10 Rules for Back-to-School Online Shopping

To get over that hump, the website CamelCamelCamel.com tracks prices of items on Amazon.com and will show you a graph of the historical prices of the item. You can see what months the specific item has gone on sale in past years, and time your purchases accordingly.

If you deduce from CamelCamelCamel.com that the LED television you're eyeing has gone on sale in November for the past two years, it might be wise (though a tad risky) to hold off until November to catch the next sale.

4. Be alert by setting online alerts

"If you see an item online, you can sometimes setup alerts for when it does go on sale," says savings expert Jeanette Pavini with Coupons.com.

Check retailers' websites to see if they offer alerts, too.

Additionally, PriceBlink is an app for your web browser (available on Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer) that not only compares prices of items, but will alert you if there are any available coupons associated with the item you're looking to purchase. So if you're shopping on BestBuy.com, for example, a PriceBlink browser bar will appear on the top of the window with a drop-down list of coupon codes for that retailer.

5. Don't forget that bricks-and-mortar hasn't surrendered in the pricing war

The bricks-and-mortar stores aren't letting the online retailers take all of the business. They are offering discounts too. Whether online or on the pavement, finding the deals is the art of the shopping experience.

Don't think there is a scientific law that states any online promotion will beat every in-store price.

"There are promotional items that are only available online -- it's important to see what the online prices are, factor in the coupon code and compare this amount with the prices in-store," Pavini cautions.

Even when the best price is online, there's often a deal within a deal. If you see a space to enter in a coupon code, don't leave that box blank. Many times a simple Google search for promotional codes related to the item you're looking to buy is the answer to scoring the best deal.

6. Search for free shipping codes

The downside to shopping online is often the cost of shipping. A few clicks, however, can result in free shipping, which is a term online shoppers love to hear. We're talking about websites like FreeShipping.org , which instead of reducing the price of the actual item, offers codes that simply remove the price of shipping.