Pleasant shopping: 10 ways to buy really profitably

Buy in the official brand app

If a brand has its own app, it does its best to encourage users to make purchases through it. The discount in the application is given in order to interest the buyer and find out his preferences as accurately as possible, and then offer the most relevant products and send notifications.

Profitable online shopping is easy.
Maria Kotkova Stylist
Emails from online stores may contain secret coupons and other information about great purchases. If you start receiving too many emails, you can configure your mailbox so that it sends all emails from a specific store to the spam folder, except those that contain keywords, for example, “discount”, “promotion”, “bonus” etc. This way you won’t miss the most important things!

How to reduce shopping costs

Of course, to create the right wardrobe for all occasions, you need to change your attitude towards shopping. Emotional shopping leads to wasteful spending and unnecessary purchases. Rational shopping, understanding the principles of an effective wardrobe, the ability to create a shopping list and follow it initially turn habitual shopping into a difficult task. However, this is just a matter of habit!

Smart shopping rules:

• start shopping from your own closet;
• buy during sales (including while abroad);
• measure more, buy less. The most difficult things to choose are jeans, shoes, glasses;
• buy accessories. This way you can change your look for little money;
• Go to the store only when you know exactly what you need to buy. Make a shopping list;
• try to buy in sets at once;
• if you liked something in the store, then think about whether there are at least three things in your wardrobe that you can wear it with;
• buy basic things in mass-market and economy-class stores;
• unless absolutely necessary, try not to buy things that require expensive care or costly adjustments in the studio;
• select items that match the “ones” in your wardrobe, take them with you when shopping to try them on;
• do not give in to the persuasion of sellers and marketing techniques in stores, for example, an offer to buy several of the same type of thing;
• keep track of promotions in stores, don’t be lazy to get discount cards;
• use online shopping;
• do not abuse credit cards, check your balance and activate an SMS notification about the amounts debited. In foreign stores, pay with a debit card in the currency you are paying with.

When is it dangerous to go shopping?

1. On payday.
2. On PMS days.
3. During the days of depression.
4. Wearing the wrong underwear.
5. On days of sales and special promotions (shopping list required).

How to decide whether or not to buy something that seems expensive to you? the “cost of wearing” when purchasing .

One pragmatic approach to assessing how wisely you're spending your money is to simply divide the cost of the purchase by the number of times you'll use it. For example, you bought an expensive dress for 5,000 rubles, but you only wore it once. It turns out that the cost of wearing is equal to the cost of purchase, i.e. 5000 rub.

And if you bought casual shoes for 10,000 rubles and wore them to work at least once a week for a year, you would have worn them 50 times in total. The cost of wearing in this case is 200 rubles.

Plan your budget

It happens to you that you have a certain amount of money in your account, you go to the store and think: I’ll buy a little, it won’t even go down! You buy groceries, essential goods, and console yourself with the fact that there is almost no loss there. You go to the shopping center, buy a couple of things, and on the third you are told that there are not enough funds. How?! After all, recently there was a fortune there! Fear of a decreasing figure does not allow you to monitor your budget after each purchase, so you draw an imaginary figure for yourself and sincerely believe that not a few thousand, but a hundred rubles were debited from the card.

You should immediately write down for yourself where the money will go and for what. Set aside the amount you need to pay for housing, food and other monthly expenses. Save the rest for trips, more expensive items, or emergencies. And you can easily spend the rest without thinking about how much is left there.

We tell you how to pay much less for the same clothes, shoes and accessories: 7 clever life hacks that will save a lot of money on shopping.

Shopping habits: what and where to buy when traveling?

06/18/2019 CATEGORY: Things

Author: 34travel

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Traveling is not only about new countries, impressions and acquaintances, but also about shopping. Some people hunt for certain brands of clothing when traveling, others prefer books and periodicals to stylish looks, others adore vintage shops and flea markets, and for some, serve everything at once. Together with the bank, BelVEB found out from guys who often travel their favorite addresses and passwords for meaningful shopping abroad, and also picked up life hacks and ways to save money with the bank’s travel cards. Local brands, the best thrift stores and thrift stores, attractive bookstores and hardware stores - bookmark them.

Kasia Cheese Hammer

art director of 34travel.me and 34mag.net

The more I travel, the more I see that there is just a huge amount of things being produced in the world. But the quality, unfortunately, suffers greatly. I have heard more than once from sellers that no matter what the item is, someone will buy it someday. I don't like this approach. Therefore, lately I have been trying to pay attention to things that will last a long time and age beautifully.

I'm interested in small local brands. It is advisable that they do not copy Pinterest, but represent something unique, characteristic of the mood of the region in which the things were produced and invented.

If we talk about clothes, then the greatest number of compliments are received either by things from Belarusian designers , or second-hand finds, or those things that I bought for myself in the departments for schoolboys. I have a small shoe and clothing size. Shoes that I like are often simply not available in women's departments (I'm talking about sneakers like Nike sb or Onitsuka Tiger ). On my last trip, I found the first jacket in my life that suited me perfectly in terms of sleeve length - a school jacket for boys Ralph Lauren .

My favorite girly brand is & Other Stories . Simply because they often have an interesting cut, and things don’t look baggy on a petite figure. Therefore, first of all, if there is this store in the city I’m visiting, I go there.

Another recent opening is Reformation in New York. The perfect shopping experience for an introvert. Spacious store where samples hang. You approach the screen, select the models and sizes you are interested in - and all this appears in the fitting room in a special closet. There, in the fitting room, there are the same screens, and if you need anything else, you can order it on the spot. You close the closet, and after a few minutes the ordered items are already there. Direct deliveries to the fitting room won me over. There is no need to chase sellers asking you to find the item or size you need.

For a long time I didn’t believe in finding cool branded items second-hand until I accidentally came across a Gucci leather skirt for 11 euros the Vilnius second-hand chain Humana Well, the Parisian “thrift stores” are just love. True, I can’t stay in them for a long time; the smell is still specific. But if you want to wear things that no one else will have, then such stores are the best way to find them.

I like that aesthetics have changed a lot in recent years towards simplicity and convenience. Well-fitting Reformation jeans are the best investment. Comfortable sneakers and boots are a must. Scandinavian Vagabond is a very simple and practical store. Of the more interesting ones, you can check Danish shoe brands on the spot. The same applies to jackets. The guys know what comfort means in bad weather. The Danish winter parka Second Female has been helping me out for four years now. I really hope that it will serve me for at least as long. In general, when it comes to buying clothes, I think that Copenhagen is the most ideal city in this regard.

What I bring most from my travels are books. Friends joke that if you leave me at one shelf in a bookstore, then after two hours you can find me in the same place. Favorites, of course, are Strand Bookstore in New York and Powells Bookstore in Portland. The beauty is that they sell both new and old titles that you won't find anywhere else. The result is kilometers of shelves of unique books, divided by subject. From my last trip I brought back American manuals on filmmaking from the 90s. In general, if we talk about photography and cinema, the books and manuals of the old school are much more meaningful than modern ones. We weighed it just for fun: I once brought 9 kg of books from a trip to the USA. Books are generally the only category of purchases in which I cannot say “no” to myself, and here it doesn’t even smell like saving.

When it comes to tech, the store that has it all is B&H in New York. Any equipment, everything for photos and videos. But... Of course, there are nuances in the purchasing process itself. It’s worth going there only in one case: if you know for sure what you need, and you have a list supported by screenshots and articles from the site. Then you will be happy. The store will ask you to leave your home address (required), and then for several years they will send you a thick catalog of equipment to Belarus.

My favorite recent purchases are the How Movies Work book, my third pair of Onitsuka Tiger sneakers, Reformation jeans, and a green canvas bag from the Strand in New York.

Maria Pogorelova

local trendsetter

If 5 years ago I brought mainly clothes, bags and shoes from abroad, now this is not always the case. The focus naturally shifted to books, magazines, cute trinkets from local flea markets and local products, for example, cheeses and jamon.

Now travel is more about eating, drinking, and absorbing the city’s lifestyle. Go through museums, galleries, exhibitions, and unique places recommended by local guys. And I choose the same stores – with a concept, with a feature. After all, inside it is interesting not only to buy, but also to be saturated with new impressions, to absorb them like a sponge.

The last city I remember that I will definitely return to is Antwerp. I only had 2.5 days there, but they turned out to be very eventful.

One of the places I liked in Antwerp is St. Vincent's (Kleine Markt, 13). This space combines both a cafe and a store: here you can drink coffee from Berlin roasters, dine on natural eco-friendly products and work. And also admire the furniture, home accessories of minimalist design, Japanese glasses and buy some clothes or accessories that are carefully selected by the owners of the place.

Around the corner there is an interesting thrift store ROSIER 41 (Rosier 41). The range of brands here is extremely wide, the prices are reasonable, but, again, you need to look very carefully at the quality and hidden defects. I personally am not a big fan of thrift store clothing; I am primarily interested in glasses, rings and bags.

I love bringing magazines and periodicals from my trips. Most often I look for them in bookstores at the airport - it’s just easier and more convenient. But in cities the choice is often much better. In Antwerp this is the INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE STORE (Kaasrui, 11), and in Berlin - Do you read me? (Auguststrasse 28). I also love bookstores; I can hang out in them for a long time. For example, in Berlin there are two points of attraction: the TASCHEN Store Berlin (Schlüterstraße 39) and the bookstore Buchhandlung Walther König (Burgstraße 27).

In Vienna I love the Naschmarkt on Saturday and Sunday. This is a chic flea market, which is combined with food aisles, where they sell many locally produced products.

I also have a love affair with the Viennese jewelry boutique Girls Dreams Boutique , it is located in the very heart of the city, on Braunerstr, 2. Thanks to the delicate taste of the owner, there is a wonderful selection and it is very sincere. I go there every time I'm in Vienna.

Previously, I specifically looked for perfume shops with niche brands in advance, but now there is no such urgent need for this - in Minsk you can already buy almost everything.

Also, when I travel, I always try to look into the stores of the Australian brand Aesop . They have a very interesting concept: the design of each store is developed jointly with local architects, so all stores are different from each other. It is very informative to observe how the DNA of a brand is transformed under the influence of the atmosphere of different cities.

If you also like to get stuck in magazine stands at the airport, BelVEB bank travel cards are a real find. With them you can buy magazines, drinks, perfumes and generally everything in duty free with a discount of up to 5%.

Maxim Kulsha

frontman of the band Super Besse, owner of the Castalian Spring studio in Berlin

My favorite city for shopping is Berlin. I also like Moscow in this regard – here, even in the middle of the night, there is a store where you can buy anything you want, including some kind of refrigerator. I love shopping in Barcelona, ​​because there you can combine such trips with a glass of prosecco. And recently I was in Taiwan, and I really liked the shopping there: everything is very cheap and completely incomprehensible. And you enjoy the fact that you don’t understand what you’re buying.

In Berlin, I like to go shopping in the Kurfürstendamm district. There is a large shopping center there , KaDeWe, where you can buy brands from Vans to Chanel - the price range is completely different. There are a bunch of other stores in the same area: Cos, Uniqlo, H&M and other mass brands.

I buy a lot of things online on the sites zalanda.de and amazon.de . The parcel arrives in a couple of days. You can also order online directly from COS and Uniqlo . The principle of operation is this: you choose goods, pay, the package arrives - and if something doesn’t suit you, you send the item back, and the money is returned to you.

I don't have any specific brands that I go after. I just take what I like. I can buy something on the advice of my wife, who is more knowledgeable about this. When H&M had a collaboration with Eytys , Nina bought me a couple of shirts and pants there. More recent successful purchases include Birkenstock and Eytys . I was generally lucky with the jeans: I bought them at the Humana for € 1.

There are also cool TK Maxx . They sell items from famous luxury brands at very low prices. One of the stores is located right on Alexanderplatz, near the TV tower. This is an outlet where you can find, for example, Chanel, Fendi or Karl Lagerfeld items. And it will cost, say, not € 1000, but € 30. All experienced fashionistas know about these stores and visit them almost once a day in order to have time to snatch something new.

Usually everyone who comes to Berlin buys snacks and alcohol at Spät stores because they are open until late. But there is quite a large markup. It is much more profitable to go to a regular supermarket, which is open until 22:00, and buy everything you need there. For example, beer in a supermarket will cost 2-3 times cheaper. I also recommend a chain of stores where you can buy essentials such as cosmetics or household goods.

I often buy some musical instruments and related items. To find out what they sound like, I, of course, need to listen to them live first. Although there are some specific things that I already know, then I buy online. In Berlin I buy everything from Just Music . This is a large six-story store, where each floor is dedicated to a musical instrument. For example, on the sixth floor they only sell drums and everything for them. I buy musical instruments online from Thomann or Music Store . It has everything a musician needs. a huge offline Music Store in Cologne - it is probably the size of Ikea. And in Germany there is a whole musical village Thomann . There is such a small village where every house is a music store. By the way, I recently bought myself a Fender Stratocaster - it is a very convenient instrument. Danelectro guitar .

I was recently on a tour of Asia. There I only bought some cosmetics for my wife, which can only be found in Asia. I didn’t bring anything else, because I live in Berlin, and in Berlin you can get everything. When I'm in Minsk, I try to buy books. For example, I once got hold of a collection of poems by the poet Leonid Gubanov.

When I come to Riga, I like to go to the ITK - they have an excellent selection of things and reasonable prices. A good place in Moscow is the Fred Perry store on Petrovka. There you can buy not only comfortable clothes from this brand, but even go to a concert (they are held rarely, but aptly). And in Moscow, a must-visit is the small but capacious vinyl store DIG . The store has everything from popular music to unknown rap from Krasnodar. An excellent option for a travel gift.

Shopping abroad will become more enjoyable with the money-back function of BelVEB bank cards - you pay for your purchase with a card and receive a percentage of the purchase amount back to your account. For booking hotels, plane tickets and museums, you can also get 2% of the full cost of the service back into your account.

Photo: palasatka and from the personal archives of the heroes of the material

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