Amazon is the shopper maven. It has everything: low prices, huge variety of products types and manufactures, discounts and sales.

Therefore in preparation for the huge shopping season it may be a wise idea to learn to make the most of Amazon: find best tools to be able to brainstorm awesome gift ideas as well as save time and money.

Here are the 10 most useful Amazon addons for FireFox – if you are aware of any more, please comment!

1. Official Amazon Addon

The obvious way to start the list of Amazon FireFox addons is to list the official one. Add to Amazon Wish List is a nice tool that allows you to:

• Quickly add any item from any website to your Amazon Wish List (it pre-fills the product details like name and pricing);
• Easily access the search feature to look for Amazon customer reviews and discussions, products, Wish Lists and registries, and more

2. Amazon Search + Suggestions

This addon is one of the most usable and clutter-free out there: it installs a nice search field in your browser toolbar and enhances Amazon search with suggestions:

Besides, it provides a quick and easy way to change the target country you search in!

3. Track Prices

Do you want to buy something but waiting for the possible price drop? Price Drop is a shopping companion for Amazon: it adds a link to each product on Amazon offering you to track its price. If you enable tracking, you’ll get a notification if its price drops.

Addon Features:

• Track Amazon products with one click of a mouse.
• Check out your tracked product list you are tracking: click the drop icon, or the Tools->PriceDrop menu.

4. eBay Spy

eBay Spy is the fastest way and the most fun way to compare Amazon and eBay prices. Just launch it any time you on any product page at Amazon and see the related deals at eBay!

5. The Camelizer

The Camelizer provides graphs of price changes over time of Amazon products. The chart loads when you view a product, appears on top of the page and is toggle-able (so it doesn’t get in your way).

The Camelizer also places a Track Product button on the product pages so that you can create a price watch on our site. These are used to receive alerts when prices drop on products you want, and you can receive these alerts via email, Twitter, and/or RSS feed.

6. Amazon Button

This can be the great Amazon navigation assistant! The Amazon Button lets you:

• Easily navigate popular amazon destinations (Sign in, My Cart, My Account)
• Visually Browse best sellers/most gifted items (Best sellers, Most Gifted Items, Shakers and Movers)
• Customize Menu Items (User can add up to three custom menu items)
• Search Amazon using context menu (In the browser, highlight any text, right click, and choose “Search Amazon for ….”)
• Custom Button Destination (User can customize the destination of the “main button” itself)

7. Amazon Sidebar Discount Search

This addon is by far the most fun way to find discounts in any category. Not sure what exactly you want to buy but feel like shopping today? Just choose the category and specify the discount amount. Optionally you can specify:

• Keywords,
• Min / Max price;
• Shipping options and promos;
• Sorting options:

8. Does Amazon Ship to …?

Does Amazon Ship to …? – this simply awesome addon lets you quickly check if the item can be shipped to your country or region.

9. PictureFox

PictureFox is Amazon product image gallery enhancer. It makes accessing and viewing high-resolution images easier and more fun:

• High resolution pictures: no more “Zoom-Viewer” with ridiculous small viewing window. View high definition pictures (up to 6 Mega-Pixels) on many products without viewing restrictions!
• All customer pictures in one fast gallery. No endless click-throughs!
• Display of a larger preview image while hovering a product link / image.

10. Amazon Assist

AmazonAssist is another official amazon addon that follows you around the web and connects you to Amazon whereever you are. It searches Amazon.com as you search the web and delivers product information to your browser when you need it. With it you can access product details, ratings and latest prices from anywhere on the web.

It displays the related results at the bottom of your browser. Hover over any of them to see the product details. For “Dell” search, for example, we get the list of Dell laptops with the price details:

Anything else to add to the list? Let’s make the collection better!

We’ve seen already how much help Twitter may be when it comes to online shopping:

Twitter is a great way to research the seller’s reputation, find new deals and ask for unbiased opinion. Besides, you can reach plenty of brands providing alternative customer support on Twitter.

And here are 5 more Twitter-based tools that will help you with daily shopping: 5 fun Twitter bots:

1. Buy it Later:

Buy it Later is the Twitter bot that The bot requires a FireFox addon to work properly. So here how it works:

• Install the FireFox addon;
• Follow BuyItLater on Twitter;
• Go to any item page on Amazon and click “Buy later” button;
• The tool then checks Amazon for updates every minute;
• If the item price and/or availability changes, the bot alerts you via Twitter DM or email.

2. TinyMassive

TinyMassive is a nice Twitter bot that helps you quickly find out what’s the lowers price for the given product. Here’s it how it works:

• Tweet your product search to @tinymassive
• The bot will reply with the Tweet containing: the minimum price found and the link to the product search results.

3. Track This

Track this is the fun Twitter bot that will track your online purchases while they are being delivered to you:

• Register at the site and follow the bot;
• Enter a tracking number and a nickname for a package;
• The site will continually monitor the package and each time the package changes location you’ll be getting a Twitter DM.

4. MindMeTo

MindMeTo is a simple Twitter reminder that will remind you of your planned purchases:

• Follow mindmeto on Twitter and wait for the bot to follow you back.
• @ or DM the bot what you want to remember to buy (e.g. d mindmeto buy some milk tomorrow);
• At the scheduled time, the bot will send you a private direct message to “buy some milk”.

5. MultiMap

MultiMap twitter bot helps you find any store nearby. Here’s how it works:

• Add the bot to friends;
• Send it the DM containing your current location + the shopping facility, e.g. Closest shopping to Tampa, FL (the syntax is described here).

Do you use FireFox? I bet you do because it is an awesome browser. What makes it even better is quite a number of tools you can add to enhance its functionality and customize it based on your needs. So let’s see how we can turn FireFox into a powerful shopping tool:

Woot Watcher monitors the Woot! web site, and keeps you updated with the current item, price, and if it is sold out.

BuyBuddy adds some social element to your Amazon shopping: as you browse the Web, the addon locates products that are offered through Amazon and ‘tags’ them. When you purchase these tagged products, the BuyBuddy toolbar will automatically select one of your buddies to associate with that purchase. Through the Amazon Associates program, a portion of the purchase price will be deposited by Amazon into your buddy’s Amazon Associates account.
If you don’t have any friends, you can always enter a list of charities or non-profit organizations that participate in the Amazon Associates program.

Price Protectr Toolbar has a huge number of cool features:

• Search for any product right from the toolbar (the search will open on a new tab);
• Watch the price with one click;
• Save products to buy them later;
• See retailer rating; etc

Currency converter: a very handy FireFox addon, especially if you often deal with different currencies. Just click on any currency data on any web page to convert that amount across over 180 foreign exchange rates right on your screen. A few more features include:

• Invert the conversion you make and access to daily, weekly, monthly, and annual charts depicting the historical exchange trends of the currency pair that you selected;
• Customize the settings based on your location;
• Remember your last conversion and use those FROM and TO parameters for your next conversion request so that you don’t need to make the same selections each time.

Coupon Searcher is a multi-feature browser toolbar for deal searching. It includes Google-powered search engine and desktop alert feature. It has both FireFox and Internet Explorer versions.

RetailMeNot: when you visit any store, it will inform you if it has a coupon code available for that store. You don’t ever notice it, it won’t bother you. Then you visit an ecommerce site, and then it pops up quietly on the page. So it won’t bug you unless you go shopping: see it only when you need it! The add-on works by updating an internal database once per week from the collaborative coupon sharing website – retailmenot.com

KeepCash Coupon Notifier is a similar to above – it notifies you when online coupons exist for a site that you are shopping at. You can forget that it’s installed and then when you’re shopping, it acts as a friendly reminder that there are online coupons available. Enjoy!

Book Burro is another similar sites but for books. When you visit a webpage with a book on it, it pops up showing you prices for that book at other booksellers. It doesn’t slow down your browser as no communication with other sites will occur until it is clicked. Clicking the panel will open up a list of your libraries, book stores and online services. In addition, information about pricing and availability is added to the list – all without visiting any other pages.

Price Drop is another shopping tool for Amazon: it adds a link to each product on Amazon inviting you to track its price. Just go to an Amazon product page, and start tracking it; you’ll get a notification if its price drops.
You can also check out your tracked product list using the drop icon, or the Tools->PriceDrop menu.

PriceAdvance is a handy shopping addon for FireFox and Internet Explorer that will look for the lowest price offered by Amazon.com, BestBuy or WalMart. It will instantly alert you to current deals once you visit the merchant’s website.

While you shop for products at your favorite merchants, PriceAdvance will automatically search other retailers for better prices. When prices are found a small overlay window will appear in the top left of your browser window. To view a product in the overlay, click the price or company logo.

PackageMapping extension makes it easy to get tracking information for a package and display the tracking progress on Google Maps. Simply highlight the tracking number, right click, and select “Track and Map Package”. The tool currently supports 4 service providers: UPS, U.S.P.S., FedEx, DHL.

Grocery List Generator helps with your grocery shopping. It is a helpful little addon to store your recipe-ingredients and other groceries you need regularly. It creates a well-organized grocery list to help make your grocery shopping as easy as possible.

A few tools for eBayers:

eBay Buddy is a Firefox addon for active eBayers. It provides comprehensive menus which allows you to easily access hundreds of sections on eBay as well as several related sites and tools.

eBay Counter is a Greasemonkey user script which adds a live countdown timer to active eBay auctions.

myTimeZone for eBay is a Firefox addon that allows to customize dates and times on eBay listings for your specific location. Besides, it provides automatic currency conversion and total price sorting options.

Post image by Glutnix

2008 was the first year in the history of eCommerce when US customers said they preferred web over the store for holiday shopping. According to e-tailing group‘s third annual “Mindset of the Multi-Channel Shopper Holiday Survey,” the major reason (88% of respondents) for choosing the Internet for shopping is saving money.

Really, the Internet offers so many tools and resources for saving money that bargain shopping has become a new highly popular phenomenon of today’s web: 44% (nearly half) of shoppers who have made an online purchase in the past three months call themselves “bargain hunters” (The Conference Board – 2008).

This time I am listing resources that find the lowest product price even the geekiest and smartest online shoppers will find useful!

Promo Codes: this is a handy and well-organized site offering a wide range of money saving options.

Here’s a sample page listing Kohls promo codes:

• See new deals for any brand mark;
• See each deal details (amount and expiration date);
• See most reliable deals;
• See less reliable deals:

MobSaver lets you find the lowest price via SMS message! Just text UPC or ISBN number of an item to save@mobsaver.com and the system will send you a text message with the item prices on Amazon and eBay:

• The lowest prices for new and used items on Amazon.
• The current bid price on eBay. If there are more than one item available on eBay, you will be sent a price range.

Mobsaver is free and doesn’t require any signup. You will have to register only if you want to keep track and save the looked-up items to your mobsaver account.

BeatThat! is a community-driven website of deal hunters who share lowest prices they were able to locate throughout the Internet. Not only the site allows to easier find the best deal, it also offers you to earn money by being a bargain hunter: most active and reliable members are paid for finding great deals:

BeatThat! is run by its Deal-Finders – those hard-working people who scour the Internet for the very best deals on every single product on the site. Why do they do it? First of all, they love the “thrill of the hunt” – looking into all the nooks and crannies of the Internet where great deals reside. Second, they get a lot of attention and respect for their skill here at BeatThat!. And lastly, they get paid for it! If you think you’d like to become a BeatThat! Deal-Finder, just read on!

Here is how BeatThat! helps you shop online:

• Search for any product and choose the one you actually need;
• See the best deal right under the item description;
• Pay Attention to the store ratings (make sure you shop with “green” retailers, i.e. those that are “the best in terms of customer service and delivering what they promise.”)
• See the deal ratings and comments;
• Compare the deal with the prices offered by Amazon or Best Buy;
• If you still need a lower price, add the product to watch list: you can set the system to notify you by email when the product price drops below the amount you specify.

BeatMyPrice invites anyone to try to beat their price and even requires no registration: just submit the item name, deal URL and price and let the service beat your price.

The site does provide the huge list of prices for almost any item you submit. However the relevancy of the results returned leaves much to be desired: you’ll see prices for similar items rather than for the exact product you need.

PriceAdvance is a handy shopping companion for FireFox and Internet Explorer that will look for the lowest price offered by Amazon.com, BestBuy or WalMart. It will instantly alert you to current deals once you visit the merchant’s website.

While you shop for products at your favorite merchants, PriceAdvance will automatically search other retailers for better prices. When prices are found a small overlay window will appear in the top left of your browser window. To view a product in the overlay, click the price or company logo.

Image by Refracted Moments™

Christmas is not far away and there is cheer all around. It is that time of the year when people go on a shopping spree, buying gifts for family and friends. The advent of online shopping changed the way people shop. Most people prefer doing their shopping online now, to be able to save time and money, especially on gas.

While some can spend huge amounts of money, others do their Christmas gift shopping on a limited budget. But for every shopper a free delivery sounds attractive.

Amazon is the first one to give a Christmas gift to its shoppers. It has come up with a “free delivery” scheme. Shoppers do not have to spend a whole lot of money to be eligible for the free delivery scheme. All they need to do is buy products worth a mere £5, when earlier the limit was £15 with Amazon. What this means is that 90% of the orders end up getting their purchases shipped to them free without incurring packing and postage costs.

It was as early as 2002 that Amazon first offered free delivery in the UK but only when a consumer purchased £39 worth of goods. Later it brought down the limit to £19 and then to £15 three years back, in 2005.

According to Bruce McBride, Amazon UK MD, “It is to get people lifted for Christmas. Times are tough out there and this will come as a welcome bonus for people.”

Free delivery is something consumers appreciate and it has the power to make people buy without inhibitions. This could be because people feel that the cost paid towards shipment is money they are not getting anything out of, especially those that buy less priced items. According to consumers, they say that they feel penalized when they have to incur delivery charges on low-cost items. Imagine buying something that is worth £10 and then paying the same or more towards delivery charges. Research shows that a large percentage of customers feel that free delivery is the most important factor they take into consideration before making a decision to buy something.

This super saver scheme enables consumers to buy whatever they want and it is going to help them when buying those CDs and DVDs that cost just a little more than £5. Now they will be delivered home free. This is a two-thirds reduction from Amazon’s original £15 threshold.

According to Amazon, orders placed using the Super Saver Delivery scheme are generally expected to take anywhere between two and four days later than the same orders that are placed using the first class paid delivery.

Other than Amazon, you can also take advantage of several other Christmas promotional offers. You can make searches for “free delivery” and see what you find and compare prices before placing your order. There are many companies that hike up the product rates while giving free delivery of products. You can check out Amazon rival Play.com, which offers free delivery on all orders, even those to many destinations internationally. Zavvi.co.uk is not far behind and offers free delivery on all purchases.

Not having to pay delivery charges makes Christmas shopping much more fun for everyone. You are only paying for the item you buy and nothing else. There is no need to get Christmas shopping blues.