Want to save money on Amazon? Try the retail giant’s European sites, which often offer better prices than in France! It’s easy, especially with Amazin’Europe, an extension that compares prices.
If you are an Amazon customer, like many consumers, you certainly know that the prices charged by the e-commerce giant vary enormously: between Black Friday, the various Prime Days, flash sales and the many special operations that punctuate year – not to mention price changes from suppliers and manufacturers – it is not uncommon to see prices fluctuate significantly. As a result, it is not always easy to know when to buy at the best price.
Certainly, to be sure not to miss a good deal – or simply not to pay too much – you can always monitor the evolution of prices on Amazon with an extension such as Keepa as we explain in our practical sheet. But there is even better…
Why buy from a European Amazon site?
If you’re a regular Amazon customer, you’re probably just logging into the French site to shop. It’s simple and fast and with the many warehouses spread over our territory, delivery can be made in record time, sometimes even during the day. But, France is obviously not the only European country where Amazon has established itself. The firm has subsidiaries in almost all of Europe with as many websites dedicated to each country concerned. A bargain since nothing prevents you from making your purchases there, with your usual account and paying in euros!
Few users know this but it is indeed not mandatory to go through Amazon France to buy products on Amazon and have them delivered. You can thus visit German, Spanish, Italian, English, Swedish, Dutch or even Polish sites to do your shopping. Main advantage: finding lower prices than those practiced in France. Depending on local regulations, stocks, labor costs and other local factors, prices can indeed vary from one country to another with the key, sometimes several tens or even a few hundreds of saving euros. It would be a shame not to take advantage of it, especially since these countries are European, no customs fees apply and all transactions are carried out in euros, with no exchange fees. Be careful, however, with products purchased on Amazon’s English platform. Since Brexit in January 2021, customs duties may apply in the same way as VAT.
Still, to find the best price for a product you are looking for on Amazon, you normally have to visit each European site one after the other. A tedious and discouraging operation. This is where the expansion comes in. Amazin’Europe available for Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge browsers. Once installed, it makes it possible to list in a few seconds the price applied for a product with different European subsidiaries of the merchant. Not all of them are listed at the moment, but there are already eight of them, including France. All that remains is to go to the site offering the best price and identify yourself. For this, there is no need to create another Amazon account: the account you usually use in France works perfectly.
What are the points to check before buying on a European Amazon site?
Before adding your product to the basket, a few points remain to be checked. First, delivery charges may apply, even if you have an Amazon Prime account, which is not always the case when buying from Amazon France. It is therefore better to make sure that once the shipping costs are added to the price of the product, the amount of the invoice is still worth it. Then, delivery times may be extended since the purchased product may be shipped from another European country. But we are not immune to a pleasant surprise. Indeed, even purchased outside the French Amazon platform, the product can leave from a warehouse located on our territory. This information is normally indicated on the product sheet. Finally, if you do not understand a traitor word on the page of the site visited written in the language of the country of origin, do not panic. You can count on Google and its automatic translation module integrated into Chrome to display pages in French (see our practical sheet to find out how to translate a web page into French).
The free Amazin’Europe extension is only available for Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge browsers. It allows you to check prices with Amazon sites Germany, England, Spain, Italy, Poland, Sweden, the Netherlands and, of course, France. Its operation is very simple.
► Start by installing the Amazin’Europe extension in your browser.
Install Amazin’Europe for Chrome or Edge
► Then click on extensions icon then on the thumbtack from Amazin’Europe so that the extension is visible in the browser interface.
► Login now to the websiteAmazon UK to find the product you want. Display its descriptive sheet on the screen. For our example, it is a Philips Hue connected LED strip. It is displayed here at the price of 189 euros. Delivery is free and scheduled the next day.
► Now click on theAmazin’Europe icon placed in the toolbar of the browser. After a few seconds, the prices on other Amazon sites in Europe are displayed. The best price is always at the top of the list. Here, we can see that it is Amazon Germany which offers the best offer with a price of 154.99 euros, a difference of 34.01 euros all the same!
► Click the button shop. The Amazon Germany site page for the same product is displayed. It is written in English/German. Chrome has detected the use of a foreign language and offers to perform a translation. Click on French.
► The page is now translated into French. The price remains identical to that detected by Amazin’Europe. However, delivery is no longer free. It is invoiced here 7.61 euros. Which raises the bill to 162.60 euros. This still leaves a saving of 26.40 euros compared to the French price. As for the delivery time, it is one day longer than on the French site.
► All you have to do is identify yourself to place an order. Hover the mouse pointer over the top of the Amazon page on Hello, log in, Account and lists then click the button Login.
► Indicate the identifiers of your Amazon account and validate.
► The page is updated with your details. You can now add the product to your cart as usual. Then check your cart.
► You can now pay with your usual payment method. Incidentally, we note that the price has increased slightly (€1.30) compared to the initial calculation. This is due to the VAT applied, which is different between Germany and France.
