I was looking online yesterday; ready to take advantage of some of the post-Christmas sales to do some early birthday shopping for my daughter. I was on the Disney Store site and found the cutest Ariel and her sisters dolls marked down to $5.99. Plus, there was a 25% off code for all their sale items, taking the price down to about $4.50. I happily put the dolls in my cart and went to check out, only to find that the least expensive shipping was going to be $8.50.

Are you kidding me? I had two light weight dolls in my cart and had specified slow shipping. The charges the Disney Store wanted to levy would effectively double my purchase price. I’ll take my chances at the retail store later today. If they have the dolls in stock, I will buy them there.

Online shopping can be amazing. You can compare prices quickly and often find the best deal. You can even avoid paying sales tax in most cases. But, you should never make your final decision until you have figured in the shipping charges. They can sometimes be a deal breaker.

Free shipping was supposed to be a huge carrot most retailers were dangling before us online this year, but I found that most websites only offered it for high dollar purchases or on one or two specific days. If you look around, you can sometimes find coupon codes for free or reduced shipping. Be wise.