Staff Deals: Saving big on summer footwear

Welcome to the first installment of Staff Deals, a blog from the BradsDeals staff featuring our favorite and/or most recent online purchases.

Simple D-Kay Sneakers

When I joined the BradsDeals team almost two years ago, one of the first things I learned from Brad was that you should never buy shoes at a brick-and-mortar store. I was skeptical at first, but I can honestly say that since becoming an online-only shoe shopper, I’ve managed to save a minimum of 20% on every pair of shoes I’ve purchased (and that doesn’t include how much money I’ve saved by not paying the 10% Illinois sales tax and shipping charges)!

Thanks to Zappos, the online shoe industry is very competitive. Sites like ShoeBuy.com, ShoeMall and Shoes.com offer free standard shipping and free returns to try to get a piece of the Zappos pie. These sites also offer promotional codes, regularly have sales and price their inventory a few dollars cheaper than Zappos, which seems to increase prices a bit to make up for the free next day shipping and their whopping 35% return rate!

Simple TipToe Flats

So, just to recap, with online shoe shopping you get free standard shipping, free returns, an additional 10-30% off with applicable coupon codes and often pay no sales tax!

Here’s how I find the best shoe deals. Of course, if you’re shopping for styles that are from a previous season or are a few months old, you’ll likely save even more!

1. Find shoes you simply cannot live without. I decided on the Simple D-Kay Sneakers and Tiptoe Flats.

2. Look at a few different sites that have the brand/style you want.

3. Once you found two or three sites, search BradsDeals for coupons that will work with your items.

4. You can search by keyword, brand or store. In this case, since you know what sites you might buy from, searching by store is the most efficient way to go.

At the time of my search, I found a 15% off coupon for Shoes.com and a 20% off coupon for Simple. As I stated, both sites offered free shipping and no sales tax, so the best option was Simple Shoes. I received my order within five business days, just as the warm weather hit Chicago!

Simple D-Kay Sneakers: original price: $60 final price: $48

Simple Tiptoe Flats: original price $60 Final price: $48

Shipping: $0

Sales tax: $0

Total: $96

Amount saved: $24 via coupon + $12 via no tax = $36!