10 Amazon Life Hacks Every Shopper Should Know
As a shopping writer for Lifehacker, I’ve learned a ton of tricks over the years that have helped me become a savvy Amazon shopper. While you don’t need Prime membership for most of these tips, it will significantly improve your Amazon shopping experience. And yes, it’s worth it —we’ve done the math .
If your delivery is delayed, call Amazon to get free money.
If your Amazon delivery is delayed, you can contact customer service and possibly receive a refund or compensation, often proportional to the item’s value, especially if your order had a guaranteed delivery date. Amazon’s order status changes throughout the delivery process. If Amazon indicated delivery was scheduled for a specific date and then sends a message about a delay, contact customer service (the fastest way to reach an Amazon representative is by phone ). Tell them your order is delayed and you want compensation because you needed timely delivery for some reason. Customer service will likely offer you compensation in the form of an Amazon credit. I personally received a $20 credit when my laptop was delivered late.
Use price tracking tools to find the best prices on Amazon.
Knowing an item’s price history will tell you whether it’s worth waiting a bit; it also ensures you get the best price. There are many price tracking tools out there, but if I were to recommend one for Amazon, it would be Keepa . Keepa automatically displays price history under the product image. It also lets you track specific items and sends notifications when their price drops below a threshold you set. You can download the extension for Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Edge, and Safari.
Get the most accurate product reviews on Amazon.
Sometimes Amazon combines reviews for multiple versions of the same product. For example, take the reviews section for this Apple Watch Series 11 GPS . At the time of writing, it lists 1,049 customer reviews. But (and here’s where the trick comes in): if you click the “All Variants” drop-down menu and select a specific variant, you’ll see that only 194 matching reviews were found for that model and version (at the time of writing). The remaining reviews are for other sizes, colors, storage capacities, versions with cellular or GPS, and so on.
Ask Rufus, Amazon’s AI, questions about products.
Last year, Amazon released Rufus AI, which scanned the web, every Amazon product page, and even user manuals to gather information about every product, no matter how specific the question. It’s much faster and sometimes more accurate than searching for an answer by reading the manual or product page. You can find this search bar right above the reviews section or anywhere you see the “Ask Rufus” banner.
Earn Amazon rewards when you don’t need rush delivery.
While two-day shipping is great, it’s not always necessary. Amazon sometimes offers “digital credits” (essentially free money that can be used for other Amazon purchases) to avoid Prime or two-day shipping. These credits can be small—usually less than $2—but they add up quickly. Ultimately, the next time you checkout, you could get $20 in your Amazon account.
You can bypass Amazon’s Subscribe & Save system.
Amazon offers a ” Subscribe & Save ” program that encourages you to buy the same item repeatedly by offering discounts of up to 15%. This is a convenient tool if, for example, you buy protein powder on Amazon and know you’ll need it at least once every six months. However, less obvious is that you can get an $80 protein powder at 15% off with a subscription, then immediately cancel the subscription, saving 15% without any hassle.
Take advantage of Amazon’s free plans.
Your money earns more interest if it’s in a savings account (ideally , a high-yield one ) than if you give it to Amazon. So when they offer you a free, 0% APR, no-strings-attached payment plan, it’s an obvious choice. Not all items will have this option, but most high-end items shipped directly from Amazon do. Be careful, though: it’s very easy to overspend. That’s why our shopping motto is: ” Don’t buy what you didn’t plan to buy anyway.”
If you’re a young adult or a student, you can get Prime benefits at a lower price.
If you’re 18 to 24 years old or a student, you get all the benefits of Prime for half price . This is a huge benefit for anyone who falls into either of these two categories.
Use Amazon Family instead of two separate accounts.
I still know many people who share their Amazon accounts, such as family members, spouses, or roommates. This makes it very difficult to maintain interest in Secret Santa. However, people living in the same household can pay for a single Prime subscription while keeping their own accounts private using Amazon Family . This means your cart won’t be filled with other people’s orders, you’ll only receive notifications about your orders, your order history will only show your items, and so on.
Get free ebooks on your Kindle every month.
Filling my Kindle with books isn’t easy, but I’m on the right track thanks to the many free ebooks I receive through Amazon. If you’re a Prime subscriber, you get two to three free ebooks each month as part of Amazon First Reads , a carefully curated list of new books.