Okay, it's time to come clean. My name is Trudy and I love my daily deal websites!
For those of you unfamiliar, daily deal websites are websites that post a deal a day. Most products are largely discounted and there is limited stock available. Once something has sold out, you are out of luck. Some products seem to pop up again from time to time but there are no guarantees. It's really a very clever marketing technique!
A few months ago, I discovered daily deal websites that sell baby/kids products. I'm sure there are these types of websites for all sorts of things but my focus in life happens to be babies and toddlers right now.
My personal favourites are babysteals.com and kidsteals.com. I check them almost every morning to see if there's anything worth buying. Yes, I realize that life as we know it will continue whether or not I nab that daily deal. I try to reason with myself and ponder the options. Do I really need it? Admittedly, there are likely few things I truly need from these websites but I sure do WANT a lot of the stinkin' cute products they keep coming up with. I mean, really, what baby doesn't look amazingly cute in a pair of Babylegs?
...or a Katelyn & Co. headband?
...and what little boy doesn't look adorable in a Taylor Joelle tie?
If you are interested in super cute baby products at great prices, I highly recommend the ones I mentioned above. Here's a list of the various sites I visit and peruse. In actuality, I have only ordered from 3 but I like to look. ..kind of like virtual window shopping. I'll include a short review of each and list a few of the items I have bought. I should also mention that some of the websites have archives of products that are still available or have become available again for whatever reason.
1)
Babysteals.com "it's not just a deal, it's a steal" - This is my favourite of them all. They offer high quality baby products and all sorts of interesting things I've never even heard of before. I know they've got the good stuff because I took a trip to our high-end baby store in Regina (Hello Baby!) and saw many of the same products that they carry. Babysteals has a huge following due to great marketing and amazing customer service. They even have pajama parties for locals at their warehouse and transmit the events online via video chat websites. They interact with their fans on Facebook and get to know their customers through discussions, questions, providing hints and commenting on photos of fans with things they've bought from the company. You can get updates on daily deals through Facebook, Twitter, e-mails, etc. They are so customer service oriented that the two CEO's actually hand delivered "steals" to several Canadian customers in Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary last week. The company is based out of Utah!
They have other fun events like secret steals at random moments as opposed to their usual time of 9 am. You have to follow their Facebook page pretty closely to catch those. They also have lots of giveaways you can try to win by entering contests. Edited to add: They recently began having two steals a day just in case your pocket book wasn't already suffering! You can check out their deals at 9 am AND 9 pm (MST) now. Happy Stealing!
Archives:
http://www.babysteals.com/dailydeals/archive.php
Items I've bought: BabyLegs, Katelyn & Co. headbands, Born to Love hats, Tiny Soles Squeaker Shoes, Baby Banz Swimwear, RoSK UV cover for stroller, Clean Shopper (high chair/shopping cart cover), Ally Zabba baby blankets (still waiting for these to arrive!), UMI sandals, Dapper Snappers, and my most treasured "steal" to date is my Petunia Picklebottom Diaper Bag. I LOVE my diaper bag...it's so pretty and functional and holds a lot of stuff.
2)
http://www.kidsteals.com/ - A close second as my favourite. The same company that operates Babysteals also runs Kidsteals (The Steal Network). They also have a Scrapbooksteals for anyone interested in scrapbooking (not me..no time or patience for gluing and cutting...although I might try digital scrapbooking). KidSteals isn't quite as big as Babysteals although I'm sure it will grow with its faithful crew of current followers. My guess is that the mommies of older kiddos aren't at home waiting for "steals" because they are at work while the kids are at school. That, and most older kids like to pick out their own clothes or toys themselves so it's risky for Moms to buy something on a whim when it might be rejected by said child.
Archives:
http://www.kidsteals.com/dailydeals/archive.php
Items I've bought: DC Toddler shoes, Myself Belts, Chalk Mat, Ruby Love Headwraps, Taylor Joelle Tie, Spunky Stork T-Shirts
3)
http://www.mamabargains.com/ - This is a fun site too. I have only bought a couple things from here but it's always interesting to check. They aren't a daily deal website per say since they actually have deals throughout the day. They post items and wait until they sell out and then post another item. They also let customers know how much is left by having little mommies running alongside each item. Mamabargains also uses Facebook to connect with its fans. So far, I've bought a Buckley Boo (bear with buckles since Connor has a bit of a buckle obsession) and some headbands for Aleena.
As I said, there are lots of websites out there but these are the only three I've actually bought anything from as of yet. I have checked out lots of other sites...it's really interesting to see what's out there. Here's a list of some others I've come across:
4)
http://www.babyhalfoff.com/ - They post a deal a day as well. I believe it's posted at 8 am local time but I never remember to check their website and anything I would want is usually sold out. They seem to be a reputable website and have lots of followers as well.
5)
http://www.hippobargains.com/ - Another daily deal website. They recently updated and re-launched their website and it looks great! They have lots of information on their page which is a refreshing change to some daily deal websites. I prefer having all the details laid out for me with plenty of contact information. While they don't have an archive, they do have a directory with previous deals so you can get an idea of what types of products they normally feature. Another interesting aspect is that they sometimes offer free shipping which is almost unheard of for baby deal websites. I think they just earned themselves a huge fan over here! At first, I thought that would only apply to American orders but I went through the process of adding today's deal into my shopping cart and it gave me the free shipping option for Canada. It almost made me want to buy today's deal but I've got way too many backpacks and diaper bags in my life already. As you can tell, I'm rather excited about this new discovery. Time to add hippobargains.com to my toolbar bookmarks!
6)
Babyheist.com (Burlington, Ontario) - The best way to keep up with their deals is to 'like' them on
Facebook. They have daily deals but also have additional deals throughout the day which they notify people of through their Facebook fan page. They call these "SHHH" deals and you'll have to click through to the winking face on their website to find them. This site doesn't sell out as quickly as some other daily deal websites so it's still worth checking out at any time. They also keep deals up so they aren't "until they're gone" like most other deal sites. You can still buy things and combine shipping which is a bonus . Their archives are located here:
Baby Heist Archives. Baby Heist also offers coupon codes with an online store called
momsfinds.ca. I am not sure exactly what their business partnership is /(or if it's actually the same store?) but they carry many of the same products. Maybe someone can clarify this for me in the comments. I just ordered my first items from them so I'll update with how fast it arrives. They just shipped it via Canada Post today and I believe I ordered yesterday so that's a good start.
7)
www,greenbabybargains.com - They have eco-friendly baby products each day. I always forget to check their site too but it's a well-developed website with excellent quality products based on what I've seen so far.
8)
Olivia Place - A new daily deal website with some adorable products! In a way, it's almost better when the sites stay small so you have a better chance of nabbing the deal. Their deals are 40-80% off retail and shipping seems to be very reasonable. Thanks for adding this one in the comments!
9)
BargainMoose.ca- According to the website, they "strive to bring you all the best Canadian coupons, freebies and deals." They find deals on all sorts of products including baby/kids' items. They were great at finding and reporting deals during Boxing Week for example.
10)
Truecuddles.ca and
Motherofadeal.com (New Westminster, BC) - Truecuddles.ca and Motherofadeal.com are baby deal websites owned by the same company. (Please note that these two websites are totally unrelated to the Mother of a Sale deals website) Motherofadeal.com is a website that provides Moms with insight on freebies and great deals. You can "like"
www.motherofadeal.com on
Facebook to find out about the deals, coupons and promotions they are sharing. Truecuddles.ca, on the other hand, has "cuddles" (aka deals) once a week as well as lots of other things going on like giveaways, featured products, mom entrepreneurs and product reviews. Of course, you can find their social networking site on
Facebook as well.
11)
http://www.babycheapskate.com/ - They also find deals from all over the place. In fact, I just found a summary of daily deal websites including a few that I haven't heard of. Here they are!
Daily Deal Sites (11/18):
12)
Kidcrawl.com - The Steal Network (see babysteals and kidsteals above) launched a new website called kidcrawl.com. I am still trying to grasp the whole concept but from what I understand, it is basically a search engine for baby and childrens' items with product reviews. You can ask questions about something you're interested in buying online and answer others' questions if you have experience to share. Their tagline is "crawling the web for the lowest prices". Updated: They have added a great feature for Canadian consumers where you can indicate you are Canadian in your profile and this will then result in a little Canadian flag popping up next to companies that actually ship to Canada. Despite this feature, there doesn't seem to be a lot of companies actually shipping to Canada! What I'd love to see is more (any?) Canadian stores actually listed as well such as Chapters.ca, Toyrus.ca, Dearbornbaby and so on. I'd find that a lot more useful if I was in the market for something like a car seat or stroller. I don't even bother looking at US stores because of everything involved (e.g. customs, duty, regulations).
13)
Funky Tricycle - Another Canadian deals website based out of BC. Currently, they only have one deal a week on Mondays and I've only seen bibs and envirosacks posted so far. Hopefully, they'll feature some other great Canadian products. At the very least, they have a very nice website and set up. You can also keep up with them through a variety of social networking tools including Facebook. One disadvantage is that they don't ship things out until they are sold out or until the end of the week. If you live in Victoria, you can contact them and arrange local pickup though. I'll update more about this site in a couple weeks once I see what else they've got for sale!
14)
Mama's ReTreat (Nanaimo, BC) - This is another newer site and so far, I really like it! I was looking for some Zoobies on daily deal sites before Christmas and couldn't find ones I liked. Then, Mama's ReTreat came through and I got both kids a Zoobie for Christmas with Express Post shipping at a very reasonable rate. It was a nice change to receive a package literally a couple days after I ordered it compared to the 3+ weeks I am used to with US baby deal sites. Most items are offered with flat rate shipping which is great for buying multiple items or taking advantage of combined shipping offers when they are available. Mama's ReTreat makes an effort to feature lots of Canadian products although not exclusively which is fine with me. They also take requests and make an attempt to get those things for customers. Finally, there is a reward program on purchases and referrals although I think you need a whole schwack of points before it's worth very much. It's still a benefit so people might as well use it since it's there and earn a few dollars towards future purchases. There isn't an archive but you can view previous "treats" on their
blog. Of course, you can also "like" them on
Facebook to stay up to date with their deals and special promotions.
Whew! I think that's about it. If anyone knows of any sites that I've missed, please add them in the comments.
