Which are the best Amazon buying tricks you know?
When Amazon hiked the price of its subscription in 2022, many people decided to cancel their Prime membership. While not everyone can afford to pay the $139 fee yearly, you should check what other benefits are included in this price, as it’s definitely not limited to just free shipping.
For lots of online consumers, Amazon is a one-stop shop for everything from cleaning products to television sets. The retail giant is widely known for its wide range of product selection as well as its low prices.
In fact, consumers repeatedly rate Amazon among their favorite online stores. The Amazon Price service—with free, two-day shipping on all qualifying products, as well as access to video streaming, digital storage for your photos, and much more—keeps customers coming back often.
In this article, we’ll talk about some Amazon buying tricks that even those who shop at the e-commerce giant regularly may overlook. These hacks can help you save big on purchases, big and small. Check this out!
1. Not a Prime member? You can still score free shipping
If you don’t use Amazon often to make online purchases and warrant spending $139 per year for Prime, there are a bunch of other methods to get your occasional orders delivered free.
When you place an order for $35 worth of qualifying items, your entire order becomes eligible for free economy shipping, which usually takes five to eight business days. This is one of the best Amazon buying tricks for those who don’t want to pay for the membership.
However, if you’re struggling to find enough products to get your total to $35, one hack you can try is using the site FillerItem.com to find add-on things that won’t put you over your budget. Simply enter the remaining amount that you need to spend to reach the $35 threshold, and you’ll be shown a list of items available on Amazon that qualify for free shipping.
2. Benefit from the free two-day shipping without spending on Amazon Prime yourself
There’s another way to reap the benefits of Amazon Prime without forking over the $139 annual membership fee. Here’s the hack: Prime members are allowed to add one adult living in their household to their Prime account free of charge. This is among the Amazon buying tricks that most people don’t know about.
There are some conditions that must be met. The second adult must have her or his own Amazon account and must use the same billing address as the holder of the primary Prime account. (Caution: both individuals will have access to card details associated with the Prime account.)
As one of the easiest Amazon buying tricks, it gives access to Amazon Prime benefits, so the person basically gets them without paying for the membership. Once the new household member has been verified, they get access to free two-day shipping, the Kindle owners’ lending library, video streaming, and online photo storage.
3. Get discounts on recurring purchases
If you regularly purchase certain household items, such as cleaning supplies, hair care products, and laundry detergent, from a brick-and-mortar retailer, you can save money and time—no more standing in long checkout lines—with Amazon’s Subscribe & Save program.
This is one of the best Amazon buying tricks that can help you save some cash, but not many people know about it. By registering for the program, you have the option to schedule regular deliveries of your favorite products. If you schedule five or more items to be delivered together on a recurring schedule, you’ll get a 15% discount on your order. If your order has fewer than five items, you’ll only save 5% on your entire purchase.
Keep in mind that delivery fees, product prices, and other taxes may change over time after you’ve set up your regular shipments. The good news is that if you don’t like the service, you’re free to cancel your subscription at any time.
4. Skip shipping fees and sales tax at selected third-party sellers
Next on our list of Amazon buying tricks you can use to save money is a great hack that most people don’t know about. Multiple third-party sellers, in addition to Amazon itself, may have the product that you’re looking for on Amazon.com.
Before you make the purchase, compare Amazon’s own price, including shipping and tax fees, to the total price tag of other third-party sellers. This is one of the Amazon buying tricks you’ll want to remember, because it can be very helpful.
According to Amazon’s policy, each third-party seller can decide if it wants the retail giant to charge sales tax on its behalf, unless the seller resides in a state where it’s required to charge sales tax. As far as the shipping thing goes, the seller’s product listing should explicitly mention if a fee will be charged. Some sellers charge, some don’t.
To make sure you get a hassle-free experience, there are some things shoppers should do before making a purchase from a third-party seller. Other Amazon buying tricks include reading other customers’ reviews of the seller and inquiring directly with the seller about its exchange/return policy.
Read on to discover other Amazon buying tricks!
5. Before you check out, look for coupons
One of the Amazon buying tricks people don’t know they can use is one that involves coupons. You never know what you will find on Amazon’s coupons page, which can be accessed via the Today’s Deals website.
It’s worth a look to check for coupons that can cut the price of the products on your shopping list. Some examples of coupons available to Amazon members when we perused the page included 26% off Bose Headphones, 26% off an Amazon Basics Two-Slice Toaster, and 38% off Amazon’s Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote.
6. Prime members, opt for no-rush shipping to get a site credit
It goes without saying that free two-day shipping is one of Amazon’s biggest perks. However, you’ll want to add another one to the list of Amazon buying tricks.
If you’re a Prime member who doesn’t need your product right away, opt for no-rush shipping on your next purchase to receive a promotional credit to your account (you’ll get it once the items from the order have shipped).
The amount of credit depends on the number of products in your order that qualify for no-rush shipping, and you can use the credit toward a future order.
7. Save on used electronic items
There are a couple of Amazon buying tricks you can use when looking for electronic items. For instance, you can score deals on popular technology, such as tablet computers, wireless surround-sound speaker systems, and smart watches, by shopping Amazon’s Warehouse Deals section.
The products offered in this section are either pre-owned (the item was previously sold, opened, and used at least once before the customer returned it) or open-box (the item was previously sold, opened but not used, and then the customer returned it).
Each item is inspected and certified before being added to the resale category. Amazon lists these items as used-like new, used-very good, used-good, or used-acceptable.
So, how much can you save? For instance, we found in the Warehouse Deals section an Ameriwood Home Modern End Coffee Table for just $24.59, while on Amazon.com you can find it at $66.44. That’s a $41.85 difference. Now that’s what we call Amazon buying tricks!
Before you purchase, however, make sure you fully understand the item’s return policy and check if the original manufacturer’s warranty still applies (it can be nullified on certain used products, including new and refurbished electronic items).
8. Get the best deal on your new TV
Television sets fulfilled and sold by Amazon—not by a third-party seller on the site—are products that qualify for price matching. If you buy a TV from the retail giant and find a lower price for the same model at one of the qualifying retailers within 30 days of purchase, you can notify Amazon and ask for a refund of the price difference.
If the comparable TV set is cheaper because you’ve used a discount from a rewards program offered by Target, Costco, or Best Buy, the refund will be issued using an Amazon gift card.
If you liked our article on Amazon buying tricks, you may also want to read You MUST Get These Amazing 1-dollar Amazon Finds!
