A decade ago, Amazon was the market leading in eCommerce with little competition. Back then, many well respected marketers are already predicting that on the Internet, the consumer is king. It doesn't take a genius to work that out. That's because on the Internet, everything is transparent. If you don't like the prices that you see, you can always go to another online store to source for better prices. If you don't like the service of a company, you can also do likewise.

So what does that mean for retailers trying to sell you stuff on the Internet?

They will be working hard to woo the customers. For products like textbooks, price is very sensitive. Just ask yourself, who would you buy from if Company A offers a textbook at $50, and Company B offers the very same textbook at half the price? Of course you would buy from Company B.

Before the time of the Internet, consumers don't have this privilege. The problem is, information is not so easily accessible. When you are at a store, you can't simply get the pricing from another store and compare. So you end up buying from the store that you are at, even if your intuition tells you that you may be paying more than necessary.

Fortunately, that time is over. The time has come for you to feel like a king. Today, dozens of online retailers have sprung up on the Internet, all selling similar book titles. Question is, who do you buy from?

You can easily go to a price comparison search engine and hunt down the exact textbook that you are looking for. With a few clicks, you will soon be able to see which online stores have the textbooks in stock, and what are the prices they are retailing at. You will also be able to see the shipping costs, and the delivery time frame.

The buying decision then becomes clear and simple. Who is offering the best prices? And how soon will the textbook be delivered to you? Most will take 4 to 14 days, but a few outstanding companies will be able to send the textbooks to you within 1 to 4 days.

Bear in mind that these are not second rated or small companies who are trying to woo you. These are big companies like Amazon, Buy, Biblio, eCampus, AbeBooks, etc. So how does it feel to be wooed by so many major companies at the same time? Hopefully, that makes you feel like a king. More importantly though, this phenomenon helps you save a substantial amount of money.