Amazin' Amazon
Written: Jul 27 '01 (Updated Jul 27 '01)
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The Bottom Line
Amazon has survived some growing pains to become a viable option for movies, music, and electronics. If you get lucky you can get some real bargains.
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| Full Review |
I have been buying books, CDs, and DVDs online for a long time. When I first started buying books online Amazon was just a bookstore, and Amazon and Barnes & Noble were the only two real online bookstores. I much preferred Barnes & Noble.
Some time later, a friend mentioned that Amazon had expanded into CDs and videos. I had just bought my DVD player and was buying DVDs like they were going out of style. This was the height of the online shopping wars, and most retailers produced frequent coupons, coupons that often brought the price of DVDs to $10 or less even with shipping. Amazon was expensive, and again I passed it up.
Then Amazon started branching out even more, carrying software, computer peripherals, compact flash and other storage media, and PDAs. I was now paying attention.
Now Amazon sells just about everything but the kitchen sink, and I wouldn't be shocked to see them sell kitchen sinks soon. They have stores, or web fronts, specializing in books, movies, toys, electronics, kitchen gear, tools, and other areas. Furthermore, with the crash of many online retailers and the move back toward normalized prices, buying from Amazon is frequently a cost-effective choice.
The Features
Amazon offers many tools to help their customers enjoy a smooth shopping experience.
They use persistent shopping carts so you can leave items of interest in your cart for up to 90 days. In addition, you can keep items on a wish list. Wish lists are fairly standard, but Amazon takes them one step further than the norm - they let you make your wish list publically available. Have a birthday coming up? Add the presents you want to your wishlist and send your friends and family the URL.
Amazon also has a very complex recommendation that uses the buying decisions of other who have professed interest in the same items you like to make recommendations tailored specifically to your taste. Other sites try this, but I haven't seen it done nearly as well elsewhere.
Amazon also collects user reviews of items, particularly books, music, and movies. These reviews are easily accessed from the relevant product page, providing more information than just the standard blurb found on most web stores.
Amazon also has an excellent gift certificate management system allowing you to redeem gift certificates as soon as you get them rather than waiting for you to make a purchase. They are applied as credits to your account and can be used across multiple orders.
I could spend another hours describing all of the features of Amazon, but I won't subject any of us to that pain. Instead I will say that it is one of the most feature filled stores in existence.
Layout
Amazon has changed their layout several times since my first visit. I must admit that I find the current layout takes some getting used to. There are so many things you can do from every page that sometimes I'm not sure where I am supposed to look on a specific page.
That said, Amazon uses a fairly standard tabbed interface, one tab per major storefront. These tabs run across the top of the screen. Down the left side you will find a more detailed list of available stores. This area is context sensitive, changing to a menu system specific to your location within the site. On the games tab you will see links for Dreamcast, Gameboy Advance, Mac Games, etc. Advertising and recommendations fill the right side of the screen. The bottom has some additional standard navigation links to things like shipping information and your account information.
Cost
As I mentioned above, Amazon is now quite in line with other stores for most items. Sometimes you can get lucky and find a real bargain (I bought my Kodak DC280 camera for $316 at a time most stores sold it for about $550-600). Some things will be more expensive than the norm, but these are getting rarer and rarer as time goes on.
Shipping
Amazon offers three shipping options: Standard, UPS 2nd Day, and UPS Next Day. In all cases, the charges are calculated as a combination of a flat order fee and a per item charge. The specific amount of each charge is highly dependent on your location and the type of items you buy.
Overall Rating
Over the course of time, Amazon has moved from a store I avoided like the plague to a store I frequent often. It generally offers a large selection of reasonably priced merchandise. You do need to be careful as some items can be overpriced. With that one warning in mind, I heartily recommend shopping at Amazon.
Recommended:
Yes
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