CamelCamelCamel Canada: The Ultimate Guide

Last updated on May 15th, 2022 at 09:41 pm

CamelCamelCamel is the perfect tool for saving tons of money on Amazon Canada. This tool is incredible, and in this article, I’ll explain how I use it to save 20% or more on all of my Amazon Canada purchases. If you’re anything like me, these savings can add up to hundreds of dollars per year in savings!

The Secret to Saving Money on Amazon

Now, a lot of people don’t realize this, but Amazon has a secret. The secret is that the prices you see on Amazon are volatile and change all the time! Their prices change almost as often as the stock market. They increase and decrease all to match the whims of online shoppers.

For example, Amazon increases the price of decorations a few months before Christmas and decreases the cost of camping equipment after summer has ended. These price changes are designed to squeeze the most money possible out of us, their customers.

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Frugal university students often notice this when shopping for textbooks online. If you timed your purchase right, you could save hundreds. But if you bought last minute, right before the class had started, you’d likely be paying full price.

Camel Camel Camel Canada

In this CamelCamelCamel tutorial, I’ll explain everything you need to know to start saving hundreds of dollars per year on your Amazon purchases.

For starters, CamelCamelCamel is a price-tracking website. Founded way back in 2008, it has since grown to serve over 1 million users in their quest to get the best deal possible on Amazon. As an Amazon affiliate, CamelCamelCamel makes its money by earning a small commission whenever you buy an item using their website.

Using CamelCamelCamel Canada

Let’s say you have a lawn. An ugly lawn that you need to make look presentable. So what do you do? You browse YouTube, read some blogs, and learn that aerating is an excellent way to improve your lawn. So, still in the comfort of your own home, you search Amazon for a lawn aerator. Here’s what you find:

Shopping Amazon Canada using CamelCamelCamel
CamelCamelCamel Tutorial: A worthy purchase.

Not bad. It’s got some good reviews. It comes from a reputable business. The only problem is the price: “Jeez, $94, why can’t I get it for a little cheaper?” Well, before you go clipping coupons, let me explain how you can do just that.

The Camelizer Extension

The first step to make your life easier (and more affordable) is to get the Camelizer browser extension. The Camelizer extension will pay attention whenever you visit Amazon and will provide you with the tools you need to save money on your purchases.

After you’ve downloaded the Camelizer, you’ll be able to pull up a historical view of the price of your item:

CamelCamelCamel Canada price history
Yard Butler through the eyes of the Camelizer.

Looking a little closer, this chart reveals that at $94, we’re not really getting a good deal on our purchase. If we’re able to hold out for just a little while, we should be able to get a better price.

By using the Camelizer, we’re able to enter in a price that we would like to pay. To make things easier, the Camelizer gives you some options: 10% off, 25%, all the way down to 90% off.

Camelizer price history.
Camelizer desired prices.

Now, you won’t often be able to buy something for 90% off, but with a little patience, you can get 20% off or better on many of your purchases. One might enter $67.36 as their desired price for this item. This amounts to a cool 29% off the current price.

Camelizer desired price
Using the Camelizer browser extension.

Save Using the CamelCamelCamel Website

Now comes the waiting game. You have to understand that Amazon updates thousands upon thousands of their prices every day. But for this particular item, they only update the price every few weeks. This is where patience is key. In the meantime, I check the CamelCamelCamel website to see my item in my watch list:

Camelcamelcamel watch list
CamelCamelCamel watchlist.

From here, you can update my desired price, see a more detailed price history, and browse for other related items. In fact, you can do pretty much all of your Amazon shopping through the CamelCamelCamel website. You only have to click-through to Amazon when you want to make a purchase.

CamelCamelCamel Price Drop Alert!

After a few short weeks, you may receive an exciting email. It’s from CamelCamelCamel – your price alert has triggered!

CamelCamelCamel price drop alert
CamelCamelCamel price drop alert!

From this email, you can click the “Buy now” button, which will take me to Amazon to complete your purchase. Buying at $66.83 means saving a total of $27.88 off the original price of $94.71. That’s a savings of 29%!

And this isn’t a one off. You can use CamelCamelCamel every time you shop on Amazon. This year I’ve already received dozens of price alerts for items that have decreased in price 10%, 20%, 30% or more. One recent example is for my wife’s face cream:

Amazon Canada Saving history
A product with a volatile price history.

This is a great example of an item whose price changes extremely frequently. It bounces around between $19 and $26 multiple times per month! If you’re smart enough to check its price history, you’ll know to hold out until it falls back down to $19 before making a purchase.

CamelCamelCamel Strategy

You need to follow a few simple steps to get the most out of CamelCamelCamel and to save the most money when shopping on Amazon Canada.

  1. Always use the Camelizer to check price histories.
  2. Create a watch list of items you want.
  3. Be patient.

By checking price histories, you can figure out when’s the best time to buy an item. Using that knowledge, you can decide whether it’s worth purchasing it today or if you’d rather wait until there’s a better price.

This is how I shop. There are so many things I want but that I don’t need right now. For these items, I simply add them to my watch list and wait for their price to drop significantly before I make a purchase. I currently have dozens of items added to my watch list. I often add a few more every time I shop on Amazon!

CamelCamelCamel Canada Results

I have saved over $2,000 since I started to use CamelCamelCamel when shopping on Amazon Canada. Looking back at my purchase history, I can see that I saved close to $400 in 2019 alone. Take a look how:

Total Amazon Canada savings last year
Money I saved by using CamelCamelCamel.

Overall, I saved a little over 22% on all of my Amazon purchases last year. The majority of the purchases I made using CamelCamelCamel actually gave me more than 22% in savings. There were a few purchases that didn’t yield any savings through CamelCamelCamel, and so that dragged down my total amount saved by a few percentage points.

Closing Thoughts on CamelCamelCamel Canada

Shopping online has never been more necessary. It’s really the best way to get the goods you want, all without leaving the comfort of your home. I hope that sharing my experience of using CamelCamelCamel to save money on Amazon Canada has helped you discover a better way to shop online.

I hope you enjoyed my CamelCamelCamel tutorial! If you have, please leave a comment and sign up for my monthly newsletter! Follow me on my journey as I strive to reach financial freedom. Consider reading some of my other popular articles. Some great choices include my analysis of the best gold ETF in Canada and my pick for the best Canadian dividend ETF!

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8 comments

  1. Cool thanks for the walk through.
    I know that Amazon’s prices change all the time (that’s why they don’t allow you to post prices when you blog about their items as an affiliate) but didn’t know they were THAT volatile.

    I like the name “Camelizer”

    Never tried CamelCamelCamel but have heard of it, can’t believe it’s from 2008!

    1. You’re very welcome! I agree, it’s amazing how much their prices regularly change. It’s fun to use the Camelizer just to see the price history of items you’re looking at :).

    1. Haha I wish you told me that earlier! My main reservation was that it’d be back-breaking work to do my entire lawn.. Oh well, it’s on the way now. At least I got it on sale!

    1. Thank you! I’m glad you enjoyed it. Hopefully you can save some money on your Amazon purchases :).

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