8 Benefits of Amazon Prime Membership You May Not Know About

This story is part of 2021 Holiday Gift Guide, our list of ideas, by theme, by recipient and by price, to help you discover the ideal gift.

You may have signed up for Amazon Prime for free two-day delivery or for stream Prime Video movies and listen Amazon Music without the ads. But there are so many other perks you get access to with your annual Prime membership.

For example, you can have packages delivered much sooner than you think, even within hours. Or you can schedule a delivery date that works best for you, in case you’re not home. And you can even get exclusive offers, just by use Alexa on your Amazon Echo.

If you’re new to Amazon Prime, or just don’t know much about what it has to offer, here are some of the ways you can get the most out of your Amazon Prime membership.

Read more: 2021 Holiday Gift Guide: Top Picks from CNET Editors

Get free same-day shipping on qualifying items

If there is a product you want immediately, you can see if it’s available for same day delivery of your order. To verify product eligibility, look for delivery marked as “FREE Same Day Bonus” while shopping. Note that your order must contain more than $ 35 of eligible items. Otherwise, you will have to pay a small fee.

Amazon will deliver from morning to night, so you won’t have to worry about receiving your order at 3 a.m. However, same day delivery is not available to all locations, so enter your zip code on the Amazon same day delivery page. to see if you are eligible.

Get additional discounts when you buy with Alexa

You can use your Amazon Echo to ask “Alexa, what are my offers?” ” at any time. Alexa will then share the exclusive Prime offers and you will have the option to add the item to your cart, buy it now, or upgrade to the next offer.

Schedule a convenient shipping date for your package

Everyone knows about Amazon’s free two-day delivery, but another option is to choose a delivery date
during payment. This is called Amazon Day and is useful if there is a specific day that you know someone will be home to respond to packages, especially if it is an item. expensive that you don’t want to risk leaving unattended.

If you order multiple items on different days, you can have them delivered on the same day as long as they are eligible for this offer.

Use your Amazon Echo to track packages

If you have a Amazon Echo of all kinds, you can use it to track your orders.

Just say “Alexa, where’s my package?” And your Echo will tell you where it is, who it is for, and when it arrives. Once your order has been delivered, the Echo ring light will flash yellow and if you have the Echo Show, the delivery notification will appear on the screen.

Buy Early Access offers before non-Prime members

If something you watched says “Prime Early Access”, as a Prime member you can purchase that sale 30 minutes before non-Prime members. However, you will still have to compete with other Prime members who are interested in the product before it sells out.

Send a gift to someone without knowing their address

A new Amazon Prime feature allows you to send someone a gift, even if you don’t have his address. For example, if you want to send something to a coworker for the holidays or their birthday but you don’t know their address, you can still send a gift. But there’s a catch: that person must also have a Prime account and you need their phone number or email address associated with the account.

Please note: not all items on Amazon are eligible.

Share your Prime benefits with your family

If you have another adult living in your household, such as a loved one or friend, you can share your Prime membership with them. You will still be able to separate your personal accounts, but you will both have access to the same Prime benefits.

You can also share your account with up to four teens and up to four children in your household. Although they have their own login details, you can still manage their profiles.

Amazon can leave your package inside your home or garage

When you know you won’t be home for a while, and you have a shipment on your way, it’s much safer to have an Amazon employee leave your items inside your home or business. garage to prevent theft. For now, home delivery is currently on hold due to COVID-19, but we’ll still tell you how to use it once it resumes.

For home delivery, you will need a key compatible smart lock and an Amazon Cloud Cam (optional). The Amazon driver will send you a notification when they arrive at your home and ask you to unlock your door. Amazon will verify that the package is at the correct address and that the driver is near the door, then turn on Amazon Cloud Cam and unlock your door.

You can also use Amazon In-Garage Delivery – just select Return the keys at the register. The Garage Kit costs $ 29 right now and turns your garage into a smart garage. It works the same as door-to-door delivery, so Amazon will do all of the checking for you.

If you are wary of let a complete stranger into your home, remember that you will also receive notifications throughout the process. Note that you can choose to block access to delivery to your home, for example, if you know you will be home during this time.

For more buying advice this year, here is how to return your Amazon packages quickly, easily and for free. As well, read this before buying a tech gift this holiday season.