The secret to online shopping revealed

Shoppers were advised to avoid the January sales, and instead buy in November when there were more offers available.

If you think that Internet shopping on a Sunday gets you the best deals, then think again. Tuesday is actually the best day of the week if you want to grab a bargain, according to an exhaustive analysis of on-line shopping.

Thursday is the second best day followed by Friday - but Sunday is when you are least likely to make a saving.

The study also looked at months and found that the pre-Christmas rush in November is when there are most bargains around on the web - and not the January sales.

US retailer reporting service SumAll examined 3,000 companies and half a billion transactions as part of its report.

It worked out the average discount offered to consumers on each day of the week and over different times of the year.

The best day of the week was Tuesday where savings were 4.81 percent, followed by Thursday on 4.80 percent. In third place was Friday at 4.65 percent, then Wednesday at 4.13 percent and Monday at 4.11 percent.

Only the foolish would shop on a Saturday where the discounts were typically 3.84 percent - and Sunday was the worst with 3.37 percent.

The analysis by month is even more surprising as most people think that waiting until the post-Christmas sales would yield the biggest discounts.

In fact, November is when you will get the largest savings at 5.99 percent on average. January came in second at 4.95 percent, followed by May at 4.50 percent.

The worst month to buy on-line was March where you could expect to save just 2.76 percent. Consumers and experts have been speculating for years about the best time to shop online.

Booking a flight has almost become a science with some claiming that buying six weeks before you travel guarantees you the best price. However a recent analysis by the US Airlines Reporting Commission found that was not actually the case.

Not only did the six week window fail to stack up, in some cases the best fares were on sale as long as 24 weeks before departure.

The ARC said that booking well in advance is best advised for busy routes or long haul flights, as the price only tends to go up.

如果你以为周日上网购物能得到最实惠的价格，我劝你三思。根据一份对网上购物的详尽分析报告，如果你想买到便宜货，周二其实才是一周里网购最划算的一天。

买便宜货的次佳时机是在周四，然后是周五，而在周日网购是最不可能让你省钱的。

该研究还调查了不同月份的网购情况，发现十一月圣诞节前的购物潮是你最可能从网上淘到便宜货的时节，而非一月份的特卖。

为零售商提供数据的美国服务机构SumAll在撰写报告过程中，调查了3000家公司和5亿笔交易。

调查分析得出消费者在一周里每天得到的平均折扣，以及在一年中不同时段得到的折扣。

一周中最适宜网购的一天是周二，能省4.81%，其次是周四，可省4.8%。排在第三位的是周五，4.65%，然后是周三（4.13%）和周一（4.11%）。

只有傻瓜才会周六上网购物，折扣率通常仅为3.84%，周日则是最糟的——3.37%。

按月份所作的分析结果更出乎人们的意料，因为大多数人认为要等到圣诞节后的特价甩卖才能得到最大的折扣。

事实上，十一月份是你购物最实惠的时候，平均折扣率为5.99%。其次是一月份，折扣率为4.95%，接着是五月份，折扣率4.5%。

最不适宜网购的月份是三月份，你将只能省2.76%的钱。多年来，消费者和专家们一直在思索和推测网购的最佳时机。

订机票的学问几乎已经成为了一门科学，有些人称旅行前六周购买机票价格最优惠。然而，美国航空公司报告委员会新近的研究发现，事实并非如此。

旅行前六周买到的机票远远不是最便宜的，在某些情况下，价格最优惠的机票早在临行前24周就已经开始销售了。

航空公司报告委员会说，在航线繁忙或长途飞行的情况下，最好是提前一大段时间订票，价格越往后只会一直往上涨。

Vocabulary:

exhaustive: 详尽的

long haul: 长距离的