For those that never buy anything without first looking at customer reviews and then trying to find discounts and coupons, this comprehensive list of 70 cool shopping websites is for you. They are listed by these categories: general shopping, coupons & deals, price comparison, product finder, and product info.

There’s no way we can cover all the shopping sites that are out there, so please leave your favorites that we missed in the comments section.

 
General Shopping
These sites sell products themselves, from their own inventories. We tried to limit it to sites that sell a wide variety of items, and not those that specialize in one particular industry.

Amazon.com - the internet shopping king. Great prices, great product selection, and excellent customer service will keep Amazon on top for a long, long time.

        BONUS SITE: Jangle.net-helps sort through the products on Amazon to find the best deal for you.

Overstock.com - plenty of high quality products at low, low prices.

Smartbargains.com - offers home and bath products, men’s and women’s clothing, jewelry and shoes.

Like.com - another shoes, clothing and jewelry site.

Woot.com - gadget-selling website with a twist. Only one item is sold per day. Once it’s sold out, it’s gone and you’ll have to go back the next day for a new product.

Fingerhut.com - a little bit of everything at fair prices.

Coupons & Deals
The sites listed here scour the web looking for coupons, discount codes and special sales and deals. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of these types of sites but the ones listed below are our favorites. Here they are, in no particular order…

Ebates.com - pays users cash back for shopping through their site. Shop like normal, but start at Ebates.com. See our review of Ebates.com

SearchAllDeals.com – scans more than 60 coupons & deals sites to find the best online deals available.

BigBigSavings.com – well layed-out site offering some pretty good deals.

CouponHeaven.com – wide selection of deals with options to search by brand or category.

CouponSurfer.com – coupons on all types of products including groceries and medicines. Requires a free membership. 

CurrentCodes.com – up to date codes and coupons to dozens of popular shopping sites. Search by category or store name.

eCoupons.com - finds coupons and offers cash back at specific stores.

FatWallet.com – earn cash back, find coupons and compare prices. A community forum helps with your shopping related questions.

Keycode.com – displays lists of the top-ten hot offers, new offers and expiring offers.

More cool shopping sites:

Naughtycodes.com – offers up-to-date discount codes at hundreds of popular shopping sites.

RetailMeNot.com – boasts coupons for more than 13,000 stores and provides add-ons, gadgets and widgets for the super shopaholics.

Coupons.com – mostly grocery related coupons and discounts.

DealHunting.com – coupons and codes to a very wide variety of popular and specialty stores.

DealofDay.com – we found some unbelievable deals, but beware of stuff listed on the freebies page.

DealCatcher.com – homepage highlights great deals on specific products, beware of impulse purchases.

Boddit.com - finds deals on specific products as listed on other coupon sites. 

Slickdeals.net – get deals on products and coupons at stores.

BensBargains.net – technology related deals and discounts.

DealsOfAmerica.com – good prices on predominantly tech products. Some not-so-common-but-cool items.

CouponCabin.com – keep track of your favorite coupons and stores.

PocketDeal.com – search coupons for your favorite items or download DealAlert Shopping Assistant and let it notify you when your product is on sale.

GoNicoFish.com – browse through the top ten catches of the day or search your specific store or category.

StealDeals.net – quality list of great deals.

GotApex.com – tells total coupons by store and highlights expiring deals. 

Dealighted.com – user posted sales and discounts.

CouponChief.com – new coupons, updated daily.

CouponCraze.com – new deals listed everyday.

Wow-Coupons.com – up-to-date printable coupons to major retailers.

DealTaker.com – email and toolbar updates; free shipping coupons and discounts.

MyShopSpace.com – searches over 4,000 merchants for the best prices.

Price Comparisons
These sites find the lowest prices available on the web for whatever product you want to buy.

Google.com/Products – formerly Froogle, the king of the internet takes on shopping.

shopping.yahoo.com – very expansive price comparison site.

shopping.msn.com – great deals, great products and shopping advice to boot.

shopping.aol.com – make lists of your favorite items and watch for sales and discounts on them.

shopping.com – offers user reviews on products; compares prices at many reputable stores across the web.

shopper.cnet.com – technology related shopping with product reviews and more.

DealTime.com – finds prices at plenty of sites, though some may not be the most secure. Offers user reviews of each site as well.

Nextag.com – very simple but effective price comparison site.

BizRate.com - very detailed and easy to navigate.

PriceGrabber.com – create buying lists, sell your items, or receive alerts when a product’s price drops.

Shopzilla.com - we like checking out the “curiously sought-after” items.

Pronto.com – big user participation site.

Epinions.com – sister company of Shopping.com.

Calibex.com – extremely extensive selection of products. Lists many items not found on other sites.

Become.com – shopping research and buying guides on demand. Price comparisons, too.

Pricerunner.com – coupons, rebates, and buying guides.

mySimon.com – shows product ratings and lists the three stores with the best prices.

Pricewatch.com – technology comparison site with a bonus news feed.

Retrevo.com – different but fun price comparison site.

Mpire.com – shop new or watch ebay auctions right from this site.

PriceSCAN.com – comparisons, reviews, and a shopping blog.

Hawkee.com – the web’s shopping social network.

ActiveShopper.com – informative product descriptions and downloadable shopping toolbar.

PriceComparison.com – a little bit of everything; codes, reviews and news.

spotcost.com – price comparisons on books, music, movies and electronics.

PriceAnt.com – compare prices and find deals at one location.

SecretPrices.com – homepage lists the most recent deals on the web.

StreetPrices.com – sticky note the items you want to save and view them again later.

Smarter.com – user uploaded videos contain product reviews.

myTriggers.com – easily navigated and product dense.

Everyprice.com – flashy design, quality content.

Product Finders
Based on a general search, these sites find your product and list related items as well.

TheFind.com – save your favorites, search by store type (malls, boutiques, dept. store) and see if the product is available at a store near you.

Product Information
These sites excell at offering product information and buying guides.

Comparethebrands.com – provides extensive product reviews and research.

ShopWiki.com – very informative and helpful; wide selection of informatiion.

And there you have it…70 of our favorite shopping websites. If we missed your favorites, please add them to the comments.

SITE DESCRIPTION

Ebates.com is an online rebate store that has partnerships with more than 800 popular websites. Not only do they offer rebates in the form of cash back, they also provide coupons, deals and discounts. Using the site is very easy. When you’re ready to shop online, simply stop at Ebates.com first, sign up or login, find the store you’d like to shop at, and shop away! Ebates takes care of the rest. The deals vary by store, but most offer cash back ranging from 1% to as high as 19%.

The site is extremely user-friendly and navigation is a breeze. If you know what store you’re looking for, there’s a dropdown menu in the upper right hand corner that will link you directly. Or, if you’re simply window shopping, you can browse the stores by category. Links to popular deals of the week, the top coupons and the top stores round out the homepage.

Ebates is able to afford to give shoppers refunds because the sites they’ve partnered with pay Ebates as an affiliate. Ebates then pays the shopper a rebate of less than what they’re getting from the store and everyone’s happy. For instance, let’s say you’re looking for a pair of jeans from Gap. Ebates pays you 3% cash back on purchases from Gap. Gap on the other hand is probably paying Ebates something like 6% for your business. (Gap offers a direct affiliate plan for 4%, but it’s presumable that Ebates has struck a better deal).

ABOUT EBATES.COM

The footer on the website says Ebates has been in business since 1998. You can find more information on how the site works on their about page. Since they don’t sell the products themselves, they can and do promise that there are no price markups. They also guarantee no sign-up fees and no forms to fill out (0nce you’ve registered, of course). Ever. What that means in a nutshell is there’s no catch, contracts or committments to using Ebates, yet you can still save a healthy chunk of cash through their site. Not a bad deal.

WHAT WE LIKED

The concept in general is terrific. Overall the site is so easy to use, and the benefits are pretty darn good. So altogether the site is a good one. There are a few individual features that the site offers that we found to be helpful as well.

The shopping guides page helps narrow down your search by giving ideas and suggestions based on what you’re shopping for. For example, if you’re looking for computers, but don’t know where to start, you can click on their computers and electronics shopping guide and see a list of all the relevant stores and their rebates. The same can be done for clearance items, jewelry, and other products.

The referal program is another bonus feature of Ebates. If you refer a friend to sign up, your account receives a $5 bonus and theirs does also. The bonus takes effect immediately after their first qualifying purchase through Ebates. Just another easy way to make a few bucks using their service.

There are many great things about this site, but one of the more overlooked but important parts is the ease of navigation and the cleanliness of the design. Links are placed logically, the graphics are sharp, the site is colorful, but not too flashy and each page is functional. It is a very well thought out website, and is extremely user-friendly.

WHAT WE DIDN’T LIKE

The only gripe we have with Ebates is the fact that anyone with a website of their own can sign up for affiliate memberships at most if not all of these sites and earn more cash back or a larger discount clicking through their site than what Ebates pays out. For most users this entails more work than desired or than they are capable of, but many web savvy users might find it more beneficial to open their own affiliate accounts at sites they are frequent shoppers of. The difference may only be a percentage point or two, but over time it can add up.

THE FINAL WORD

Abosolutely 100% worth checking out and signing up. It costs nothing, but may save thousands.

Ebates.com