I have purchased a number of different things from Amazon and their merchant partners – books
, CDs (way back when), movies, electronics, shoes (from Zappos), baby gear, etc.
, CDs (way back when), movies, electronics, shoes (from Zappos), baby gear, etc.It has always been well priced, generally quickly available and delivered in good condition.
I love shopping at Amazon and it is my “go-to” place for most online shopping.
The process is easy, I trust them and I get what I want. For “commodity” type of purchases, my gut feel is that 85-90% of the time Amazon has the best price or very close to it.
Note: when it comes to deals – especially Cyber Monday - most of my experience
is that they consistently have some of the best deals).
If what I’m buying is a smaller purchase (under $200), it often isn’t worth my time to shop all over the place just to find an obscure site that might save me $2.50;)
Amazon is great for these things.
When I get to bigger purchases (TV, computer, etc.), Amazon is often competitive on price, but I find that I want to see it in person and/or I want the ability to take the item back to the store if there are any problems. While I trust Amazon’s return policy, I just don’t want to have to try to return a television to them. I’ve got a few local stores that match competitors’ pricing, so in the case of big ticket items, I do a little research about the products and then go to the store looking to negotiate a little on price. Even though these stores don’t match online prices, I find that Amazon’s pricing is my barometer for whether I’m getting a fair deal. Plus, the employees at big electronics stores know that Amazon is a legitimate threat, so asking them to match the price and if they don’t threatening to go off an buy it on Amazon has worked when I’ve needed it.
When I get to bigger purchases (TV
, computer, etc.), Amazon is often competitive on price, but I find that I want to see it in person and/or I want the ability to take the item back to the store if there are any problems. While I trust Amazon’s return policy, I just don’t want to have to try to return a television to them. I’ve got a few local stores that match competitors’ pricing, so in the case of big ticket items, I do a little research about the products and then go to the store looking to negotiate a little on price. Even though these stores don’t match online prices, I find that Amazon’s pricing is my barometer for whether I’m getting a fair deal. Plus, the employees at big electronics stores know that Amazon is a legitimate threat, so asking them to match the price and if they don’t threatening to go off an buy it on Amazon has worked when I’ve needed it.
