Technological advancement has made it easy to find and buy anything on Amazon. You just need to punch a couple of keys, click once and your query gets populated with dozens or hundreds of products from different sellers.
Unfortunately, Amazon does not tell you which listings are legitimate, the best prices to pay for the products, or which brands have high-quality products. This means that if you are not a seasoned buyer, you either hazard guessing the quality, rely on reviews given by others which are not always true or do some background checking before making your purchase.
So, now that there are many sellers on Amazon and you can hardly tell them apart, is there anything you can do to help you make your purchases confidently? Here are 3 pro tips for shopping on Amazon that you should know:
Buy directly from Amazon
By now, you should know that not everything listed on Amazon is sold by the store as there are many third-party sellers on the site. Basically, Amazon is more likely to scrutinize its listings compared to items sold by third parties. In addition, in case of disputes over delays or defects, your issue is more likely to be solved quickly because you are dealing directly with Amazon.
To know if a product is sold by Amazon, check under the green “In Stock” label or below the price, and look for “Ships from and sold by Amazon.com”. Alternatively, it could be under the “Add to Cart ” or ” Buy Now ” buttons.
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Join Amazon Prime program
Amazon Prime is a paid membership with a monthly fee of $12.99 or $119 paid annually. While it may not seem like a good idea to pay a fee before shopping, the membership gives you many benefits compared to the ordinary buyer. And the good news is that you can try Prime membership for free for the first 30 days and cancel before the free trial period lapses without attracting any charges.
Prime membership benefits include free fast shipping for select products, exclusive shopping deals, free streaming of TV shows, music, and movies, and unlimited reading. Sounds like the perfect bargain, right? Yes, it is.
Don’t just trust reviews, play the sleuth
The Amazon review system was designed to help prospective buyers choose products easily. Unfortunately, the system has been abused and gamed by sellers making it hard to trust every review there. Therefore, when shopping on Amazon, do not just look at the reviews, instead, do some due diligence as there are many sellers trying to game the review system in order to have Amazon list their products more prominently.
To reduce the possibility of relying on fake reviews, consider using consider using FakeSpot or ReviewMeta. These are online tools that analyze Amazon reviews using algorithms and filters let you know how legitimate a review is, or isn’t. This is a tool that analyzes Amazon reviews using algorithms and filters out natural and unnatural reviews.
Using the above hacks, you can shop on Amazon with more confidence knowing that you are getting value for your money.
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