It occurred to me the other day, while watching some “expert” on TV giving advice to people on how to shop around and get cashback and all sorts of other benefits to help them through the credit crunch. And the scenario was kind of like this:

• first of all, buy online as the prices are lower
• use a price comparison site (like Kelkoo) to find the minimum price
• then go to that site through a cashback site (a site that will give you typically about 5% cashback on your purchases)
• pay for it using a cashback card (e.g. American Express)
• use a loyalty card so you get some points as well
• and add a voucher on top of it to bring the price down (and there are quite a few sites allowing you to download such voucher codes)
• bear in mind that the VAT has been reduced as well

Now that all sounds good but if you sum it all up, you’re probably looking at up to 10-15% off your purchase (which you make back in cashback/points/etc); and bear in mind that the shop will still make a profit on this!

Since shops are still moaning that their sales are down, how about bringing the price down by the above-mentioned 15% upfront (which as I said still makes the shop a profit) and therefore increase the volume of sales (which will reflect on profit obviously!)? Is it just me seeing this obvious solution?