While you can shop online during Black Friday or the holidays using any browser you want, there are several good reasons to use the Microsoft Edge browser already on your PC: built-in coupons and an automatic check of an item’s price history. Buying something in installments is also coming.
Both of these Edge features offer a great way to ensure you get the best deals for Prime Day – or any day, for that matter.
Microsoft Edge is on your Windows PC
The Microsoft Edge browser is built right into any Windows PC. While the most popular browser remains Google Chrome, you can open Edge (if you have not already done so) and quickly import bookmarks (Favorites), passwords and more from another browser. (We have a detailed guide on how to import bookmarks to Edge.)
Now let’s see how Edge can help you find the best deals on Amazon Prime Day.
Edge’s shopping skills should work with any site, but they’s fine-tuned for Amazon and Prime Day. If you open a product page, you will see a small blue price tag icon at the end of the URL bar right next to the small bookmark star icon next to the page.
This price tag icon is starting to slip out of small messages: “This site has coupons!” will tell you that Edge applies all automatic discounts that it knows at checkout. “You have the best price!” is an indication that Edge has already checked other retailers and knows that Amazon offers the best deal. You may also receive a small message that the price has recently either increased or decreased.
Microsoft Edge will confirm that you’ve found the best price for Prime Day.
How to Use Coupons in Microsoft Edge for Prime Day
Sometimes Amazon will even show that a coupon can apply, and will give you the chance to trigger it directly on the product page. Edge is a bit shy: Click the blue price tag icon in the URL bar and manually copy all the coupons Edge finds into the discount box.
The Microsoft Edge price tag is your ticket to savings. You may see coupons you can use for Prime Day or holiday shopping.
Note that there are third-party options. For example, the Honey plug-in also automatically searches for discount codes.
How to use pricing history in Microsoft Edge
Edge’s ability to track prices is much more useful. Edge works a bit like the Amazon tracking site camelcamelcamel.com, which can take an Amazon product page and show you how the price of the item has fluctuated over the last few months. Edge does this automatically.
The price history that Microsoft Edge provides is a nice touch, both by indicating whether the price is falling, as well as by offering links to other retailers.
To see the price history, click on the blue price tag icon in the URL bar. If you see an offer to “cut coupon” instead, do not worry – the price history is in a small drop-down menu below it. When you click on it, you will see a small graph with noticeable price movements in the last few months. You should receive the best deals on Prime Day – but not always.
You can explore further by scrolling down to Compare other retailers, which opens a small list of tiled cards, each with the price of the item at a different retailer. It’s a quick and easy way to compare-shop without leaving Amazon. Experienced shoppers may even want to check out the Collections feature in Edge to build groups of items for comparison.
The only place where Edge’s price history sometimes struggles is where Amazon combines multiple product lists on the same page – like on an SSD or hard drive, for example, where it may be available in different capacities. I’ve found that the Edge works best when there’s just one configuration available.
Microsoft tests Buy now, pay later
BNPL is currently available in Microsoft Edge’s beta test program, specifically the Canary and Dev channels, and will be available to all users in Microsoft Edge release 96 by default, Microsoft said earlier this month. Buy now, pay later allows you to simply pay for something in installments instead of all at once. It is also a feature that is usually offered on a dealer-by-dealer basis.
Microsoft
Now Microsoft says it plans to add this BNPL feature to the browser through a partnership with Zip. This means that any purchase between $ 35- $ 1,000 that you make through Microsoft Edge can be divided into 4 installments over 6 weeks, says Microsoft.
“With BNPL in Edge, you can simply link your Microsoft account to your zip account with a single click and then bypass the login from the zip page. It can speed up the application process for you,” according to Microsoft.
This story was updated to add Microsoft’s BNPL features and to update this information for Black Friday.
As PCWorld’s senior editor, Mark focuses on Microsoft’s news and chip technology, among other beats. He has previously written for PCMag, BYTE, Slashdot, eWEEK and ReadWrite.