New Amazon Hidden Discount Finder

orie0505

MSE_Jenny wrote: »

Hiya,

Thanks for all the feedback folks

Sadly the discounts are not percentage discounts are not infallible, as it depends on the way Amazon reports them. But essentially the tool is a bit of fun; just try scanning through until you find the goodens.

Also, if you want to find out more about how these links work and build your own non-affiliated links, there's a full guide in the article. Read full instructions

Thanks for your reply, Jenny.

My concern is primarily that this tool runs counter to the philosophy of saving money: high-street sales work on the basis that many people are drawn to buy discounted goods that they don't need and wouldn't normally buy. For some people, this can border on an addiction.

By providing a tool that purports to find heavily discounted products, MSE will inevitably be enticing some people to buy products on Amazon that they would not otherwise buy (to the financial advantage of MSE). Where the discounts are genuine, this could perhaps be justified on the grounds of consumer choice. But if the discounts are illusory, either because the advertised percentage reductions are incorrectly calculated (and there are numerous examples of this when using your Amazon links), or because the RRPs are artificially inflated, one has to wonder about the ethics of the whole enterprise. For a website purpotedly dedicated to helping people save money, you seem quite preoccupied these day with encourage people to spend it (usually with little asterisks attached to the relevant links)!

Just my tuppence worth...

mrmajika

orie0505 wrote: »

Thanks for your reply, Jenny.

My concern is primarily that this tool runs counter to the philosophy of saving money: high-street sales work on the basis that many people are drawn to buy discounted goods that they don't need and wouldn't normally buy. For some people, this can border on an addiction.

By providing a tool that purports to find heavily discounted products, MSE will inevitably be enticing some people to buy products on Amazon that they would not otherwise buy (to the financial advantage of MSE). Where the discounts are genuine, this could perhaps be justified on the grounds of consumer choice. But if the discounts are illusory, either because the advertised percentage reductions are incorrectly calculated (and there are numerous examples of this when using your Amazon links), or because the RRPs are artificially inflated, one has to wonder about the ethics of the whole enterprise. For a website purpotedly dedicated to helping people save money, you seem quite preoccupied these day with encourage people to spend it (usually with little asterisks attached to the relevant links)!

Just my tuppence worth...

What a very eloquently put post and one that I wholeheartedly agree with.

MSE has, quite literally, saved me thousands of pounds in the 4 years that I have been regularly viewing it. For that alone, I give Martin and his team a genuine and heart felt thank you.

Having said that, since late last year, I have felt a shift in the site towards promoting the MSE tools that are available, which, whilst are somewhat useful, are essentially revenue making schemes.

I know that the defence will be that the site has always provided revenue making links and that the editorial content is not biased by this, but I can't help but notice that, in my opinion, there has been a (slight) shift towards the promotion of the associated revenue making tools provided by MSE.

Just MY tuppence worth

TurkishDelight

orie0505 wrote: »

Thanks for your reply, Jenny.

My concern is primarily that this tool runs counter to the philosophy of saving money: high-street sales work on the basis that many people are drawn to buy discounted goods that they don't need and wouldn't normally buy. For some people, this can border on an addiction.

By providing a tool that purports to find heavily discounted products, MSE will inevitably be enticing some people to buy products on Amazon that they would not otherwise buy (to the financial advantage of MSE). Where the discounts are genuine, this could perhaps be justified on the grounds of consumer choice. But if the discounts are illusory, either because the advertised percentage reductions are incorrectly calculated (and there are numerous examples of this when using your Amazon links), or because the RRPs are artificially inflated, one has to wonder about the ethics of the whole enterprise. For a website purpotedly dedicated to helping people save money, you seem quite preoccupied these day with encourage people to spend it (usually with little asterisks attached to the relevant links)!

Just my tuppence worth...

Was just coming onto this thread to say the very same thing.

It is all very well to have discounts, but this is buying stuff just because it's there.
The items that are in the searches come up anyway, so if you want them you will look for them.

I'd also just like to point out that marketplace sellers try to compete with Amazon where possible, and are often cheaper.

MSE_Martin

Hi folks

I've read some of the points on this.

The amazon discount links have been incredibly popular which is why we've kept developing it (by far the biggest new development in terms of traffic for the last six months).

There are of course problems with it - our tool effectively builds an amazon link (you can build the same yourself - its explained in the guide) to a page that should be populated with discounts. The results on those page are due to amazon's not our own filtering.

Sometimes it populates with products that don't quite fit those; bu tthat's to do with amazons filtering system- I prefer that we supply the tool which many people enjoy that not do it at all due to its lack of perfection. We hope people will be able to see when things are a good deal, and when not.

Though we have tried to improve it and are looking at how to filter out marketplace which we know adds to some of the issues.

As for whether Amazon is cheapest. You'll note the tool is the second part of a 20 point guide to buying from Amazon. Point 1 is Amazon isn't always cheapest and how to check elsewhere. In many ways it would've been better and cleaner (for navigation, look, and ease of use) to create this as a standalone tool not one part of an article - but its important to make that point first - so its been kept in the article.

Martin

PeteMan

Snakeeyes21 wrote: »

When add items to your basket and go to the checkout and login YOUR DETAILS ARENT SECURE.

I would have thought Martin would have done a trial and found this out before unleashing this on the public :rotfl:

Pull your finger out Martin your getting sloppy.

Anyway, its a good tool except for the security issues :mad:

I will take my security hole finding fee by bank transfer to my aunties, cousins, mothers, sisters ill cat in Nigeria.

Thanking you

I obviously don't represent this site but I do understand how these things work. As soon as you hit the Go button you are re-directed to an Amazon page. From that point onwards anything that you do is on Amzaon's site and nothing to do with MSE.

Pete

purple12

Is there any way to check or add a 'Kindle' section as often there are a lot of discounts (and free books randomly appear!). The e-books part doesn't seem to be picking them up and on the Amazon store, Kindle is now a separate section from 'books'.


Thanks

thelawnet

it doesn't work properly.

I chose 75% off, toys and free delivery.

First result is Nerf-N-Strike dart pack, rrp £4.99, amazon price £4.51 (10% off) with free delivery, £4.44 from a third party with free delivery, or 82p + £4.53 delivery = £5.35.

Obviously the 82p is supposed to be the 75% off, but when I clicked 'free postage' it should have excluded that one, because it's actually selling above RRP.

robbies_gal

not working for me link seems to be broken

im on mac 10.4 with firefox

thafatbloke

The Amazon discount tool is not as useful as it might be.
The problem is delivery charges. When I used to tool, every item I found was indeed being sold at a very low price.
Then I looked at the delivery charges, and in every case after adding the delivery charge, the item would have cost me more than buying it locally.
What's worse is that the delivery charge is multiplied by number of items you buy, even though the delivery of the total number of items would cost less then the charge for one item.
EG I wanted a Micro SD memory card. The price was 1p, which was indeed a bargain, but the delivery charge is £3.95 using Royal Mail - even though the actual cost of sending the card by Royal Mail is well under a pound (and for that I could send a large number of memory cards). That card is available locally for £3.50. If I wanted to buy 10 of these cards from Amazon I would pay 10p for the cards and £39.50 for the delivery charge!!!
Is there a way of modifying the tool to account of delivery charges?

happyolddog

Can I suggest you add 'Grocery' as a new category. I have had some great bargains by searching through the department, it would be a lot easier if I had a simple link, thanks.