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I have saved thousands of dollars thanks to Amazon. Not because I bought from them. No, but because I use their app to compare items and get a price match. Near

I have saved thousands of dollars thanks to Amazon. Not because I bought from them. No, but because I use their app to compare items and get a price match. Nearly every major store (Walmart, Target, Home Depot, Best Buy, Staples, Office Max/Depot) match or beat Amazon. With Amazons app I can instantly scan all my products at a store. I may only save 2-5 dollars per item, but I do it every time I shop. The other day I save $40 on a price gun from Staples. It was 89 in store, and 49 on on Amazon.

ReverseCold 9y ago
So Amazon gets a list of everything you're interested in offline as well, even if you don't buy from them. Sounds like win/win for them!
- SwellJoe 9y ago
  At least customers get paid for giving them that information (in the form of the discount that the price-matcher gives). I've done it, too, at Fry's when I needed some hard disks and a laptop on short notice. Saved about $100 in one trip (they were expensive hard disks), just by pulling up Amazon and pointing at the price for the service rep. Competition is good.
  - civilitty 9y ago
    I can't believe so few people know about this. Fry's and Best Buy both price match reputable online retailers ("Sold by Amazon" or whatever they say when Amazon is the retailer and distributor) and I just get all of my hardware like that. For the cost of gas, I get it instantly and can instantly return DOAs instead of waiting for RMA or Amazon returns. In the case of lower cost products like USB cables, which have been the target of counterfeiters and fraud on Amazon, it prevents damage to other devices because the physical retailers are generally more careful about sourcing.
    - Sleeep 9y ago
      Even if the store didn't price match, you can get the price match from using a credit card that has a good price protection (like Discover) and submitting a claim (very easy in my experience).
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
- fusiongyro 9y ago
  Not really. He bought the product from someone else. If Amazon didn't need the money and just wanted the analytics, it would have undercut the physical store. The value of the analytics would be in the sale to another company to market to this person, but they fulfilled their need for the product when Amazon acquired the information. So it didn't benefit Amazon and by the time they could have sold it to a third-party, it was useless.
  - alttab 9y ago
    Simply by looking at a product will build a user profile. It's not about making this sale, but maybe about the next 100 sales.
    - fusiongyro 9y ago
      Sure, but money isn't quantum physics. If he doesn't spend any money on Amazon or any other online retailer, how are they monetizing his time on the site?
      - corobo 9y ago
        They see he likes products x y and z. Another 20 customers like products x and y, so nudge them towards buying product z
        fusiongyro 9y ago
        No, what they see is that he looked at x, y and z and didn't buy anything. Why would it nudge the next guy towards z? "Other people who did not convert also did not convert after seeing THIS!"?
        corobo 9y ago
        Ok so my example was obviously too simplified Users a b and c all at some point search for information on products x y and z. Many users, many products. User d comes along and has previously looked at product z and is now searching for product y. It's now worth putting product x in the "you may also be interested in" segment. It might land a sale, it might not. That data can then be added to the pool to decide if they should show product x to people who search similar products Why bother at all if they didn't purchase? You don't know why they didn't purchase. Maybe they were shopping around, maybe they were price matching, maybe they just don't have the cash right now. It's machine learning, not if statements.
- EADGBE 9y ago
  They're already pretty good at determining that without scanning items in a store.
shitlord 9y ago
Home depot does not price match IME. I tried to buy a portable AC a few weeks ago and they wouldn't price match against anyone.
- notpeter 9y ago
  YMMV, but Home Depot absolute does match prices in-store if you bring in a printed page from a major retailer. They have plenty of carve-outs: no auctions (eBay), club stores (Costco) or 3rd party sellers (Amazon marketplace, Walmart marketplace). But it's basically the same most price-match policies at Staples, Best Buy, Fry's, etc. http://www.homedepot.com/c/PM_New_Lower_Price http://www.homedepot.com/c/PM_New_Lower_Price
- janesvilleseo 9y ago
  Home Depot does price match, but you do have to watch out for the carve outs. I most recently tried to save quite a bit of money on my kitchen appliances. However, they only price match "in stock" merchandise. They had to order these units so no price match for me.
didibus 9y ago
So it appears in practice Amazon is cheaper, at least until local stores price match.
- SwellJoe 9y ago
  On some items, yes.
  - voltagex_ 9y ago
    I'm worried / interested in what happens when Amazon starts in Australia. At the moment, I can get a limited selection of products delivered here in about a week and a half, often at a saving of 25-50% from the local price. Other things aren't even sold here - I think the last thing I encountered was trying to find a 4K HDMI switch - only available on Amazon US. I wonder whether my available selection will increase or decrease when Amazon "officially" starts here.

ReverseCold 9y ago

So Amazon gets a list of everything you're interested in offline as well, even if you don't buy from them. Sounds like win/win for them!

SwellJoe 9y ago
At least customers get paid for giving them that information (in the form of the discount that the price-matcher gives). I've done it, too, at Fry's when I needed some hard disks and a laptop on short notice. Saved about $100 in one trip (they were expensive hard disks), just by pulling up Amazon and pointing at the price for the service rep. Competition is good.
- civilitty 9y ago
  I can't believe so few people know about this. Fry's and Best Buy both price match reputable online retailers ("Sold by Amazon" or whatever they say when Amazon is the retailer and distributor) and I just get all of my hardware like that. For the cost of gas, I get it instantly and can instantly return DOAs instead of waiting for RMA or Amazon returns. In the case of lower cost products like USB cables, which have been the target of counterfeiters and fraud on Amazon, it prevents damage to other devices because the physical retailers are generally more careful about sourcing.
  - Sleeep 9y ago
    Even if the store didn't price match, you can get the price match from using a credit card that has a good price protection (like Discover) and submitting a claim (very easy in my experience).
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
fusiongyro 9y ago
Not really. He bought the product from someone else. If Amazon didn't need the money and just wanted the analytics, it would have undercut the physical store. The value of the analytics would be in the sale to another company to market to this person, but they fulfilled their need for the product when Amazon acquired the information. So it didn't benefit Amazon and by the time they could have sold it to a third-party, it was useless.
- alttab 9y ago
  Simply by looking at a product will build a user profile. It's not about making this sale, but maybe about the next 100 sales.
  - fusiongyro 9y ago
    Sure, but money isn't quantum physics. If he doesn't spend any money on Amazon or any other online retailer, how are they monetizing his time on the site?
    - corobo 9y ago
      They see he likes products x y and z. Another 20 customers like products x and y, so nudge them towards buying product z
      - fusiongyro 9y ago
        No, what they see is that he looked at x, y and z and didn't buy anything. Why would it nudge the next guy towards z? "Other people who did not convert also did not convert after seeing THIS!"?
        corobo 9y ago
        Ok so my example was obviously too simplified Users a b and c all at some point search for information on products x y and z. Many users, many products. User d comes along and has previously looked at product z and is now searching for product y. It's now worth putting product x in the "you may also be interested in" segment. It might land a sale, it might not. That data can then be added to the pool to decide if they should show product x to people who search similar products Why bother at all if they didn't purchase? You don't know why they didn't purchase. Maybe they were shopping around, maybe they were price matching, maybe they just don't have the cash right now. It's machine learning, not if statements.
EADGBE 9y ago
They're already pretty good at determining that without scanning items in a store.

shitlord 9y ago

Home depot does not price match IME. I tried to buy a portable AC a few weeks ago and they wouldn't price match against anyone.

notpeter 9y ago
YMMV, but Home Depot absolute does match prices in-store if you bring in a printed page from a major retailer. They have plenty of carve-outs: no auctions (eBay), club stores (Costco) or 3rd party sellers (Amazon marketplace, Walmart marketplace). But it's basically the same most price-match policies at Staples, Best Buy, Fry's, etc. http://www.homedepot.com/c/PM_New_Lower_Price http://www.homedepot.com/c/PM_New_Lower_Price
janesvilleseo 9y ago
Home Depot does price match, but you do have to watch out for the carve outs. I most recently tried to save quite a bit of money on my kitchen appliances. However, they only price match "in stock" merchandise. They had to order these units so no price match for me.

didibus 9y ago

So it appears in practice Amazon is cheaper, at least until local stores price match.

SwellJoe 9y ago
On some items, yes.
- voltagex_ 9y ago
  I'm worried / interested in what happens when Amazon starts in Australia. At the moment, I can get a limited selection of products delivered here in about a week and a half, often at a saving of 25-50% from the local price. Other things aren't even sold here - I think the last thing I encountered was trying to find a 4K HDMI switch - only available on Amazon US. I wonder whether my available selection will increase or decrease when Amazon "officially" starts here.