Tag Archive: amazon


Share your favorite movie on Facebook and get free $2 credit to Amazon Instant Video. This is how it works:

  1. Click onto this link and visit Amazon.
  2. Enter your favorite movie and click “Share & Claim” to post your response on Facebook.
  3. Upon completion of the “Share & Claim” action, a $2 Instant Video credit will be automatically applied to your Amazon account.

Upon completion of the “Share & Claim” action, a $2 Amazon Instant Video credit will be automatically applied to your Amazon account. Promotional credits must be redeemed by 11:59 PM PST on May 29, 2012. Amazon Instant Video is available to customers located and with billing addresses in the United States. You must have an Amazon account and accept the Amazon Instant Video Service Terms of Use to redeem your credit. Limit one promotional credit per customer.

I have received 22 packages from my freight forwarder Shipito to this date. I’ve started with smaller packages of 3-8 kg and ended up getting packages of 9-18 kg. I’ve been buying all kind of stuff from electronics and toys to clothing and shoes. Most of my purchases have been coming from 3 online sources:

  • Amazon USA,
  • private shopping clubs (fashion sale, private sale, sample sale, flash sale sites),
  • sports online stores.

Amazon USA

Amazon logoPersonally I prefer to use amazon.com more than any other US shop. There are several reasons for that:

  • Amazon is the largest online store in the USA.
  • Accepts international debit and credit cards.
  • Ships to freight forwarders (also know as mail forwarders, package forwarders, parcel forwarders) like Shipito.
  • Very good customer service and at refunds.
  • You don’t need to pay californian sales tax (9.5%) when shipping from Amazon to the Californian warehouses of Shipito package forwarder.*

* Note that you do need to pay sales tax for some merchants from the Amazon marketplace. Also note that you may use another warehouse of Shipito in Tualatin, Oregon, which is a no sales tax location.

My overall experience with Amazon is very positive. However there is a group of sites where prices for clothing, shoes and many other items are more attractive every day.

American private shopping clubs (fashion sale, private sale, sample sale, flash sale sites)

Private sale I buy most of my clothing and shoes from USA private shopping clubs (also known as fashion sale, private sale, sample sale, flash sale sites). These sites are usually an invitation only clubs (see the invitation links below). They organize flash sales events for its members that typically last 1 to 3 days. Members can buy fashion, designer clothing and shoes for men, women, kids at discounted prices (typically 40-90%). You can also buy jewerly, cosmetics and many other types of good there. My favorite private shopping clubs:

While you may use Assisted Purchases from Shipito or any other service when making purchases in online stores, such services won’t work well with flash sales that private shopping clubs offer. So it is really great that the above mentioned private shopping clubs support international debit/credit cards and ship to freight forwarders like Shipito.

Although there are plenty of private shopping clubs, they offer fashion and designer clothing mostly. So I still have to shop for many sporting goods elsewhere.

American sports online stores

I make purchases in several trusted sports online stores and outlets:

I buy sports clothing, shoes and gear mostly on sales or in the outlets.

Share your experience

How do you like American online stores and private shopping clubs mentioned in this article? Do you prefer to make purchases elsewhere?

To see credit balance for your Amazon MP3, Kindle Store, Instant Video Download, Software/Video/Games Downloads:

  1. Visit the following page How to Redeem Your Code for Amazon MP3.
  2. Click onto the “Enter your code” button (you don’t need to enter any code to see your credits balance).
Amazon: Credit balance

Amazon: Credit balance

Share your favorite song on Facebook and get free $2 credit to Amazon MP3 Store. This is how it works:

  1. Click onto this link and visit Amazon.
  2. Enter your favorite song and click “Share & Claim” to post your response on Facebook.
  3. Upon completion of the “Share & Claim” action, a $2 MP3 credit will be automatically applied to your Amazon account.

Promotional credits must be redeemed by 11:59 PM PST on May 24, 2012. Amazon MP3 music is available to customers with IP address and billing addresses in the USA. You must have an Amazon account and accept the Amazon MP3 Service Terms of Use to redeem your credit. Limit one promotional credit per customer.

Some classical music albums you can buy in Amazon MP3 Store for $1.99.

Amazon offers a $2 Amazon MP3 Store Credit for free via code “MOMROCKS”. Amazon applies the credit to your Amazon account which can be used toward the purchase of any MP3 in the Amazon MP3 Store.

Promotional offer is valid from April 19, 2012 through April 22, 2012. You must redeem the credit by 11:59 p.m. PST on April 22, 2012. Limited to one promotional credit per customer.

Get $2 Amazon MP3 Store Credit for Free

For a limited time, if you subscribe to the Amazon’s Clothing Store emails and are a first-time subscriber, we will email you a promotional code redeemable for 20% off your next purchase of eligible Amazon Clothing Store products (up to a maximum purchase price of $1000) sold by Amazon.com. Purchases from sellers other than Amazon do not qualify. Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping (restrictions apply). You will apply the promotional code during the checkout process. See additional restrictions.

Amazon offers a $10 Kindle Textbook eBook credit for FREE via coupon code “ETXTBOOK”

Coupon code: ETXTBOOK
Link to redeem coupon

Promotional offer is valid from December 30, 2011, through January 9, 2012. You must redeem the credit by 11:59 p.m. PST on January 9, 2012. Limit one credit per customer.

Sample Kindle textbook you can buy:
Ready, Fire, Aim: Zero to $100 Million in No Time Flat (Agora Series) [Kindle Edition] Michael Masterson
Kindle Price: $9.99

Related links:
Kindle Textbooks
Best Sellers in Kindle Textbooks

Most freight forwarding services like Shipito charge for package consolidation. Shipito charges $2 per consolidated package if you use a paid Virtual Mailbox plan ($50/year or $10/month). To avoid additional consolidation charges always use the “Group my items into as few shipments as possible” option on Amazon.

How to select “Group my items into as few shipments as possible” on Amazon

  1. Add all the items to your cart.
  2. When asked, select “Group my items into as few shipments as possible” as your shipping preference.

    Amazon: Shipping Details: "Group my items into as few shipments as possible"

If you don’t care about consolidation fees prefer to ship faster, choose the “Ship my items as soon as possible (additional shipping charges may apply)” option instead.

How do I take advantage of FREE Super Saver Shipping?

  1. Place over $25 of eligible Amazon products in your Shopping Cart. Eligible items will say “FREE Super Saver Shipping…” next to their price:

    Amazon: Free super saver shipping

  2. Proceed to checkout.
  3. Ship your items to a single U.S. address.
  4. Select Super Saver Shipping as your shipping speed. Please note that your order will take an additional 3 to 5 days to ship.
  5. Select “Group my items into as few shipments as possible” as your shipping preference.
  6. Place your order, and enjoy the free shipping.

Problems with “Group my items into as few shipments as possible” option

If you make a single order on Amazon, there are several reasons why you may get it in multiple packages:

  • Amazon has a marketplace. Orders from many sellers of the marketplace are not fulfilled and shipped by Amazon itself.
  • Some items are shipped from different Amazon fulfillment centers.
  • Orders marked as gifts may arrive as several packages.

But this list is not complete. For example, I ordered 4 toys from Amazon last week. All these toys were fulfilled and shipped by Amazon. All 4 toys would fit into a 26x13x13 box. But Amazon has sent these toys in 3 packages, although they were sent from the same fulfillment center and all of them were shipped the same day! So the following message about quicker service can be disappointing despite what Amazon thinks about it:

Greetings from Amazon.com, We thought you’d like to know that we shipped this portion of your order separately to give you quicker service. You won’t be charged any extra shipping fees, and the remainder of your order will follow as soon as those items become available.

If you use Shipito for sending packages overseas, you can always upgrade your free service plan to the Virtual Mailbox to enable package consolidation. But when using any freight forwarder you should always keep in your mind that you may get multiple packages instead of just one.

How to combine multiple Amazon orders into the same shipment

When possible, Amazon tries to combine multiple orders into the same shipment. This helps Amazon to reduce the number of packages they need to send to you, so you receive fewer packages and have less packaging material to dispose of when you receive your orders.

Amazon tries to combine multiple orders into the same shipment if the orders meet the following criteria:

  • Multiple orders are placed through the same customer account
  • The orders are being shipped to the same address.
  • Items from each order are located at the same Amazon fulfillment center.
  • The orders are shipping at around the same time.

There are some cases when Amazon won’t be able to combine shipments. For instance, they may not be able to combine the following types of orders:

  • Orders that can’t be shipped from the same fulfillment center to meet your promised delivery date.
  • Orders shipping from different fulfillment centers.
  • Orders being shipped to different addresses.
  • Orders being shipped to an international shipping address.
  • Orders marked as gifts.

Amazon will also try to combine orders for items that are placed via 1-Click ordering into a single order if the orders are placed in the same 30-minute time period.

Free ebooks (Kindle Edition) from Amazon (Kindle Price: $0.00 includes free wireless delivery via Amazon Whispernet):

Insights from Remarkable Businesspeople (Collection of 16 ebooks) [Kindle Edition]

Free Kindle eBook collection: Insights from Remarkable Businesspeople

  • Changing a Troubled Ship’s Course (Captain D. Michael Abrashoff)
  • What’s the Problem with Customers? (Fred Wiersema)
  • Get Results, Not Salutes (Captain D. Michael Abrashoff)
  • Winning Customers with Commitment (Gary Hirshberg)
  • Listen Up! (Captain D. Michael Abrashoff)
  • Clearing the Mind for Creativity (John Kao)
  • No Company Runs Itself (Michael F. Golden)
  • Why I’m (Still) Buying Gold (Dean LeBaron)
  • How to Design a Great Customer Experience (Fred Wiersema)
  • Oprah (Brand) Renew (Nancy F. Koehn)
  • The Future Is Yours to Invent (John Kao)
  • The Pull of Customers, The Push of Processes (Jim Champy)
  • How to Rebound from Adversity (Glenn Mangurian)
  • What I Learned from Peter Drucker (Jim Champy)
  • What I Learned at the Naval Academy (Captain D. Michael Abrashoff)
  • Lessons of a Brand Manager (Michael F. Golden)

More free ebooks from the Kindle Store:

Go to “How to Redeem Your Code for Amazon MP3” on Amazon and enter “FALLMP3S” (without quotes) to get your free $2 credit.

If the code does not work, type FALLMP3S in instead of copy-pasting.

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