Amazon.com
by deeblackthorne - Written: Mar 31 '07
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Amazon.com was probably the first, the latest, the worst, and the greatest online shopping experience for me overall. I have had quite a bit of experience with this online retailer since, it seems, you can get just about anything through the site or through any one of the many marketers and private goods salespersons who outlet their wares. I originally found the service in college as an alternate way to order textbooks. As there was a local Amazon.com store in my hometown, I could go there to conduct transactions or pick up goods direct as easily as I could surf the online store.
Site Navigation
Massive is an understatement, and partially untidy might be somewhat appropriate. Pages feature a three-column design. The left is a listing of most departments on Amazon.com. There is a horizontal bar that splits departments and bargains and gifts and wishlists, though the latter stuff might better fit under the Services sub-table. There you will find community and external service links.
The top span is a customer-driven interface, linking up personalized materials and promotional specials. One tab says, in my instance, "Dee's Amazon.com" which is basically a graphical display of your Wish List and related items rendered into the same three-column display. Promotional offers appear as Gold Box items -- discounts on a variety of merchandise, some of which might interest and a lot which does not.
The site also experiments with other technologies like mouseover effects. Mousing over "View all 40 categories" reveals a table featurning all departments, though I find it's easier and less intensive to just type in a search result in the provided box and wander from there.
The central column is a highly customizable interface, at least from the Amazon servers' end of things. The items highlighted appear as large icons with descriptions below, and these items are tailored to your viewing and purchase histories through the site. My column features video games, wish list items, therapy books (originating from graduate school shopping), rock CDs, and some other random items. It reads, "Did you know Amazon sells lawn mowers?" Uh, sure. I didn't ask. "Water heaters?" And saunas too. Shut up.
The right column features popular items, I think, but more random stuff shows up too like another Wish list item, cell phones, and self-promotional and other-directed advertising. The footnote of the page features partner links.
Overall, Amazon opted for inundation when it could have used some housekeeping. Gobs of information exist all over the site and it's difficult to get to where you need to go quickly.
Ordering and Shipping
When you finally find something of interest, click "Add to Shopping Cart." All items appear in this cart and can be modified by visiting the cart page. You can change quantities or delete items before proceeding with the order.
For those registered to the site, in addition to the "great" personalized stuff, it will save (and protect) all of your financial, shipping, and billing information in order to expedite the ordering process -- a definite plus.
Orders are processed with e-mail confirmations, both for placing the order and when it is shipped.
Shipping options can get pricey with expedience, and whatever you choose, it shows up as an expected delivery time spanning in some cases up to 10 business days. I think it's Amazon's custom to really overshoot a range of delivery times to ensure that they don't quote you wrong. However helpful it is, it complicates the need to get stuff at a predictable time. I remember ordering books during Christmas Break, worried I wouldn't have enough time to get all of my materials on time to read. Even the most expedient options can be complicated by out-of-control elements, so it would suck to get double-burned, eh?
In all thankfulness, shipping errors are relatively few and are expected around the busiest times of year.
Wish Lists
Perhaps one of the best features on here is the Wish List. While browsing the site, you can click "Add to Wish List" on any item page. You can customize your wish list to include separate headings for the type of gifts you want, rank items according to priority or leave messages and details about the items you want. It has been an invaluable service especially during the holiday seasons and birthdays. I work at the mall, so naturally I hate shopping at one; the Wish List helps me figure out exactly what my friends and family want, and a few clicks later, it's on their way.
Items disappear from your Wish List if purchased through Amazon's direct lines of marketing. If you purchase a Wish List item through a Marketplace seller (e.g. an individual who sells his or her item own items by posting them on site), it won't update your list for you.
Items also become unavailable if Amazon isn't selling them. The entry will read, "This item is no longer available on Amazon.com" though a Marketplace retailer may have it.
Experiences
Most recently, I experienced a problem with updating my shipping and billing address. The billing address went through, but the shipping address did not update consistently through Amazon's servers. This past Christmas, we all ordered gifts through the service. Since some friends ordered through Marketplace servers, some recipients had duplicated orders. To compound heavy mail traffic of the season, Amazon sent my gifts to my old apartment even after I had the addresses updated at least two weeks prior to the holiday. I received one gift certificate and a couple of presents out of the five I were expecting, and I became worried. Normally, Amazon has been quite satisfactory placing and receiving orders. What was the exception?
The customer service representative, after lobbing telephone calls back and forth for a couple of days, couldn't figure it out either. He apologized and sounded sincere. He helped me figure out what happened. The gift certificate I received was from a giver that I hadn't planned to do gift exchange with; he surprised me, and it just so happened that the gift wasn't in stock anymore. To make up for the inconvenience, he posted a $20 credit to my account that I could use at my own convenience (which I invested in a Family Guy DVD) and double-checked his systems for my new address. Amazon makes it a rule to have responsive customer service for the problems they can control. Shipping, maybe not so much, but the rest goes well.
I am happy with the site. I continue to use it because I can get a wide variety of products, and it's nice to have one centralized place to leave my goodies available to the public. If anything, it helps me shop for myself. I can just click a couple of places and it's ready. Definitely beats waiting at a counter any day!
Recommended:
Yes
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? video games, books, music
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