Buying American made products for the Holidays will boost the American economy. Almost two-thirds (63 percent) of U.S. shoppers plan to do a majority of their Christmas shopping online this year, according to stats from LivePerson.
The National Retail Federation (NRF) predicts that 2012 holiday retail sales will total up to $586.1 billion. Wow. That is a lot of online spending. Let's make sure all this spending is going back into our economy. Here's how...
When shopping online it is harder to identify what is made in the U.S. and what is made overseas (you can't just check a tag). Here are some advanced but simple search tricks to help you find and buy made in America this holiday season.
1.) Format your search
Search for the product you're looking for and add + ~made in America afterwards.
Let's dissect this search:
black sweaters
This tells the search engine which product you are looking for. Type in products the same way you would regularly search for them.
+~made in America
This tells a search engine to find phrases that are synonymous to the one you are searching for. For example, the search above will also generate results for Made in the US, USA Made, etc. because the phrases are synonymous with Made in America.
When your search results appear, ignore the ads and all sponsored images, and focus more on the organic (unpaid) listings; they will be considerably more relevant than the sponsored (paid) listings.
2.) Define a store
If you have a favorite brand or store, you can tell the search engine that you only want to see results for a single website. Combine that with the product and "made in America" operators, and you get the following search query:
Let's dissect this search:
site:www.overstock.com
This tells the search engine to only display results from the Overstock.com website. You can put site:anywebsitename.com, and it will limit results to the site you specified.
3.) Specify your price range
There is a preconceived notion that products manufactured in America are more expensive. Although this can sometimes be the case, some search engines have tools that allow you to specify a price range while shopping online. Have a look at the following search operations:
Let's dissect this search:
[20][100]
This formatting tells Google the minimum and maximum price range you are looking for, respectively. You can substitute 20 and 100 for any amount that fits your budget.
With these handy search tips, you have no excuse. Shop American for a product you can be proud of at a price you can afford this holiday season, and help put America back on track.
There are a few search engines that specialize in American-manufactured products. Check these links out!
Here is a short list of companies that manufacture in the US. Not all of them will be 100% made in the United States, they might import the buttons, etc. But they're all at least 90% Made in America. Feel free to add to this list in the comments below.
Happy Holiday Shopping!
Accessories:
- Makr Carry Goods: Bags, stools, wallets, belts
- NATIVE(X): Totes, scarves, jewelry, mugs
- Pierrepont Hicks: Ties, bowties
- Randolph Engineering: Glasses, sunglasses
Clothes:
- All American Clothing
- American Apparel
- Black Halo
- C&C California
- Emerson Fry
- Hanky Panky
- Imogene and Willie
- Kate Boggiano
Footwear:
- Alden
- Allen Edmonds
- Capps Shoe Company
- Munro Shoes
- Oakstreet Bootmakers
- Quoddy
- Rancourt and Company