Amazon: It's like a jungle out there...
by markstarmer - Written: Aug 27 '02 (Updated Aug 27 '02)
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Amazon.com (and Amazon.co.uk): An Introduction
Amazon is one of the oldest and most established online stores in the world today, boasting individual sites for the United Kingdom, United States, Germany, France, Japan, Canada and Austria. Amazon will also deliver to other countries for an additional postage tariff, although I would not recommend this due to the additional charge and the time it takes for international shipping unless the procurer is buying highly specialised media that cannot be easily purchased in the procurer’s home country.
All of the international sites are remarkably similar and personalise content for its respective country, for example, the US front page, at time of writing has a special offer on the Dixie Chicks album, who are virtually unheard of in the UK who are similarly featuring cult UK film ‘The Italian Job’ on its title page, which is not a cult film in the US.
Amazon was originally, in the early days of e-Commerce, an online book store, which it predominately is still today, although now, as well as books Amazon.co.uk also sells ‘CD’s, DVD’s, Videos, Electronics, Software, Video Games, Children’s Toys, Wine and Gifts’ Amazon.com also offers a very similar list. I personally only have really used Amazon for Books and DVD’s, the selection of books is astronomical, we’ll talk about that later though!
’Signing On’
It is relatively easy to sign up to Amazon, all you really need is an email address and you are away. When you make an order you will also need a billing address and delivery address (which can be the same) and a valid debit account or a credit card. When you sign up Amazon will send you a confirmation email, notifying you of the password that you had chosen.
If you enable cookies on your browser, you can configure Amazon to automatically log you in every time you visit the site; this can is a very handy feature, as you don’t need to log in every time you visit the site. There is also a security measure, of a requirement to enter your password before you order, to stop the kids ordering the latest Simpson’s DVD.
A handy feature, what I personally have never used, is a ‘wish list’, which lets you store items that you like but can’t afford, then, when you get your bonus or win the lottery, you can go back to your wish list and buy what you have always been dreaming of.
The Search is over
Amazon has an intelligent search engine, that lets you search in a number of fields, when searching for books you can search for an Author, Title, Subject, ISBN, Publisher, Keywords choose how the books are sorted, filter only hardback or paper back along with a whole range of other options.
There is also an intelligent ‘quick search’ function that can distinguish between books, authors, subjects and ISBN numbers (the ISBN must be entered as an integer however, 0-672-31784-2 will not work).
If you just want to browse through categories rather than use the search facility, Amazon has split its products up into multiple sub categories, that makes it extremely easy to find the product that you are after, there are however, not too many sub categories, so you don’t become overwhelmed with menus. You can generally find the product you are after in approximately five mouse clicks.
Once you have been using Amazon for a while it will also show recommendations of products which are most similar to what you have been browsing / buying. This is a very handy feature indeed, and has lead to a rather hefty number of additional purchases.
I think that out of all shopping web sites that I have used, Amazon has the biggest selection and the best search facilities.
Site Layout
All Amazon stores have a very similar layout, with two main types of page for product selection, the product page and the menu page. All pages have the same header and footer, the header showing links to account details and the shopping basket page in the top right corner, along with the ‘wish list’ and link to the help page.
Below that there are always two bars, detailing all product types, and then product related sub-categories.
The product page, shows a picture of the product (if available), a list of related products, an Amazon Review (if available), a book description from the Author, the topics covered, and also customer reviews. If you are logged in, you also get the chance to review a product yourself. There are also many other offers and similar products and recommendations on the page as well. I will not go into them though.
The menu page is a listing of products and categories, along with product related special offers.
Procurement
Buying online has never been easier with Amazon’s ‘one click’ shopping feature. If you so wish, you can configure Amazon to process your bank details (which will be stored securely on the Amazon server) and send to your home address in one click. I personally have turned off this feature and re-enter my Bank details each time I make an order. It is a good feature if you have faith in internet security and are always in a hurry.
Delivery
From my experience, Amazon’s delivery service is extremely reliable and has always arrived on time, the products and packaging has never been even slightly damaged. The UK Amazon always adds a delivery surplus depending on the size and weight of the product. The US counterpart waivers the delivery charges if the total tariff exceeds 49USD. Delivery times for the UK are usually 1-2 days if the stock is available, I would expect the US delivery times to be approximately one week due to the size of the country (probably a lot quicker for urban areas however).
There is an option to deliver all items together or separately in two or more shipments. If you are waiting for a particular product you can split the order, for an additional cost.
Once, however, an item was delayed for a few extra days than what was originally stated, so Amazon sent the order through in two separate stages at no additional cost. This I thought was a very good thing to do, so I now always shop with Amazon.
Summary
In summary, I highly recommend Amazon.com it is one of the best places to shop, has many great offers and its prices are always competitive. If I am going to buy anything online, I will always visit Amazon first. Two thumbs up!
Recommended:
Yes
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