Five tips to find deals during online holiday shopping

(WCPO) - Forget spending 20 minutes trying to find a parking spot at the mall these next few weekends before Christmas.

We found a super online shopper who does most of her holiday shopping without ever fighting crowds.

Denise Anderson gets all the same deals, and has some great tips for all of us.

Her first tip to smarter online shopping: If it doesn't have free shipping this time of year, it's not a deal.

"You could spend $15 to $20 on shipping and then the money's gone, because you don't keep it," Anderson said.

The online super shopper said to start by looking for free shipping and free returns before you check-out.

"Free shipping and free returns and a lot of the companies that you purchase from online give you that, and they send the label with it,” Anderson said. “If you're unhappy, you box it right up and take it to the post office and there's no cost to you."

Anderson's tips:

--Research both the product and the web retailer selling it. Anderson checks consumer reports, and customers’ reviews on Epinions and Amazon.

--Compare prices on multiple sites, then search Google to find promo codes for those stores.

--Sign up for store emails. As soon as you do, you usually get a welcome email with some type of promotion. But Anderson has a word of warning; sometimes sites like Amazon and Shopping.com redirect you to smaller retailers.

--Watch online shopping sites for "flash sales," where they offer big discounts during a certain time.

As always, don’t waste your money.