Get more out of your Amazon shopping experience

If you're a frequent Amazon shopper, you might be looking out for tools to help enhance the experience of buying products on the site. There are services on the Web to help you get more out of Amazon than simply picking up a few products from the company's pages.

Let's take a look.

Get your Amazon on

AmaDig If you're looking for a different way to search Amazon, AmaDig will provide it.

When you get to the site, you can pick which Amazon category you want to sift through. From there, the site lists images of different products offered in that category. When you click on a respective product, you can view its specs, pricing, and reviews. You can also view the listing on Amazon or add it to your shopping cart from the site. It's a neat tool, but beware that the interface is a little clunky.

AmaDig has a unique way of displaying items.

(Credit: Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

Amazon Mobile If you're ready to buy a product at the store, you might want to consider using the Amazon app on your iPhone before you plunk down the cash.

Amazon Mobile not only lets you search for products and pricing, you can also take a picture of a product and have the app search Amazon's database to get its pricing. You can add items to your cart and use Amazon's 1-click payment system to place an order. (Read our full review here).

Amazon Mobile in action.

(Credit: CBS Interactive)

Amazon Widgets If you own a Web site, one of the best ways to get a little more out of Amazon is to add some of the company's widgets to your page.

Amazon's apps range from search widgets to your favorite products. You can even add a widget to your site showing off your recommended products. In any of those cases, you can earn cash by referring your readers to Amazon's product page. You can collect when those visitors buy a product on Amazon.com. It's not a bad deal. And it's a great way to raise some cash the next time you want to buy something from Amazon.com.

Create your own Amazon Widgets to make some cash.

(Credit: Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

BooksPrice If you're wondering whether or not Amazon has the best price on a book or movie, BooksPrice is the place to go.

When you get to BooksPrice, you have the option of searching for a book, CD, or DVD. In any case, the site will sift through listings on Amazon, eBay, and other sites across the Web to help you find the site that has the best price. More often than not, eBay and Amazon lead the way. If you're looking to find out how Amazon compares to the rest of the Web, BooksPrice is the way to go.

BooksPrice will help you find the best deals.

(Credit: Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

Price Tracker If you're an iPhone owner, you might want to try out Price Tracker. The app allows you to enter a particular product's name. From there, the app finds the product on Amazon.com and tracks its price. Whenever that item's price changes, Price Tracker alerts you to it. It's an extremely simple app, but since it's free, it's worth trying out.

Price Tracker lets you track Amazon pricing from your iPhone.

(Credit: Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

Spendfish If you're only looking for deals on products Amazon sells, Spendfish is a great resource to check out.

The site lists all the top deals on Amazon in several categories, ranging from electronics to books. When you click on one of the deals, you'll be brought to the product's individual listing page. Aside from that, Spendfish lists how much you're saving on Amazon's pricing. It also has a search box to help you find other Amazon deals.

Spendfish helps you find the hot deals on Amazon.

(Credit: Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

My top 3

1. Spendfish: If you're looking for the best deals, Spendfish is the place to do it.

2. Amazon Mobile: There's nothing quite like buying from Amazon when you're at Best Buy.

3. Amazon Widgets: Why not get a little help from friends when buying Amazon products?

[dough12]

When did ethics become something that is not an issue when it comes to money? The Amazon Mobile App is a very well designed app to take advantage of local merchants that invest in an inventory, hire and pay sales-people, and pay property taxes so that you can touch, see and compare a product before you buy it. The Amazon Mobile App is specifically designed to use the local store presence as a storefront to select a product but use Amazon to buy it. Doesn't this leave your local store with a problem? Do you care?

This would not be so bad except that Amazon can offer you products without the burden of local sales taxes. Amazon has cried loudly to the state governorships and anyone else who will listen whenever Internet stores have been threatened with sales taxes.

Your local store is trying to provide a service with product selection through product displays and a sales staff to answer questions. I don't have any problems with Internet merchants that go one-on-one with local merchants but when Internet merchants have the sales tax advantage and then go on to abuse the service that the local merchants provide to local customers, it seems like an pretty unethical way to do business.

[Fishdoc1]

I recently made a purchase for some computer components and used their free super saving option. That was a big mistake! I realize they give you heads up about the shipping times, but I got the same message in the past and always received my packages in a timely fashion. Well, this time it was 13days to receive the item. I have never experienced that when ordering from Amazon in the past. I will stick with Newegg for future purchases with their 3 day free shipping option. I think they should not offer such a option if they can't deliver regardless of their claims. I have ordered in the past under the same stipulations and received all the items quickly.

[MrMirz]

Well another option if you're looking to compare other stores besides Amazon is visiting http://frugalytics.com on your mobile browser. We are working on integrating local results into the mix so that you can not only compare prices for online merchants but also get prices for local merchants and maps/directions to their stores.