Not quite perfect - but near enough most of the time.
Written: Jun 30 '04 (Updated Oct 11 '06)
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Amazon – a river in South America / a female warrior with a self-inflicted mastectomy / one of the web’s oldest and most popular book stores.
Guess which one I’m reviewing here?
I’ve used Amazon many times over the years, and have been generally happy with the service they provide, though I do have a few complaints. But more of this later.
Please note – while this review is posted under amazon.com, I have actually used their UK and South African sites as well as American. As the sites are essentially identical, this is still the most appropriate place for this review.)
Product Range
Of course, Amazon sells far more than books these days. Their full range of products is:
Books
Electronics & Photo
Music
DVD
Video
Software
PC & Video Games
Home & Garden
Toys & Kids
Travel
Since I’ve entirely used Amazon for purchasing books, DVDs, and CDs (in that order), I can’t comment on the product range in other areas. In general the product range is exhaustive, and often I have been able to buy less well known items that I’ve been unable to find elsewhere. The prices are competitive, and occasionally you can pick up a real bargain. For well known products, Amazon are often your best bet, though it’s still always worth hunting around a bit to see if you can get a better price anywhere else.
It should be noted that some items are only available from the Amazon website for your country – amazon.co.uk, amazon.co.za, etc. It would be nice if the one you were logged into actually searched the others for you too, though this is not a major problem. For instance, when I was studying Spanish at college, a particular bi-lingual book was recommended that was not on amazon.co.uk, but was on amazon.com. The only real problem with this is that the postage and packaging ended up costing me a fortune! Sometimes this is the price you pay for wanting something obscure…
Site Navigation
The site is very easy to navigate, with the main product areas and the search bar (which works very well generally) always present on the screen. Loading time is not at all bad.
The site looks nice and effectively presents the information you need. Extra information is also available – for instance, if you’re looking at a movie, you will be able to access the cast and crew lists, quotes from the film, and from hence you can look at other films from the same Director, etc – a very worthwhile feature.
The site suggests other titles you might also be interested – “people who bought ……. also bought ….” – though sometimes the choice of supposedly related titles is a little bizarre.
Like epinions, each product has reviews (also like epinions, there are many products with no reviews), though these are of a low general standard (think in terms of the express reviews here… yes, most of them really are that bad…). Of a little more interest are some of the Top Ten lists, though again the quality of writing and helpful information given is usually low.
If you sign up there you can create a “wish list”, which you can distribute to other people so they can buy you stuff (hasn’t worked yet but still worth a try), or just keep track of what you want to buy in the future, and sell used goods through Amazon for a small fee. (You can of course buy used products too, which is sometimes a good way – or the only way - of getting hold of, for instance, out of print books.) Your recently viewed items (not just those you’ve actually bought, but those you’ve browsed) are also listed.
Service
You get a mixed bag here. You will receive an email confirmation of your order and of dispatch, but often when you order a rarer book etc, you will be informed by email (not on the site) that they will get it in 6 weeks or whatever, and later you will receive another email telling you that they have been unable to source the product (and thus the order has been cancelled). When this happens it is immensely annoying, though it has only happened with obscure South African books and films my wife wanted (obviously only available from amazon.co.za). On the plus side, I have never had any problems with billing, and they’ve never charged for something that was cancelled.
Delivery
Given that you’ve ordered something that is in stock, your order will be delivered in 3-5 days. This is not too bad but certainly not that impressive. To be fair an express delivery service is available, but it’s much too expensive to be worth it unless for some reason you desperately need whatever it is you’ve ordered. Packaging is good and I’ve never received anything from them that’s been damaged in transit.
Overall Impression
Amazon is certainly a good store, but some of the problems listed above are quite annoying. Unless you are going to be looking for rare items, however, you are likely to be very happy with Amazon’s service, and they certainly have good prices and a huge product range. Recommended but not without some small reservations.
Update (21.01.05)
Just thought I’d update you with my experiences on Amazon.co.uk regarding the Marketplace and Associates tools.
MARKETPLACE
You can sell your old books, DVDs, etc on Amazon. The system is somewhat similar to that used by Ebay in that buyers can rate your service afterwards. You set the price, describe the condition of the product etc, and Amazon sell it for you. They notify you when someone has bought something off you and advise to dispatch immediately. Alternatively, if the purchase hit a problem and the money’s not come through yet, Amazon will advise you to hold on until it goes through properly. The goods available can be listed according to price / condition. Amazon put some money towards postage on each item (a standard amount that in most cases is significantly more than you’ll need). On the other hand they take a percentage of each sale and VAT (Value Added Tax) also comes off (in the UK). They claim to pay any monies owed into your bank account every two weeks (as long as there’s something to pay, obviously), but in fact this seems to happen every week. Re-listing items (they only stay on for a set number of weeks) is fairly quick. (It takes about 3-5 minutes to list one and about a minute to re-list.) You make slightly less money than you would if you were selling direct, but you have the advantage of being associated with a recognised brand name and of course don’t have to pay for a service to accept credit cards. Overall, this is a service I would recommend.
Associates
This is Amazon’s affiliate program. You advertise them on your website and get a percentage of any profits from sales that come from visits coming off your site. There are many different tools such as direct links, banners, search boxes, product links, etc. The Associate Centre is well designed, easy to navigate, and contains some helpful information. The jury’s still out on how much commission it’s possible to earn and the percentage commission varies depending on the type of link. A simple link to their website is the lowest percentage earner. The highest is around 15%.) If you have a high traffic website related to the products Amazon sells (hey that sounds suspiciously like Epinions…!) then you could make a lot of money, but for the rest of us it’s a case of probably a few quid a year… if we’re lucky!
Oh and there’s another one…
Advantage
This is a service designed to help authors to market their books. Certainly this is something I might look into in the future, but as of now my publishing plans are on hold.
Thanks for reading!
CaptainD
Other Online Store Reviews:
Sold Out Software
Recommended:
Yes
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? Books, DVDs, CDs
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