Business Insider India has updated its Privacy and Cookie policy. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the better experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we\'ll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies on the Business Insider India website. However, you can change your cookie setting at any time by clicking on our Cookie Policy at any time. You can also see our Privacy Policy.
For tens of millions of people, shopping on Amazon has become a regular part of their life.
The online retailer is one of the most trusted brands in America and more than 100 million people worldwide have access to the company's Prime membership service for free shipping and other exclusive perks.
It's easy to get excited about Amazon's low prices and free shipping on thousands of products, but the there are some simple ways you could save even more when shopping online.
Here are some quick tips to help you get the most out of your Amazon shopping experience:
Amazon Prime really is worth it if you order from the site more than once a month.
Amazon's Prime member service has almost become synonymous with the company and comes with dozens of perks. I won't try to sell you a membership, but if you order from Amazon multiple times a month, a Prime membership will bring tons of value. There's certainly a reason more than 100 million people have invested in the service.
You can share an Amazon Prime membership with one other adult, and kids who share the account can access perks like Amazon Prime Instant Video. Amazon Family provides a 20% discount on diapers, baby food, and household items.
If you're a student, you can use an email ending in .edu to sign up for Amazon Prime Student. The service offers a six-month trial and costs $6.49 a month after that. People receiving Medicaid or EBT benefits are also eligible for a discounted Prime membership at $5.99 per month.
You can use CamelCamelCamel.com to see the lowest price an item has sold for on Amazon.
While items on Amazon are often cheaper than what you'd find in stores, the prices can also fluctuate quite a bit over time.
Price tracker sites like CamelCamelCamel.com will let you know the highest and lowest prices an item has sold for in the past. You can set a tracker to email you when an item is available for the right price.
Amazon's Choice banner will show up on highly rated products based on your search, but it may not always be the best choice for you.
The Amazon's Choice banner will let you identify the most popular items for sale based on what you searched. In my experience, they're usually pretty good recommendations, but I suggest that you use Amazon's Choice as a baseline to compare some of the other products available.
I've often found products that were cheaper than Amazon's Choice, or had much better features for a dollar or two more.
The "Subscribe & Save" option is an easy way to save on items you use regularly, even if you wouldn't normally buy them from Amazon.
Some household products will let you subscribe for scheduled deliveries at a slight discount. While I'm used to picking up things like cleaning supplies and paper towels at brick and mortar stores, I've found that grabbing them with an Amazon subscription ultimately saves me a bit of money in the long run.
You can set the frequency of the delivery and even what day of the week your delivery arrives, so the process is pretty hassle-free.
If you plan on spending $100 or more while shopping, you can buy a $100 digital Amazon gift card to get an extra $10.
If you're planning a major purchase of $100 or more on Amazon, you can get an extra $10 to spend by purchasing a digital gift card first. The balance will be added directly to your Amazon account so you can use it right away.
Prime members also earn an extra 2% when reloading their gift card balance, so that gives them $2 extra for buying a $100 gift card, on top of the extra $10.
You find deep discounts on used, refurbished, or overstocked items at Amazon Outlet and Amazon Warehouse.
While its not heavily advertised, you can buy items that have been returned to Amazon at steep discounts through Amazon Warehouse. Amazon Warehouse refurbishes expensive electronics too, making it a great way to find discounted tech.
Amazon Outlet is filled with overstocked items that may be a bit behind the latest trends but still work just fine. The store has thousands of discounted products from major brands.
Amazon has daily deals on a wide variety of options, and limited-time sales called Lightning Deals. To find them, you can check the Gold Box page
Amazon has dozens of sales happening at any given moment, and you can visit the Gold Box page to keep track of them all. You can search for items in specific categories like electronics or luggage to find what you're looking for, and see limited-time lightning deals before they start.
Just remember: Even if a deal looks tempting, you should use CamelCamelCamel or another price-checker to make sure that the price won't drop any further in the future.
AmazonSmile donates a small percentage (0.5%) of each of your purchases to a charity of your choice. But only purchases made when visiting Smile.Amazon.com add to the donation pool.
It may not save you money, but using AmazonSmile helps contribute a bit of money towards making the world a better place.
You can shop using the AmazonSmile link at no cost to yourself and Amazon will donate 0.5% of your order's value to the charity of your choice.
