Holiday Shopping Made Easy with woot!, kaboodle, and Other Web 2.0 Apps

It’s that time of year to shop and even though I don’t need an excuse like Christmas to spend a wod of cash at the mall, the Internet makes it that much easier (or worse if you’re my savings account) for a busy person to ‘shop til ya drop’. It doesn’t really matter what I’m going to buy but just the ease and flexibility of buying stuff digitally makes my life during this time of year that much easier. Then if I’m really strapped for time I can ship the item directly to the appropriate recipient.

Here’s a quick list of a few of my favorite Web 2.0 shopping sites that will hopefully help you in your pursuit of the perfect gift for the holidays. (In January I’ll do a follow-up blog “Where to sell back your dud gifts after the holidays”)

The one site I religiously hit up in the morning. woot! is a super cool site that focuses on selling really awesome stuff for super cheap. Basically woot! offers one (and only one) new item every single day. If a product sells out during its run, a new item will not appear until the next release time at 12midnight. Another attractive aspect of the site is that the shipping is a flat rate of $5.

I was just recently introduced to kaboodle by a co-worker of mine and now I’m obsessed! Kaboodle is a social shopping community where people discover, recommend and share products. The powerful shopping tools allow people to organize their shopping through lists, discover new things from people with similar style, get discounts on popular products and find best prices. For instance, this Christmas I am wishing hard for an iPod Touch. So first I downloaded and installed the browser plug-in, searched for the product (in this case went directly to the Apple site), and clicked on the ‘kaboodle it’ button in my toolbar and voila! the iPod Touch magically appears in my kaboodle Christmas list. It’s fabulous and easy! After my wishlist is completed I can send it off to my family (ahem! - Dad notice the iPod Touch reference) to view and check off items they buy. Even the most unsavvy of web users can use this app - really it’s that easy!

It’s a tool to help you track and find great deals and aims to make shopping & deal hunting easier for you by providing the tools to find and share the best deals around. This web app would be helpful if you are trying to hold the spree on the holiday spending.

Trezr links to the best sale and discounted items on the web each day: designer shoes, digital cameras, cashmere sweaters, travel deals — you name it. You’ll also find coupon codes to stores all over the web and helpful tips for saving money. There’s also a cool feature called the Trezr Chest where you can see the most popular items, then browse the Trezr Hunt to see all the new stuff coming in each hour. Sounds like something that can turn into an addiction.

Now it’s time for you to get out there and start shopping! Hopefully these tools will help you to either get organized, find deals, or get advice from friends this holiday season. And stop worrying about your budget - that’s what January is for