Does Amazon Do Price Adjustments In 2023? (Try This Savvy Shopper‘s Guide Instead)

I‘m sure you‘ve been there before. You finally decide to click "Buy Now" on a product you‘ve been eyeing for awhile. But then a week later you notice that same item is now $20 cheaper!

We‘ve all felt that pang of buyer‘s remorse. But does Amazon do price adjustments or partial refunds when that happens?

Unfortunately, the short answer is no. Read on for the details on why Amazon doesn‘t offer price matching, and what smart shoppers can do instead to get the best deals.

Table Of Contents
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                1
            Why Amazon Doesn‘t Do Price Adjustments


                2
            How Amazon Keeps Prices Competitive

                2.1

            Constant Price Monitoring

                2.2

            Frequent Sales and Deals

                2.3

            Easy-To-Use Coupons


                3.
            Does Amazon Have the Lowest Prices?


                4.
            Using Amazon‘s Return Policy to Your Benefit


                5.
            More Tips for Savvy Amazon Shoppers


                6.
            Conclusion

Why Doesn‘t Amazon Offer Price Adjustments?

Unlike many brick-and-mortar stores, Amazon does not offer any kind of traditional price adjustment or price matching policy.

That means there‘s no way to get a refund from Amazon if an item you bought drops in price or goes on sale shortly after your purchase. You also can‘t get a retroactive discount if you find the same item being sold for less somewhere else.

So why doesn‘t a retailer as massive and advanced as Amazon offer price adjustments?

For a company that sells billions of different products and makes pricing updates constantly, processing individual price adjustment requests simply isn‘t feasible. The time, labor, and costs involved would be astronomical.

Instead, Amazon relies on incredibly sophisticated pricing algorithms and tracking software to adjust prices. In fact, Amazon makes a mind-boggling 2.5 million price changes every single day across its catalog. That‘s about 29 price adjustments per second!

The bottom line is that manual price adjustments on individual customer requests just don‘t fit into Amazon‘s pricing model. For a company of its scale, it‘s far more efficient to use technology to monitor prices across the board.

But while Amazon won‘t adjust prices after the fact, they still offer plenty of ways for smart shoppers to save…

How Amazon Keeps Prices Competitive

Amazon uses a few key strategies to ensure its prices stay among the lowest out there:

Constant Price Monitoring

Amazon has a state-of-the-art pricing engine that uses algorithms to monitor competitors‘ prices across the web 24/7. Whenever another retailer lowers a price, Amazon‘s algorithms automatically adjust to stay competitive.

This sophisticated technology allows Amazon to change prices millions of times per day across its catalog in real time. Pretty mind-blowing!

Frequent Sales and Deals

In addition to automatic price adjustments, Amazon also offers new sales and deals on a daily basis:

The Today‘s Deals page showcases discounted items that update as often as every 10 minutes.
Lightning Deals offer limited-time discounts on select products for just a few hours.
Amazon Coupon pages make it easy to find and clip coupons to your account for instant savings.
Prime members get 30-minute early access to Lightning Deals and can shop Prime-exclusive sales like Prime Day.

So even if Amazon won‘t adjust prices after the fact, they offer ample opportunities to save for deal-seekers browsing the site daily.

Easy-To-Use Coupons

In addition to sales and daily deals, Amazon makes it simple to find coupons:

When viewing a product that has an available coupon, you‘ll see a "Clip coupon" button right on the listing.
Check the Coupons page for categories like groceries, electronics, and more. You can clip the coupons straight to your account.
Amazon saved coupons are applied automatically at checkout to cut costs instantly.

Coupons are another great perk that makes up for Amazon‘s lack of price adjustments. Why hassle with price matching when you can instantly save on currently listed items with just a couple clicks?

Does Amazon Have the Lowest Prices?

Even without price adjustments, Amazon‘s prices remain highly competitive overall.

As the dominant force in ecommerce with over 40% market share, Amazon can use its sheer size and influence to keep prices low across the massive range of goods it sells.

To put Amazon‘s dominance in perspective, its market share is:

5 times larger than Walmart‘s ecommerce sales
7 times bigger than eBay‘s market share
More than 35 times larger than Target‘s online sales

With that kind of market power, Amazon can dictate pricing in the ecommerce space and force competitors to lower their own prices if they want to stay in the game. All while still doing mind-boggling sales volume and turning huge profits.

Many financial analysts consider Amazon‘s market power to be a near-monopoly in online retail. So even without price adjustments, you can count on rock-bottom prices when shopping at Amazon.

Using Amazon‘s Return Policy to Your Benefit

Another great perk that Amazon offers instead of price adjustments is their generous 30-day return policy.

Here are some tips to make the most of it:

Most items sold and fulfilled directly by Amazon.com can be returned within 30 days for any reason. Just start the process through Your Orders.
Carefully review return eligibility before buying. Items from third-party sellers may have different policies.
If the price drops soon after your purchase, return the item while it‘s still eligible, then simply buy it again at the better price.
Make sure items are fully eligible for returns before opening if you think you might decide to return them later.
Return early instead of waiting until the 30 days are almost up in case items get lost or damaged in transit.

So while Amazon won‘t adjust prices after the fact, their lenient return policy gives you a 30-day window to return items if you have any second thoughts.

More Tips for Savvy Amazon Shoppers

Here are a few more pointers to help you land the best deals on Amazon:

Use free price tracking sites like CamelCamelCamel to see price history and set alerts if prices drop.
Check Slickdeals regularly for the latest Amazon deals being discussed.
Beware that prices can vary drastically by color and style, so be sure to compare all the options before buying.
Look out for coupons that work on already discounted items for extra savings.
Amazon prices tend to drop around popular deal holidays like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Prime Day.
For big ticket items, stalk the product listings for a week or two before purchasing to make sure you‘re getting the best price.
Leverage Amazon Prime‘s benefits like free 2-day shipping and access to special sales.

Simply being an informed, savvy shopper can help you score Amazon deals even without traditional price adjustments.

Conclusion

While Amazon does not offer price matching or retroactive price adjustments, smart shoppers still have plenty of ways to get amazing deals.

Taking advantage of daily sales, coupons, the 30-day return policy, and price tracking allows you to shop Amazon competitively. You can even mimic price adjustments yourself by returning items and re-buying them at lower prices when eligible.

And thanks to Amazon‘s advanced pricing engine constantly monitoring competitors, along with their sheer market dominance, you can trust their prices will be among the best available online.

So next time you get that buyer‘s remorse about an Amazon purchase, remember you still have options to get a great value. Avoid returns when possible, but know the generous policy is there as a backup if you do have second thoughts.

With all of Amazon‘s tools and resources for savvy shoppers, you can shop confidently without worrying whether price adjustments are on offer. Just stay informed so you can capitalize on the lowest price available.

Happy deal hunting!