Amazon is the undisputed king of online retail, but that doesn't mean it's perfect. The site has a pretty utilitarian interface that can be clunky at times. Fortunately, browser extensions can add functionality and make a few tasks easier, making shopping on the world's biggest internet store even more awesome.
Amazon Wish List Adds Items From Around the Web to Your Wish List
Chrome/Firefox/Bookmarklet: Amazon's Wish List is a handy way to keep track of things you'd like to purchase in the future. It's also pretty useless for anything outside of Amazon. Unless, of course, you use Amazon's Wish List extension. This allows you one button to add any item from many other shopping sites around the web to your Amazon Wish List.
Amazon 1Button Tracks Prices, Adds to Wish List, and More
Chrome/Firefox: If you need more than just Amazon's Wish List feature in an extension, Amazon has another option for you: 1Button. This extension allows you to add items to your wish list, do price comparisons, get notifications of daily deals and more. It's a bit more heavy duty than the dedicated Wish List add-on (and will probably use up more resources in the background), but heavy Amazon users should find plenty to like about it.
Camelizer Tracks Price Changes Over Time
Chrome/Firefox: The savvy deal hunter knows that today's price isn't the only one that matters. Previously mentioned extension Camelizer allows you see pricing history for items on Amazon over time. You can see how much the current price is discounted below (or inflated above) the average price, when it typically drops in price, and how long it's been since the last sale. Nothing can predict the future, but Camelizer should at least help you get a handle on an item's pricing history.
Smile Always Donates to Charity by Default
Chrome/Firefox: Amazon has a little-known service called Smile that allows you to donate a percentage of your purchases to a charity of your choice every time you buy. However, it requires you to intentionally go to smile.amazon.com every time you want to shop. Previously mentioned Smile Always (and the Firefox equivalent Smile Redirect) sends you to the Smile site every time you go to Amazon, so you never forget and all your purchases result in a charitable donations.
Find Out if You Can Get Foreign Packages
Chrome: Did you know there's more than one country? It's true. Chrome extension Does Amazon Ship To…? determines whether a particular item can be shipped to your country. Not only can it check Amazon, but it finds the same item on similar sites, shows prices, shipping costs, and whether it's available to ship to your country at all.
Pricenoia Compares Prices to Other Countries
Chrome: In most cases, shopping locally is going to be your best bet since you'll pay less for shipping. For larger purchases, however, you might be able to find the same product being offered for a substantially cheaper price in a different country. Pricenoia provides Camelizer-style pricing history, but it focuses on comparing foreign currencies. It doesn't account for shipping costs which you'll have to research on your own, but it's handy to keep an eye on other markets.
ImageFlow Makes Browsing Product Images Easier
Chrome: Amazon has a pretty good collection of product images uploaded from both sellers and owners of given products. The image gallery is also one of the clumsiest to browse. ImageFlow creates an optional image gallery that blows the images up and presents them in a Cover Flow-style rotating picture spinner. It's not a huge change, but given Amazon's preference for function over form at all costs, every little thing that can make the service look a little nicer is a welcome change.
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