Amazon runs several localized stores around the world which may have different items on offer and may also price the same item differently.
Companies benefit from a global economy, more so than consumers. But you and I can benefit from a global economy as well, at least when it comes to making purchases in different regions of the world that benefit us financially.
I mentioned this first in 2009 in a story entitled How Consumers Benefit From A Global Economy. It comes down to comparing pricing — including shipping, handling, and maybe import tax — to buy certain items on the cheap.
This works really well in Europe as you can buy in any member nation of the EU. It so happens that Amazon runs main stores in the UK, France, Germany, Italy and several other European countries. Pricing in these stores may differ, sometimes by a large margin.
EU Deals
EU Deals is a price comparison extension for Google Chrome and Firefox that is powered by the service of the same name.
The extension works automatically once installed in Chrome; there are no options or customizations that you can do.
EU Deals looks up the item in other Amazon stores, and displays its findings on the Amazon store page you are on right away.
The result is either that the item is available for a lower price at another Amazon Store in the EU, or that the price is at its lowest already.
The extension takes shipping and different currencies into account according to the developers of the extension.
This add-on compares the prices, calculates shipping fees and converts currencies to get you the lowest Amazon price in Europe.
It is still necessary to check out the offer. First to make sure that the service matched the right item, then that the item is available and indeed for the listed price.
A quick test revealed that this is not always the case. The item on the screenshot for instance, the Surface Book by Microsoft, was listed as being nearly €1300 cheaper in the UK than in Germany. I followed the link and the one item that beat the price by more than 50% was a marketplace offer. The seller had only seven ratings of which 57% were positive. Other items checked out fine however.
Closing Words
EU Deals checks the price of items on Amazon’s five stores in the European Union currently. This makes sense logistically,but it would still be handy if the service would add other regional stores to the mix.
The price of an item may be that cheap in the US for instance that it would make sense to order it there even though you’d pay more for shipping and probably also import tax.
As far as features are concerned, I’d like to see an option to block marketplace offers from the price comparison.
You can download the Chrome extension and the Firefox add-on at the official stores.
Now Read: Before you buy on Amazon, check out the coupons section