This coming 11.11, you definitely don’t want to miss the best opportunity to shop with the lowest prices of the year. So here are some tips for you to happily shop:

Do your research ahead of time. Double Eleven is just one day, but shopping is a longer process. You should start to think what you need two weeks ago. By the time you see this, if you haven’t started yet, it never too late! Make a list of what you need and start your research on Taobao, Tmall and Jingdong.Choose brands.Not all the brands have discount on double eleven, and even in those brands which have the sale, not all the products have discount. For those products that have double eleven special price, the store owner would put the special logo that says “final carnival price”. And sometimes the discount is just about 10 to 20 RMB-- you definitely don’t want these because you can buy it at anytime. Pay attention to how much is in stock.When you finally find something that matches your mind, add it to your shopping cart. Look out for how much is in stock. If it's a small number, that means you will have to stay up and fight for it. But the time your clock jumps to 00:00am, you will need to buy it as soon as possible because trust me, the number of people who stay up panic buying is more than you could imagine. Stalk the price before you buy.Some sellers will first raise the price before double eleven and then sell it out with the “carnival special” price which is the same as before. So before you rush to purchase, look up the historical price and see if the seller plays market tricks.Don’t wait until the last minute to negotiate with customer service.If you have any doubts and question about the product, contact customer service ahead of time. On 11.11, they are usually super busy and wouldn’t be able to reply you in time. You don’t want waste time on waiting for response and witness the products in your shopping cart be sold out one by one. So try to talk to them before so that you could be sure when you purchase on double eleven.Think twice when you buy things that you are in urgent need.Because of the explosion of purchasing on double eleven, it is quite normal that customers wait for half a month to get the delivery. So talk to customer service ahead of time and make sure you can get it on time.Don’t lose your mind!It is quite normal that people treat Double Eleven as a way of saving money and end up buying a lot of stuff they don't need. Be smart and cool so that you are taking advantage of this instead of being controlled by consumerism. This article was written by Jingyi Wang. Please send an email to [email protected] to get in touch. Photo Credit: briclanguage.com