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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Business
Harriet Morphy-Morris & Gemma Sherlock

Amazon shoppers should follow this checklist to avoid overspending in Prime Day sales

Online giant Amazon will be offering some big discounts for shoppers this Prime Day.

The retailer will be launching hundreds of pounds off normally expensive items for Prime Day, which takes place next week on July 11-12.

Amazon's annual deal event exclusively for Prime members, features two days of epic deals on top brands, with discounts on everything from tech, beauty, fashion, homeware, garden, appliances, baby toys, pets and more.

Those who are Prime members can take part in the sale as they will see the biggest discounts but if you're not a member you can sign up for a free 30-day trial here.

If you are thinking of grabbing some bargains on the day, you do need to avoid one thing.

As other online retailers compete with the price drops and 'next day delivery' offers at Amazon it can often get tricky to spot when a deal is actually a saving, or not.

Despite the savings, some shoppers end up spending more money on items. It's one of the 'downsides' to online shopping and due to Amazon's sheer size, it's become incredibly hard for the retailers to monitor each item that is listed on the site.

This has led to some unknowing consumers to spend money on 'unverified' items. So checking one small detail when shopping online at Amazon could make the difference between overspending or getting the most for your money, and it can also be done to bag extra money off during the retailer's major sales.

Check the 'sold by' info before you buy

It may sound simple but checking the 'sold by' information next to the price of the product can give you an idea if the products you're getting are worth your money.

As one of the biggest online retailers, Amazon has hundreds of third-party sellers operating through the sites online marketplace. Whilst the majority of third-party sellers are legitimate, and Amazon has checks to verify, there have been rare cases where 'fake' items have been sold.

In the image above you can see that the Shark vacuum cleaner is both sold and dispatched by Amazon.

It's also worth checking here as third-party sellers are more likely to push the price of items up, as a lot of third-party sellers have different delivery costs on Amazon Marketplace.

All sold-by sellers apart from Amazon operate through Amazon Marketplace which aren't inclusive of Amazon's free delivery on orders over £20.

Double-check re-sellers

Hundreds of items are sold each day by third-party re-sellers on Amazon, but it is always good to have an idea of where your product is coming from. We'd advise googling the company of the third-party seller to see if it's a brand as well as the 'seller feedback' section.

To check all you have to do is click on the name listed next to 'sold by' to read the seller reviews and visit the seller's storefront.

Compare prices listed on Amazon

Another way to ensure the product you're looking to buy is the cheapest available is to use a price checker. The site CamelCamelCamel is a price tracker made just for products listed on Amazon, so shoppers can compare listed prices.

For instance, this Charlotte Tilbury Filmstar Bronze and Glow palette is currently priced at £54.04, reduced from an original £66. After running the link to the item on Amazon the same item has been previously listed for £49.99 instead.

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