Don’t get me wrong, Amazon is a fantastic site that I use nearly every week to buy something or another (and having Prime certainly helps). That said though, it’s important to understand some of the slight-of-hand techniques Amazon uses to trick you into believing you’re getting a better deal than you really are.
Their secret? Psychology. Amazon tries to build confidence in their customers by lowering the prices of popular items on their site. So, for example, lets say that peanut butter is really cheap on Amazon.
You’ll then buy peanut butter on Amazon, feeling confident that you got a good deal. Then you’ll find out that they sell TVs for a low price, too. So you’ll purchase those on Amazon, too. Eventually, you start believing that Amazon has the best prices for everything, based on the great deals you got on peanut butter and TVs.
The truth? Amazon intentionally reduces prices on popular products to gain your trust, so that you start going to them for everything. So while you may have gotten a good deal on your TV, Amazon will recoup its losses when you buy your TV accessories through them.
The solution? Shop around. Making all of your purchases at any one place or website might be convenient, but it is never a good idea, as you’ll actually lose money in the end. I’ll give you one hint that might prove useful. If you buy lots of electronics from Amazon, start comparing the prices you see there to the ones on Newegg.com. Sometimes, you’ll save a lot of money going with the latter.
Have you found that Amazon charges much more for some products compared to other companies? Let us know in the comments!
Featured photo credit: Amazon/ Robert Scoble via flickr.com
