Have you used an Amazon coupon recently to save money? If you’re like most, you probably had no idea that coupons for Amazon even existed. The majority of Amazon shoppers love the site because it’s so darn convenient, especially if you’re a Prime member. But very few will take the time to use a coupon to save even more. In this article I breakdown how to find and use Amazon coupons, along with some other out-of-the-box ways to save money with the retail giant.
Amazon Offers 2 Types of Coupons:
1. Coupons You Activate by Clicking on a Link
Amazon regularly has coupons that require you to click on a specific link to get your discount added to your account. Let’s call them “Click & Save” coupons.
These coupons typically aren’t good for a discount on a specific product, but instead are often site-wide discounts or savings on specific Amazon services.
Current “Click & Save” Amazon Coupons:
- Up to 75% off your order with Amazon coupons – Click Here
- Score a $10 Bonus when you re-load Your Amazon Gift Card – Click Here
- Free Shipping without Amazon Prime on your $25+ order – Click Here
- 50% Off + 6 months of Free Prime with Amazon Student – Click Here
- Free 2-day Shipping with 30-day Prime Free Trial – Click Here
- Amazon Warehouse Deals – Deep Discounts on Open-box and Used Electronics – Click Here
- Free 30-Day Trial to Amazon Music Unlimited – Click Here
- Get 20% Off Diapers with your Amazon Family Subscription – Click Here
I’ll be sure to keep this section updated with all of Amazon’s current coupon offers.
2. Coupons You Digitally “Clip”
Amazon has a ton (like 1,000’s) of digital coupons that you clip before you buy, then the coupon savings automatically gets added when you make the purchase.
These coupon offers are all found on the somewhat hard-to-find Coupons Section of the Amazon website.
Popular coupon categories include beauty, pet supplies, Prime Pantry, home & kitchen, grocery, electronics, and toy & baby.
To “clip” the product coupons you want to use, just find the items you want to buy and press the “Clip Coupon” button (see screenshot below).
The coupon will then get added to your account and your discount will automatically be taken when you complete the purchase.
Always read the fine print of the coupon as some are only for Prime members and some are only for those who use the Amazon “Subscribe and Save” program.
More Amazon Savings Tips & Tricks
In addition to using Amazon coupons to save money, there exists some other highly clever ways to save.
I should preface this by saying, “Hello, my name is Kyle and I am an Amazon.com addict. It has been 17 hours since I placed my last order.”
Because of my addiction, I have learned some pretty cool tricks over the years to maximize my savings at the online retail giant.
So I thought it was time to put all my tips in one place so you can maximize your savings at Amazon as well.
See Also: Want to Split your Amazon Payment? Follow These Simple Steps
Is Amazon Prime Worth It?
The magic number is 2. If you buy from Amazon, or think you might, at least 2 times per month, then it is worth paying the $119 annual fee for the Amazon Prime membership. Essentially, I did the math based on a $5 shipping charge which is fairly conservative as larger items have shipping charges way above $5.
The math came down to 24 purchases per year, at $5 shipping on each package, for a total of $120 annually spent on shipping.
Bottom line, if you think you’ll shop at least twice per month on Amazon, Prime is totally worth the money. This is especially true if you can take advantage of an Amazon coupons and save even more money.
Here are a few of the additional services you get with your $119 Prime annual fee:
- FREE Unlimited 2-Day Shipping. This is by far the biggest benefit, especially since Amazon carries pretty much every product you can think of. Order something then 5 minutes later remember that you are almost out of toothpaste, no problem just log back in and place another order for some Crest. Also, it is very impressive that 2-day Prime shipping is also available on really large items like microwaves, televisions, and basketball hoops. How do I know this? Oh, just take my word for it.
- Access to Amazon Prime Video. You can stream hundreds of TV shows and movies for free through your Fire TV Stick, Smart TV, Wii, Roku, or other Internet connected device. Important Note: Only the primary Prime member has free access. Family members that have been added to the Prime membership are not eligible.
- Kindle Owners’ Lending Library. If you own a Kindle device you get to borrow one pre-selected book title per month. In my experience the titles are very good and include many new releases.
- Amazon Student Discounts Available. If you are a student you can get the Prime membership for an affordable $49 a year. You’ll still get almost all of the same features as a regular membership, plus student specific discounts on thousands of products. Your best bet initially is to sign up for a 30-day free Prime Student trial membership to test out the service and make sure it fits your needs and is worth your money. The only downside I have seen with Amazon Prime is it makes it VERY easy to overspend if you are not careful. This is especially true if you use the 1-Click checkout option. They make it way too easy to make a purchase. College students, consider yourself warned.
- Share Your Prime Membership. Also, it’s worth noting that the best way to get the most bang for your buck is to “go in” with some family members and split the $119 Prime membership. The primary member can extend an invitation to one additional adult and up to 4 children in the their family.
For a full list of Prime benefits, see 7 Amazon Prime Benefits You Probably Had No Idea Existed.
Let’s keep this going and talk about even more ways (besides Amazon coupons) to help you save money with the online retail giant.
CamelCamelCamel.com
CamelCamelCamel.com hands down wins the ‘Dumbest Name of the Most Useful Website’ award. It’s a terrific site to use in addition to coupons to basically stack your savings.
The free website allows you to track the price of millions of products sold by Amazon.com and sends you a cool alert via email or Twitter when the price drops to historically low prices.
OK, now back up a second. Maybe you weren’t already aware that Amazon.com is constantly changing the prices of their products. Yes, they must certainly do.
You can quickly see this by adding a few products to your ‘Save for Later’ folder in your Amazon account and track them over the course of a few days. They can change in price by up to 20% on certain product categories.
So this is where CamelCamelCamel comes into play. They’ll track the prices for you which allows you to only buy items when they are at, or below, historically low prices.
I nice little tool for those that always wondered if they were getting the best deal possible.
Amazon “Deals of the Day”
Amazon.com Gold Box Deals of the Day are essentially a daily deal site within the Amazon platform.
The main problem with these deals is they are really hard to find on their cluttered homepage so your best bet is to bookmark the actual link to their daily deals page.
Most of the deals are kitchen items, small appliances, tech-gear, and electronics and the savings are substantial.
For example, today they have a Logitech Wireless Keyboard and Mouse for 50% off the original regular price.
If you don’t care about owning a particular brand, their Daily Deals can really save you some money, especially when doing your Christmas shopping this year.
Subscribe and Save Program
The Amazon ‘Subscribe and Save’ program is a nifty little free program to help you save money on re-occurring purchases. Your diapers, paper towels, toilet paper, things like that.
Essentially, you set up automatic delivery on specific items and if you have 5 or more set up you get 15% taken off your order total.
Crystal at Money Saving Mom did a little experiment on toilet paper and paper towels and found them to be cheaper than her local Costco. The kicker is that they show up on your doorstep for free and you can cancel your subscription at any time.
A word of caution, always make sure that the prices are competitive. Since Amazon changes their pricing all the time, a good deal on Huggies in February may be a ripoff come June.
Amazon makes this process a little bit easier by sending you an email if the price goes up so you can make an informed decision to cancel or not.
Amazon’s Outlet Store
Have you ever tried to find the Amazon Outlet from their homepage?
If you have, you know that it is NOT possible. For whatever reason, they just don’t advertise it. My guess is they’d rather have you buy stuff at full price.
The only way I have been able to land in their outlet is through a Google search.
In any case, the outlet offers some great savings up to 70% off the original price. Some of the best deals are on clothing, jewelry, shoes, and electronics.
If you have a Prime membership you can still shop in the outlet and get free 2-day shipping. The secret is officially out, so go forth and save money.
Ask the Reader: Have you used Amazon coupons to successfully save money? How about any of my other savings tricks I mention?
By Kyle James
