If you shop on Amazon.com under the impression that it has the best prices, you may not be getting the most for your money.
Over one hundred million people have signed up for Amazon’s Prime subscription service. The service offers customers free expedited shipping, music and movie streaming, along with a bunch of other lesser-known programs. More importantly though – Amazon recently raised the price of its Prime membership to $119 a year. But is paying a premium price to shop on Amazon really worth it?
Free shipping?
The biggest feature that’s included with Amazon Prime is its free, two-day shipping, which the company says is offered on hundreds of millions of items, along with same-day delivery on some items. But that’s not the only way to get stuff shipped to you to for free. If you don’t mind waiting a bit longer, non-Prime members can receive items in five to eight days with a $35 minimum order.
Competitors like Target and Walmart have upped the ante by offering free, two-day shipping on orders over $35, without any subscription fees.
So how do we figure out if the price we’re paying is the lowest price around? Wikibuy is one way to comparison shop the products you’re interested in.
Here’s how it works:
While you shop on Amazon, Wikibuy automatically goes to work in the background. If a better offer is found, a notification instantly appears. It shows you the final price of the item (including sales tax + shipping to your specified location), and notifies you of the delivery date. Same product, just cheaper.
When you need your order in 2 days, Amazon Prime is the answer. Though, the reality is that if you waited just a few more days for even half of your orders, the monthly savings with Wikibuy could pay for your annual Prime subscription.
Capital One acquired the 4-year-old online-shopping start-up in its latest effort to offer tech services that engender loyalty to the bank’s credit cards.
The bank purchased Wikibuy on Nov. 17, 2018 for an undisclosed amount, according to executives from Capital One and the Austin, Texas-based start-up. Apparently, two million members use Wikibuy to automatically find low prices, coupon codes and earn loyalty points.
The Bottom Line:
If you are someone who makes a lot of small purchases on Amazon, the convenience of the free, two-day shipping is invaluable. But, if you’re someone who rarely shops Amazon, and doesn’t mind waiting a few extra days to get your stuff, you should definitely save your money. Without the convenience of free two-day shipping, you might even find yourself spending less money shopping online.
WikiBuy is available as a Chrome browser add-in and it’s also available for iPhone users in the App store.
You can get the Wikibuy Chrome extension here.
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/wikibuy/nenlahapcbofgnanklpelkaejcehkggg?hl=en-US
