It’s time to ditch the High Street and start checking out the web to slash the cost of shopping. But, even then, it’s not enough simply to buy direct from online stores.

The beauty of the internet is you can effectively pop into 20 stores at the same time and find the cheapest price in just 30 seconds. You do this by using a ‘shopbot’ which is a price comparison site.

So whether it’s the latest gadget you want, a kitchen appliance, books, DVDs, flowers, games, computer equipment or practically anything else, it’s time to start surfing.

How to get the best price online

Step 1: Use a shopbot

A shopbot, or shopping robot, is a website that searches hundreds of online stores for you in a few seconds.Simply enter what sort of product you want, click on compare prices and you’ll find the cheapest place to buy from.

The three major shopbots are Kelkoo, Pricerunner and Shopping.com, which are all sizeable companies, meaning they vet the retailers included to ensure they're legit.

For complete details of all the comparison sites, including ones specialising in DVDs, electricals and books, read Martin's full Shopbots article.

Step 2: Go to a cashback site

Cashback sites are specialist internet sites that pay you a percentage of the price of the item you’re buying or a straight-forward cash sum. To get the cashback you must click through to the retailer's 'special' link on the cashback site.

So for example, if you’re buying an item from Boots, don’t simply buy direct from the Boots site, find out which cashback site gives the best payout, visit it and then click through to Boots.

It’s important not to be driven by cashback, though. Go for the product with the best price and then see if you can earn cashback from it. The amount you can earn varies by retailer and cashback site.

To help, there’s a Cashback-Sites Maximiser tool where you enter the retailer you’re buying from and it will tell you which cashback site gives the best pay-out.

Read Martin's full Top Cashback Sites article for more information, including how to make money for free by using shopbots via cashback sites to do a price comparison.

Step 3: Spend on a credit card for extra protection and cashback

Buy something on a credit card costing over £100, and you get extra legal protection. This means if the retailer goes bust, or another problem occurs, the credit card company is equally liable so you can get your cash back from it.

Plus, pick the right credit card and you can earn up to 5% extra cashback every time you spend.

For more info, read Martin's full Consumer Rights article and guide to the Best Cashback Cards.

The studio challenge

Two volunteers were invited into the studio to try to slash their shopping bills by following Martin's methods. One wanted to buy a 37-inch plasma television and the other a high-chair for her nine-month-old daughter. Between them, they cold cut their combined costs by a mammoth £220. 

Internet security

There’s no infallible way to check a website’s legitimacy, but there are a few useful tips. Most sites shopbots link to are reliable, although ensure the site lists a real, as well as a virtual address. Check out who owns a site using the Whois database.

Also look on web ranking site Alexa.com to see a site’s worldwide web ranking; anything in the top 100,000 means it’s reasonably big, which is a good, but not foolproof, indication of legitimacy.

For more information on buying via the web, read Martin's full Online Shopping, Golden Rules Of eBay Shopping and Amazon Buying Hints guides.