Amazon Money Saving Tips: 12 Shopping Hacks Most People Don't Know

If you’re in money-saving mode, these money hacks for saving on Amazon are going to help you a ton. I’ve used some of these several times and they’ve helped me a lot!

These are secret hacks that many people don’t know about, like changing the URL of Amazon’s results page or searching for coupons in the questions and answers section. Or my favorite, checking the price history to see what times or days the product usually drops in price.

They work for everything, from electronics to clothes and everything you can think of.

Here they are.

Hack 1: Check the Price History to See When It Goes on Sale

I discovered this Amazon hack while waiting for Black Friday discounts for a specific product I wanted to buy. I was waiting for it to drop in price, and what happened when Black Friday arrived was that suddenly the price actually went UP and it appeared as if it was on sale!

So I searched to see if there was any website that showed you the price history of Amazon products, and I saw there were quite a few. The one I usually use is Keepa, which shows you the complete graph of that product’s price history. That way you can see, for example, which month it usually goes up or down in price.

Hack 2: Cancel Products and Still Get Free Shipping

I discovered this hack to save money on Amazon by accident. I had ordered several products that exceeded the minimum amount for free shipping. But then I wanted to cancel one of them because I had found it from another seller who had it at a lower price.

So I contacted customer service to see if they could cancel the entire initial order since with the remaining products I no longer reached free shipping and didn’t want to pay for shipping. But they told me there’s no problem with that, shipping is still free if your initial order met the requirements. So they only cancelled the product I wanted to cancel and shipping for the rest was still free.

So you could order products that aren’t in stock yet, like pre-order a game or book. That way your cart reaches over $35 and then you cancel those products.

Hack 3: Get Amazon Gift Cards For Free

I don’t know if this is your case, but it happens to me that several times I’ve placed an order and it doesn’t arrive for different reasons. I get some message like “wrong address,” “could not be delivered,” or some nonsense like that from the delivery company.

What I do is contact Customer Service and explain, for example, that the address isn’t wrong. They tell you they’ll pressure the delivery service to resend it, say within 24 hours. You ask them, “and if that doesn’t happen do I get some benefit?”. Then they might offer you a $10 gift card. If it doesn’t arrive within 24 hours, you claim your gift card. They’ve already given it to me this way.

Hack 4: Check Every Color for Hidden Price Differences

amazon discount for different color items

Maybe some of you already know this money saving hack and others don’t. Prices for each product tend to vary with color and model! If you click on each color, you’re going to see that many times the prices change. I’ve seen this a lot with clothing, sneakers, or backpacks for example. Sometimes some colors cost double others.

Hack 5: The Secret URL Discount Hack

This is a pretty good way to find discounted products on Amazon that most people don’t know about. When you do a search on Amazon, you just have to write this code at the end of the results URL that appears: &pct-off=50-70 and hit enter.

Amazon will take you to a new results page, where products that have between 50 and 70% off will appear. You can vary that code; for example you can write &pct-off=30-50 or &pct-off=70- for 70%+ off.

Always look in the Questions and Answers section, because it could be that in the answers the seller gives you can find some code they shared there (and that only appears there). You can search with words like “discount code,” “coupon,” or “promo.”

Hack 7: Amazon Warehouse (Resale) Deals = Up to 50%+ Off

Amazon Resale (which used to be called Amazon Warehouse) has quite a few discounts, which are sometimes close to 50%. It’s an Amazon section that’s in charge of selling products that aren’t in perfect condition but still work quite well or the flaws are minimal.

For example, some product that has a slightly crushed box, but the product itself is perfect. Or something someone returned in perfect condition but with the box already opened.

To see if they offer the product you want in Resale, click on the “Used and New” link below the “Add to Cart” button and see if there’s any Resale offer.

There are several products that can be ordered in subscription mode on Amazon, like personal hygiene products for example, or coffee. Buying in subscription mode means they’ll send it to you, say every month, but with a discount, say 10%.

An Amazon hack that works to save on products they sell in subscription but you don’t want every month is to subscribe, wait for them to send it to you and then cancel your subscription. You still got that discount on that first order.

If you subscribe to 5+ items at once, the discount jumps to 15% on everything.

Hack 9: The “999 Stock Trick” to Time Your Purchase

Many times, when stock is about to run out on a product, say if there are 10 or less left, sellers put them on sale to quickly get rid of that stock.

And how do you know if they have a lot or few products of something? Well, you try to add 999 of those to your cart. If there aren’t 999 available, Amazon will tell you, for example “This seller only has 15 products available.”

So, you could wait to see if stock keeps going down and if when it gets to 9 units maybe they’ll give it a discount.

Hack 10: Free Shipping Without Prime (The Smart Way)

amazon free shipping hack with gift cards

If you want to reach the $35 minimum but don’t want to be buying extra things you don’t need just to reach that minimum, you can buy Amazon gift cards for things you normally use anyway. For example, cards to use with Netflix, Starbucks, or even on Amazon itself!

Hack 11: Hidden Variant-Only Coupons

I see this all the time. You click on each color or model of the product you want and you’re going to see that many of them come with a coupon you can add for an extra discount. Usually they come on the not-so-pretty colors, but if you don’t care about color the discounts can be good.

Hack 12: Amazon Outlet for Clearance Goldmine

Did you know the Amazon Outlet existed? I had no idea until very recently. They have products they have too much stock of or discontinued ones for example, and you can find very good discounts there, up to 70% many times.

Bookmark the Amazon Outlet page and check it by category. It’s hit or miss, but when you find something you need, the savings are incredible.

More Money Saving Hacks

If you live in savings mode and don’t like overspending on things that aren’t necessary, I invite you to read my other posts about money saving hacks.

And maybe you’ll also be interested in these other posts about life hacks to save time in your life… because time is also money 🙂

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