daily Gold Box deals, as well as lightning deals that change every 2 hours. You can sign up to get news about these deals via daily email, or receive daily text alerts by signing up on their website or texting ‘GB’ to ‘262966′ (AMAZON), follow them on Twitter, or add their RSS feeds to iGoogle, Google Reader, or your own feed reader. Browse their e-mail subscriptions for other sale categories and add the ones you want by checking each box on the left and clicking the “Update Subscriptions” button when you are finished. You’ll get an e-mail confirming your selections.

Buy.com posts weekly specials and weekend deals every Friday. Their “What’s Shakin” list shows the products with the highest change in sales rank over the past 24 hours. You’ll get a headline view of the top 10 bestsellers per catergory when you add their feeds to your RSS reader, or you can activate text alerts when you create or log in to your account. You can opt out of this service by texting STOP to Shortcode BUYTXT (289898) or replying STOP to any of the messages you get. Text HELP to BUYTXT (289898) for help.

Dell posts coupons for various categories, and the same page also has tabs that are linked to their Deals of the Day, Weekend Deals, and more. You can sign up for promotional emails and newsletters from Dell Direct, or follow them on Facebook, one of their Twitter accounts, or via RSS topics.

JC Penney posts their weekly ads online, or you can sign up for exclusive offers, mobile coupons, or the free JCP Rewards program.

Current Kohl’s ads are posted online, or you can sign up for email sales alerts. Apply for Kohl’s credit and you’ll receive extra discounts on top of the sale prices, because they regularly offer up to 30% off for Kohl’s Credit Card holders. The best way to find out about those codes is to sign up for Kohl’s Coupon alerts on Buxr when you visit Kohl’s Coupons page, since our members share them as soon as they surface anywhere online.

Macy’s new options for customer alerts are all well-organized on an impressive single page. From that page, you can find links to download their iPhone app, follow them on Twitter and Facebook, or get offers and info about sales events and more by signing up for text messages. At the top of the page, there are also links to their Web Buster deals and online deals and promotions. They’ve even included a link to download Easy Web Browsing, the user assistance tool for visually impaired customers to magnify or read web site text.

Newegg Shellshocker deals are posted 3 times a day every weekday, and they also offer other daily discount and combo deals. You can check out the Rush Hour 24-, 48-, and 72-hour deals all on one page. If you sign up to get an email newsletter of these deals, you’ll stay abreast of the weekly savings, sale updates, and giveaways, and there’s an option for mobile alerts on the same page. Newegg also has RSS newsfeeds in 103 categories, and on this page you can select the ones you want to subscribe to; or you can follow them on Twitter, Youtube, or Facebook.

You can keep up with Target Daily Deals online, where you also have the option to receive the alerts as a text message or RSS feed when you click on the “Follow” link near the top of the page. At the bottom of the same page are links to clearance sales, coupons and their weekly ad. You can also get reliable deal reminders by email or on Twitter.

Wallmart maintains a page for their Value of the Day, with links to clearance, rollbacks, and special buys. You can sign up at the bottom of that page to get email savings & updates on the rollbacks and special offers, or choose the appropriate Twitter, Facebook, or RSS categories to suit your needs from this page.

Conclusion

While both Kohls and JCPenney offer lots of savings opportunities and do maintain Facebook and Twitter accounts, it was disappointing to find that neither store was effectively promoting daily deals and other discounts through those channels yet. The other seven companies listed here are already making good use of social networking to contact shoppers. In most cases, if you choose to receive text alerts from these sellers about their deals, you’ll be able to buy the item by responding to the alert from your mobile phone. So you’re never out of touch with a good deal!

Entry Filed under: Shopping