Saving money by buying online is all over the media at the moment. There are certainly Australian online stores that offer discounts over typical Australian bricks and mortar stores but if you really want to save money then buying online from an overseas store is the way to go.
When you are dealing with an online store that's not based in Australia you need to be very careful and the best way to do that is to deal with reputable stores. Amazon.com is the world's largest online store so you can shop securely and safely. Often the list price or RRP in the USA is far cheaper than Australia and because of Amazon's sheer size their further discount means you can effectively gain price savings of up to 75% over typical Australian stores.
This store is an official Amazon Australia affiliate store that lists only Amazon products that can be shipped to Australia. All orders and shipping are still done by Amazon.
This is the big question that everyone wants to know. When comparing prices you have to factor in the shipping costs. In most cases even when adding shipping still keeps it well under the Australian price. There are exceptions and they are generally very heavy or very large items where the shipping costs are excessive. The best way to show you is with some real world examples.
An Australian Online Store called PrimeWatchStore.com.au shows the Australian List Price as $AUD229 (16/5/11) and they have it for sale at $AUD129. Shipping is $11.95 so the total price is $AUD140.95
At Amazon they have the very same watch at a list price of $USD95.00 and a sale price of $USD58.65. Shipping is $USD13.98 which gives us a total of $USD72.63
Not only is the watch just a fraction of the price of the Australian Online Store but with the Australian Dollar so strong the saving are even greater. At the Exchange rate on the 16th of April, 2011 the total Amazon charge of $USD72.63 equates to just $AUD68.63 (click to see the price as at today) which is a massive saving of $72.73 (save 51%) off the Australian Online Store sale price.
Don't forget that this price is $AUD160.67 less (save 70%) than the Australian list price of $AUD229 which is what you would probably see in typical bricks and mortar watch stores in Australia.
In short this example shows you can buy three watches at Amazon and still have change over what you could pay at a normal watch store in Australia.
An Australian Online Store called VenNPetDirect shows this for Sale at $AUD115 plus Shipping of $AUD8.95 (16/5/11) for a total price of $AUD123.95
We even found this on a large discount Australian Online Store called DealsDirect and they had it for sale at $AUD99.00 plus shipping of $7.95(16/5/11) for a total price of $AUD106.95
At Amazon they have the very same sprinkler at a list price of $USD59.99 and a sale price of $USD47.95. Shipping is $USD12.97 which gives us a total of $USD60.92
At the Exchange rate on the 16th of April, 2011 the total Amazon charge of $USD60.92 equates to just $AUD57.57 (click to see the price as at today) which is a massive saving of $49.38 (save 46%) off the best price availabe at an Australian Online Store sale price.
This site shows you just what items on the Amazon store can be shipped to Australia.
When you have found what you want you will be transferred to Amazon.com to complete the purchase.
Amazon is the world's largest online store and you all purchasing, checkout and payment processing is done by them for your security
Shipping Costs to Australia with Amazon start from as little as $4.99