Amazon.com is one of those rare animals - a really successful dot com enterprise. The reasons for this are simple. It's a well-planned, intuitive site, it almost always works and they make it easy for the customer to get what they want.
I've been using Amazon for more than 5 years now to buy books, DVDs, music CDs and toys, and in more than a dozen orders I've never been disappointed with the goods or the service. That seems like a pretty good record to me.
And Amazon helped to make my Christmas shopping a lot easier on my poor tired feet this year too!
What do they sell? **************** Amazon carries a huge stock of books, DVDs, videos, music cds, computer software and games. There are also smaller selections of children's toys, high-value electronics like DVD players and camcorders and travel via expedia.co.uk.
What is the site like? ****************** The first thing you notice about www.amazon.com is that it has no pretensions. It has a nice no-nonsense white background with the odd restfully coloured highlight to delineate the various sections. It's easy on the eye. There are no flashing bits, no flashy flash to get in the way of your shopping pleasure.
For such an enormous site, it loads quite quickly and is very reliable. I've only found the site unavailable on a couple of odd occasions and you are very rarely bothered with faults. It's a site where you go to buy stuff and they make it as easy as possible for you to find what you want and spend your dosh. Perfect for a book and film junkie like myself.
How do I use it? **************** The first thing you need to do is create an account. It's simple to do, you just need to enter a user name, email address and password. Once you've registered, and provided you have cookies enabled, Amazon will remember you when you return and your welcome page and each of the main section pages will be tailor made for you. They will carry details of items you've looked at in the past, and build up a profile of your likes and dislikes and offer you items that Amazon think you might enjoy.
You can browse the site easily via well laid-out category tabs located at the top of each page, or you can search a particular title, artist, writer or genre using the excellent and intuitive search engine.
If you find something you want to buy, you simply click on the "buy" button and the item is added to your shopping basket. Once you've made your selections, you click the checkout button and are given details of your order, delivery charges and diverted to a secure server where you are asked to complete your registration by adding delivery and payment details. I've never had any problems with security and my card has always been debited correctly.
The site in detail ************** Welcome page - Contains star choices and special offers of the day across all the available stock, plus top choices tailor made for you from the various categories. The bottom of each page gives a link to the postage charges page (this is a super feature as many sites refuse to tell you their postage charges until you get to the checkout. At least Amazon is up front about its charges.) There are also links to help and order tracking on each page.
Your Store - this keeps details of items you've looked at in the past and builds up a profile of your likes and dislikes and makes personal recommendations based on your previous browsing of the site.
Books - The main books page gives details of special offers, sales and the "Hot 100" sellers. There's also a "browse by category" list of links, and an excellent "power search" engine which allows you to search for a book by title, author, ISBN number, publisher and keywords.
Electronics - Split into various sections like hot electronics, home entertainment, phones and peripherals, the electronics category is much smaller than books, but is equally easy to navigate and search for what you're looking for. Special offers and sales are well flagged if you like to browse for bargains.
Music - With special sections for new releases, pre-releases, top 100 albums, browse by artist or genre, and a search engine.
DVD - Amazon has one of the largest stocks of DVDs I've ever come across, with everything from concerts and TV series, to feature films, IMAX, documentaries and children's programmes.
Video - Pretty much the same as the DVD section, but for the VHS format.
Software - Special offers on the front page, along with search engine, browse by category, and special sections for Macintosh users, special student licence software, bargain bundles, professional and technical software and virus protection.
Video Games - Listed by platform, searchable by name, platform, type of game, price, age group, etc.
Toys - Listed by age range, searchable by name, age range, price, availability, category, etc.
Wish List ********* The Wish List is a super, very useful feature. While you're browsing, you can add any products that you like the look of to your personal "wish list". This list acts as a handy "aide memoir" for you, so that you can go back when you're ready to order and find the items you want easily. Very often if I read a good review of a book or film on Ciao, I go straight to Amazon and add it to my wish list for later.
Friends and family can also access your wish list if they want to buy you a gift. They can choose anything from your wish list and order it easily and have it delivered straight to you if they wish. You can even prioritise the items on your wish list and leave messages for friends and family who might be visiting it.
This is something that came in very handy for my family and me this Christmas and made sure that very few of my Christmas gifts were of the unwanted kind! My family was able to give me surprise gifts, while being certain they were things I wanted. Perfect!
Order tracking ************* The order-tracking feature allows you to check the progress of your current orders. You will be able to check if your order has been processed or dispatched, or whether it is on hold for various reasons (because some items are special order stock, for example, or if there is a problem with your payment). Once the order has been despatched, there will be an estimated date of delivery, so you always know what's happening with your order.
I've only ever had one problem with Amazon, and that was because I'd incorrectly entered a long credit card number, but it was very quickly and efficiently sorted out by email.
Payment methods *************** Amazon is a big hit with me because it is one of a small, but luckily growing, number of online retailers that accept the Solo card. They also accept switch, delta and all major credit cards, plus Amazon gift vouchers.
As part of Amazon's very clever marketing strategy, the company has teamed up with a number of online incentive sites who offer payment in Amazon vouchers. You can also buy Amazon vouchers as gifts which can be used in full or part payment against anything bought on the site.
Delivery ******** Via order tracking you can see when you are likely to get your parcel and the reasons for any delay. Amazon gives you the availability for each item you order (whether it be ready for dispatch within 24 hours, or a special order which might take a few days or a couple of weeks). Unless you specify otherwise, to keep costs down Amazon will hold your order until all the items on it are available. So if any of your items are special orders, this will delay your total order unless you tell them to dispatch in separate parcels.
One of my few gripes about Amazon is the relatively high cost of delivery. The company charges one packaging charge (on a sliding scale according to the size of the largest item in the order) plus a charge for each additional item. The website contains an easily accessed "ready reckoner" so that you can work out your postage charges before ordering if you wish. I do think the charges are quite high. When sites such as play.com can offer free postage and packing and cheap prices it does put Amazon at a bit of a disadvantage. However, the huge range, and the vouchers from other websites tip the balance back in their favour.
Marketplace *********** One of Amazon's big features at the moment, which they seem to be pushing quite hard, is the Marketplace. This is a place where you can sell your second hand books, DVDs, CDs and games via Amazon, or buy used items from other sellers at discounted prices. It's ideal for sellers, as payment is arranged through Amazon. However, sellers do have to promise to live up to the same levels of customer service as Amazon promise itself, so that customers can be confident to order from marketplace sellers.
I've never sold anything on Amazon, but I have bought several items second hand and found the service and quality to be excellent. You should also remember to post feedback on the performance of marketplace sellers you use, as this acts as a kind of recommendation for other buyers.
Product information and descriptions ******************************* One of the things Amazon does really well is product information, especially where books and DVDs are concerned. As well as a synopsis, track listing, list of special features etc, you will also get a number of reviews written by Amazon users. You can grade the reviews according to how helpful you found them, so that the best ones are at the top of the list. And you can add your own review of a product. Amazon offers incentives like competitions for people who write reviews.
Conclusion ********** All in all, I think Amazon has mostly got it right. The site is easy to use and navigate. There are a number of features which are designed to make the consumer's life easier, like the excellent search engines and the wish list and personal recommendations. With a little practice it's easy to find what you want, to order it and to pay for it. Their delivery, in my experience, has been safe and timely, although a little costly. Their prices are average, and comparable with offline stores. There are often pretty decent special offers that can save you money. Their range and stocks are amazing, so Amazon is a good first stop as an information resource as well as a retailer.
If you're searching for a bargain, I'd always recommend shopping around on the net, but Amazon is a pretty good starting point.
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