Recognizing the Different Types of Stores. ——The First Step of Buying Christmas Decorations Online

To be honest, many People is tired of trudging around brick and mortar stores looking for new and unique decorations. Online shopping, whether it's through regular brick-and-mortar retailers with websites or from wholesale/online-only outlets, can provide an easy alternative. Online Christmas decoration shopping can be rewarding and help you find all kinds of treasures for your house.

1. Consider year-round Christmas shops: These shops specialize in holiday decor. Sometimes they sell a specific item, like Hudson Valley Trees specializes in artificial trees. There are several sites out there that specialize entirely on Christmas light sets. Others like Bronner's Christmas Store in Frankenmuth, Michigan, sell everything Christmas for the entire year. If an item goes out of stock, unless it's a limited edition, a rare item hardly ever made, or it's no longer in production, it'll likely be back soon, usually in a few days or weeks. Some will even special order an item for you, if they can.

2. Look at retail stores. These can be places people shop in general like Sears, Macy's, Walmart, Target or they can be another store that is exclusively online or mail-order like Fingerhut, Frontgate or maybe like a local garden shop in town that also sells things online. These sites are pretty much the same store you could go to in person, look through the printed catalogs only online with other items not sold in stores or web exclusive items only available from purchasing via online. The same also applies to coupons. When an item goes out of stock in that store, you might as well wait until next year or forget it. Craft stores like JoAnn's, Micheal's, Hobby Lobby and home improvement stores like ACE Hardware, Home Depot, Menard's, and Lowe's also belong here.

Often times these stores will sale merchandise from a different store or site. You'll know this when you see a completely different store name from the store site your on.

3. Consider liquidation discount shops. These stores buy what other stores have left behind, like returns, discontinued, bad sales, or buy a lot of things in wholesale in large quantities and pass the savings to you. Overstock and Wayfair are good examples. It's first come, first served on items being on stock here. When it's gone, it's gone!

4. Look at wholesale options. This is when you are buying directly from the factory or from a company that has close ties to that company. The method is selling by bulk. This mains you are buying in quantity. Many of the whole sale items have a minimum number of an item you can buy. Some items are sold in singles or pairs but others you need to buy like 100 or more. Who needs a 1000 red shiny apple ornaments? The more you buy the more you save. The items here may never go out of stock unless there's a monstrously huge demand that sells the entire stock out or they stop producing it. Alibada.com is an Asian example of such a site.

• Don't confuse wholesale with low quality. Many times wholesale can equal or even have higher quality than retail.
• Expect higher selection from a wholesale store than a retail store. Many wholesalers will be willing to let you customize your purchase by mixing and matching your selections. Like you can buy the same ornament in different colors, designs and patterns. The same brand can offer different characters and shapes as well.

5. Browse some marketplaces, flea markets, auctions, etc. These places can sell either used or new items. Availability and stocking here is very variable and can also have any of the features of the other categories listed above depending on the vendor or store.

6. Don't overlook stores and categories that are not Christmas or even decor. It can really pay off to be adventurous and get off the Christmas bandwagon when shopping. The exact same Flickering Light Set offered for clearance for Halloween? Maybe that purple light set can go greatly with a Sugar Plum Fairy theme. Floral, fabric, party and bridal stores offer endless selections and alternatives for ribbons, bows, rhinestones, tinsel and aluminum shapes, fancy roping and tassels, ball ornaments, bead strands for garlands, as well as floral picks. The color and design options are endless and prices can be cheaper than Christmas shops.