Print 28 comment(s) - last by Reclaimer77.. on Feb 7 at 11:00 AM

  (Source: Ars Technica)
It's $49.99 a year

Newegg launched a new annual subscription service that looks similar to Amazon's Prime offering, which allows customers special benefits for a yearly fee.

According to Newegg, it's offering customers a subscription called "Newegg Premier," which is in beta for now. 

For $49.99 a year, Newegg Premier customers can take advantage of benefits like free expedited shipping that guarantees item arrival in three days or less (you can also get discounts on one and two-day shipping); special alerts that let you know first when deals and events are approaching; waived restocking fees; quicker customer service; free returns with no shipping fees, and exclusive deals just for Premier members. 

Annual subscription fees for added benefits seem to be a successful model for Internet companies, as Amazon holds a similar offering with Amazon Prime. Prime is $79.99 a year and offers advantages like two-day shipping and greater access to its library of movies and TV shows.

If Newegg Premier sounds like a good deal to you, you can sign up here

Source: Newegg

Comments     Threshold


vs Amazon?
By techxx on 2/5/2014 1:30:14 PM , Rating: 4
This is a good effort, but they're up against some serious competition from Amazon who sells not only EVERYTHING, but electronics often cheaper than Newegg, beating them at their own game. I don't know how the average consumer can spend that much on electronics every year to justify the shipping premium. ShopRunner was a better idea because several retailers participated in it.

RE: vs Amazon?
By anactoraaron on 2/5/2014 1:43:03 PM , Rating: 3
Yeah, half the price of amazon but without a video streaming service doesn't make much sense. It's hard to justify, even if the item you need is cheaper on newegg.

I wonder if they will start having minimum orders for everything to get the free ground shipping like amazon does just to get people on this service.

Newegg just isn't the company that they once were (10+ years ago)

RE: vs Amazon?
By Operandi on 2/5/2014 2:29:32 PM , Rating: 2

Its really not. I would say the fall started just a few years ago though. The most recent change to their product selection tools made it just about impossible to search through product catagories. Newegg is becoming less and less useful to for tech purchases.

RE: vs Amazon?
By inteli722 on 2/5/2014 2:49:55 PM , Rating: 3
*cough storefront for other stores cough cough*

Seriously. I hate that. It makes it a lot harder to find what you want to find by taking up a lot of space with superfluous offerings. Hell, I saw a brand-name knife on there, where it shouldn't be.

RE: vs Amazon?
By Motoman on 2/5/2014 2:51:53 PM , Rating: 3
Newegg is becoming less and less useful to for tech purchases.

Sorry, I don't buy that. Newegg's search tools are better than any other I've seen. Who do you think does it better?

Also, more to the point of the original article, I see little point in this membership...I'm nowhere near any of Newegg's shipping centers, and I virtually always get stuff from them in 3 days anyway - even with their free shipping options.

RE: vs Amazon?
By AssBall on 2/5/2014 3:01:05 PM , Rating: 1

It sure made it annoying and crappy for longtime customers.

storefront for other stores

This is a problem on Amazon too. I hate that Newegg started doing it. Tigerdirect is always around, but they have the shittiest website ever. Digging through their clusterfuck of a online catalogue is sometimes not worth the 5$ extra you pay for somewhere more convenient and less convoluted.

That's not true, Sears website is far worse.

RE: vs Amazon?
By Motoman on 2/5/2014 3:29:41 PM , Rating: 3
It sure made it annoying and crappy for longtime customers.

I'm not sure that Newegg has many customers more "longtime" than me. I was buying from Newegg a long time before virtually anyone else had even heard of them.

Their current online shopping tool thing is certainly different than what it was in years past, but I find it to be the best of all the online vendors I've ever seen.

And while I agree that it's annoying to see non-Newegg (or non-Amazon, for that matter) sellers on there, it's easy enough to specify just Newegg (or Amazon) listings and then they're gone. One click.

RE: vs Amazon?
By Argon18 on 2/5/2014 4:38:23 PM , Rating: 3
Agree the Sears website is horrendous. I've been shopping on NewEgg since 2003, and IMO their web site is one of the better ones in terms of menu navigation and product category navigation. The "storefront for other stores" thing is annoying. When I'm or I don't want to be shown products that are actually being sold by some no-name 3rd party.

RE: vs Amazon?
By ummduh on 2/5/2014 11:00:29 PM , Rating: 2
As far as the 3 day shipping..

I used to, before they changed to the "Egg-Saver" shipping.

Now shipping takes 5 business days minimum. Goes from NE to FedEx/UPS then to USPS then to you. Takes forever.

I used to use NewEgg for everything, but I've been going elsewhere the last few times due to that.

RE: vs Amazon?
By Griffinhart on 2/6/2014 10:30:03 AM , Rating: 3
I'm with you on this. What kept me going to newegg was the speed of it. It hasn't been the cheaper source for a while. On par with amazon really. 5 years ago I could order a Videoboard or Motherboard and if it shipped from the east coast I would get it the next day with the free shipping. There were times when I ordered stuff for my company at 4pm and had it in my hands by 10AM the next day with standard shipping. Rarely did anything take more than 2 days for me to get.

Today, I have ordered the same type of item from them and it takes 5 to 7 business days for me to get.

Newegg has lost a lot of orders from me for this as well. The idea of paying $50 a year to get 3 day delivery just doesn't do it for me.

RE: vs Amazon?
By kmmatney on 2/5/2014 4:51:30 PM , Rating: 2
Agreed. It's like they merged their own normal search with the power search, and I find it harder to use. For some items it works great, but most of the time I like the old search/sorting they had before a lot better.

RE: vs Amazon?
By Reclaimer77 on 2/7/2014 11:00:34 AM , Rating: 2
I run into this all the time. For example I'm shopping for a PSU right now for my latest build.

I find this on Newegg -

Good price, it's what I want etc etc. Small shipping charge though.

Then I go to Amazon, where I'm already a Prime customer-

Same price, NO SHIPPING, and it gets here in two days.

Newegg used to beat everyone on PC parts, hands down. Now at best they're as good, but I notice they get beat by Amazon a LOT on price. Not to mention you can buy everything at Amazon, not just components.


Sadly it's true. They just got passed by. Should have leveraged their early success into future competitiveness.

RE: vs Amazon?
By Solandri on 2/5/2014 4:52:52 PM , Rating: 2

Newegg beats Amazon in one very important way - their search feature is much better than Amazon's. Amazon Google-fied their search years ago, choosing to make it "simple" at the cost of "exact". Only recently are trying to undo the damage by letting you narrow down the search to exact product specifications. Here's an Amazon search for mini-ITX motherboards which take Intel processors. Note the categories on the left:

Searching on Newegg is a joy. The category inclusions are very exact, numerous, and relevant to the type of product you're searching for. Here's the same search on Newegg. Note the categories on the left. About 25 categories vs Amazon's 11 (ignoring non-technical stuff like new vs used).

This is the main reason I buy computer parts from Newegg instead of Amazon. Saving a few bucks isn't worth it if I have to spend an extra 15-30 minutes sifting through search results trying to separate the products which do fit my requirements from the ones which don't.

RE: vs Amazon?
By BPB on 2/5/2014 9:25:02 PM , Rating: 2
I agree, the Newegg search blows away the Amazon search. That's why I search on Newegg, but generally buy at Amazon. Amazon returns is so much easier and things always come within two days. Newegg can be good, but for me Amazon is generally better. I have Shoprunner and yet my last order from Newegg, placed last Friday, has yet to arrive. That's happened a lot with them, but never with Amazon. I actually preferred Newegg's shipping years ago. I almost always got everything next day due to being not too far from a warehouse. Now I never get anything next day, and I am happy when I actually get it two days later, even with the Shoprunner.

RE: vs Amazon?
By purerice on 2/6/2014 2:27:05 PM , Rating: 2
2 statements there are ridiculous.
1) you blame Newegg for an issue with Shoprunner.
2) you take advantage of Newegg's shopping experience then reward Amazon with your money.

People wonder why Newegg has gone a little downhill lately but honestly if I were Newegg I would say, "what's the point of spending countless time, money, blood, sweat, and tears into a great online experience when people just use our interface as a purchase screener for other online retailers?" Hence service goes downhill and the company looks for other ways to monetize such as annual subscriptions.

RE: vs Amazon?
By BPB on 2/6/2014 5:40:10 PM , Rating: 2
Two points of my own.
1) Shoprunner isn't the problem, the order I refenced was still in the warehouse several days after I placed the order. That's on Newegg. BTW, I should get the item today, 6 days after order was placed (including weekend).
2) I only started doing this AFTER Newegg's prices (and to a lesser extent delivery speed) becamse less and less attractive.

I started using Newegg when they were brand new, I go back to the beginning with them. Same with Amazon. But back in the day I almost always chose Newegg over Amazon for tech purchases. That simply isn't the case anymore. They have to offer me a really good price or I don't pull the trigger.

By the way, pre-orders from Newegg stink now. You can't use Shoprunner, so they come slowwwww. Unless they offer a discount on the item or a promotional card I go Amazon or somewhere else. Pre-orders have taken a week or more for me to get in the past.

RE: vs Amazon?
By npcomplete on 2/5/2014 11:28:41 PM , Rating: 1
Amazon definitely does NOT sell everything, especially when it comes to electronics. There are many items Newegg has that Amazon does not. Amazon, excluding third party markteplace, typically only carries popular, mainstream electronics. Adapters, connectors, controllers, special cases, server parts, etc? Forget about it. Amazon is also not always cheaper and even when it is, the difference is small.

Furthermore, Amazon's search feature, especially when you're looking for specific electronics, is utter shit. I mean totally worthless. Newegg's search + powerful categorization + product specs + mfg link + product pictures has everyone else beat. Seriously, try searching for "unbuffered ECC DDR3" and see how worthless Amazon's electronics search is.

I still use both Amazon and Newegg, and I also have Amazon Prime. But I don't use Prime for videos, and most of my electronics shopping is done through Newegg for the reasons above. In addition, when you return something to Amazon, it is certainly convenient, but the shipping is not free. If it's not defective, they deduct the shipping from your refund. Newegg's premier service however, includes free shipping on all returns.

In the increasing number of states Amazon has to pay tax in (like mine), Newegg's Premier service provides an even greater incentive if you're outside of the couple warehouse states. Also don't forget Prime is scheduled to go up from $79 soon. They've said it might be up to $40 more ($119; though I think it'll be a bit less).

RE: vs Amazon?
By npcomplete on 2/6/2014 12:05:31 AM , Rating: 2
WRT pics, Newegg takes pictures from different angles and they're high resolution enough so that I can zoom in on say, a NIC card to see what chip it actually uses for driver compatibility on third party OEM cards. It's also useful for motheboard layout, and very useful for cases.

RE: vs Amazon?
By tayb on 2/6/2014 8:55:27 AM , Rating: 2
It's half the price but less than half the offering. Amazon Prime is guaranteed two day plus streaming and their catalog of products is an order of magnitude larger than Newegg.

I used to be a huge Newegg fan but now I mainly use it for research purposes to find matching components and then head to Amazon to get it cheaper and faster. I also prefer Amazon because they have a superior return policy and are generally much easier to deal with.

In the end I can't imagine how Newegg can remain competitive against Amazon. Jeff Bezos only seems to care about growing market share. He wants to make just enough money to be profitable and use the rest to drive down prices. I don't know how Newegg can compete with that

By Da W on 2/5/2014 1:44:07 PM , Rating: 2
exclusive deals just for Premier members

I don't know newegg, but if you ain't offering your best deals to all, and i find a better elsewhere, i'm gonna buy elsewhere.

RE: Deals
By AssBall on 2/5/2014 3:05:49 PM , Rating: 2
Once you know, you Newegg.

...wait did you totally just set me up for that?

RE: Deals
By BillyBatson on 2/5/2014 5:45:22 PM , Rating: 2
you don't know newegg?

Poor customer service
By theplaidfad on 2/5/2014 3:02:45 PM , Rating: 2
So basically, they want to charge $49.99 to give you the great customer service experience that they used to give a few years ago? No thanks. Newegg's customer service has gone downhill so fast that I hardly ever consider them for my tech purchases these days.

RE: Poor customer service
By Rukkian on 2/5/2014 4:26:33 PM , Rating: 2
Not only that, but to even try and get just 20$ less than amazon does for prime is ridiculous. You are guaranteed the item in 3 days vs 2 for Amazon, and I doubt there are that many people that are making purchases on Newegg anywhere near as often as Amazon.

I used to pretty much only go to Newegg for computer parts, but I now go to amazon first, but usually check both. Amazon is typically around the same price (many times cheaper). Newegg used to be free shipping on pretty much anything, but as others have said, they went downhill a couple of years ago. Add to that, I have not needed any upgrades (besides a video card) in quite some time, as processors have been plenty powerful for most use cases for several years.

RE: Poor customer service
By glowingghoul on 2/6/2014 3:15:17 PM , Rating: 2
Correction: They "Promise" to give you "faster" customer service. I doubt they'll deliver.

Newegg sucks and has for a number of years now. What a shame.

By Souka on 2/5/2014 3:22:16 PM , Rating: 2
I'll buy the best, most expensive, TV/audio system and return it within the return period.... but first order the newest tv/audio system and have it delivered before returning the "old" one.

For $50/yr I can have kick ass TV/music... awesome!

*Just kidding... but I'm sure people will do this.
NBA finals for example...

RE: Perfect
By Argon18 on 2/6/2014 12:09:06 PM , Rating: 2
If you're in the market for "the best most expensive" TV or Audio equipment, you aren't shopping on NewEgg or Amazon. NewEgg and Amazon only carry mass-market consumer crap. Audiophile grade stuff isn't available on either of those sites.

RE: Perfect
By glowingghoul on 2/6/2014 3:13:19 PM , Rating: 2
You mean this $7,800 Conrad-Johnson 2 channel amp is "mass-market crap"? Amazon carries quite a bit of high end A/V equipment, fool.

