As a savvy shopper, you’ve probably picked up on one or two Amazon money-savings hacks. From using their filler item finder to snag free shipping (a particularly handy tool for non-Prime members), to saving up to 15 percent through Subscribe & Save, there are a number of Amazon tricks out there to help keep more cash in your pocket.
We want to shed some light on one more great tip — using Amazon’s discount search to see specific items that are seriously marked down. This little-known maneuver allows you to manipulate the URL to filter your search results by what’s on sale. The even better news is that it’s super simple.
Ready to give it a whirl? Here’s a play-by-play breakdown of exactly how to do it.
How To Use Amazon’s Discount Filter Search
1. Perform Your Search
Enter what you’re looking for into the search bar. For our little experiment, let’s go with coffee makers.
2. Add a filter parameter to the end of your URL
To see which ones are 50 percent off, add &pct-off=50- to the end of the search URL.
How about ones that are between 50% and 70% off? Simply add &pct-off=50-70 to the URL, and you’re good to go.
Also, don’t forget to include a dash after a single number (so &pct-off=25- for 25 percent off). If you leave it off, the discount search function won’t work.
To see it in action, let’s return to our coffee makers search results page and add &pct-off=75-
3. Adjust your search to find the best deals
You may need to change up your numbers and ranges to find the best discounts. Amazon will always try to pull in their best sellers and full-priced items mixed in with your search results, so don’t be fooled by them.
Sorting by Lowest to Highest Price Isn’t Helpful
While playing around with this tool, you might ask yourself why it doesn’t make more sense to just sort your search results from lowest to highest price?
Be warned: if you do, you’ll have to weed through irrelevant (and annoying) items that are only slightly related to your search query. For example, if you type “coffee makers” into the search bar, then filter the results by lowest price, you’ll have to deal with pages of results like these before getting to the good stuff:
Looking for more deals? Check out our guide on Finding Deals on Amazon Warehouse.