Armchair shopping with Amazon (amazon.co.uk)

Member Name: sheri3004

Product:	amazon.co.uk
Date:	09/11/05 (104 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Huge range of products, quick despatch, competitive prices

Disadvantages: Not always the cheapest

Amazon is best known as the world’s biggest online bookseller, but there’s a lot more to it than just selling books. (It’s also, of course, well known to Dooyoo members through those nice vouchers... though I’m still waiting for my first one to arrive!) As well as the UK, Amazon operates in a number of countries: the USA, France, Spain, Germany, Austria, Canada, China and Japan.

In addition to books, Amazon offers a wide range of merchandise including CDs, DVDs and videos (incorporating a DVD rental service - £5.99 per month for 3 DVDs), electronic and photographic equipment, games and software, a Home and Garden section which has various small(ish) kitchen appliances, cookware, DIY and garden tools and personal care type things (hairdryers and so on), and a Toys and Games section selling toys for various age groups. Information is provided about each product, usually including a picture, although the amount of information does vary according to the product. Some older books, for instance, have very little information included in their listing. Amazon’s prices are usually very competitive, although the postage cost also has to be taken into account. Despatch of goods is also normally very quick. Some items do take longer for various reasons, and the customer is generally alerted to this in the product listing.

As well as selling directly to its customers, Amazon also offers its “Marketplace” service whereby private sellers can offer either new or used items for sale to customers, Amazon taking a percentage (currently 15%) of the proceeds as commission, plus a 75p closing fee. Used items are categorised according to their condition (As New, Very Good, Good, etc) and sellers can include a brief description of the item. Payment for this is handled through the Amazon Payments service – buyers pay Amazon, usually via credit or debit card, which then subsequently transfers the funds – less commission and closing fee – to the seller’s bank account. Sellers can choose their own price, but postage is charged at a fixed rate depending on the type of product. Items are despatched directly from seller to buyer once payment has been received by Amazon, and there is an expectation that items will be posted within 1 to 2 days of the sale being completed. There is a feedback system, similar to eBay, whereby both sellers and buyers can provide feedback on how the transaction went. Amazon’s Safe Buying Guarantee enables buyers to request reimbursement if an item purchased did not arrived, or was not as described by the seller.

Another feature of Amazon is the customer review facility, where customers can give other Amazon users the benefit of their opinion of a particular product. There is no payment for reviews, and the quality varies widely – some reviews are highly detailed and informative, others consist only of a few words. Readers of others’ reviews can rate whether they found the review to be helpful or not. Reviewers are ranked according to how many helpful ratings they have received, and users can view the work of top-ranked reviewers.

Once you have registered with Amazon, the site will begin to build up a picture of the type of product you are interested in, and this enables it to offer “Recommendations” – you can assist in this process by rating on a scale of 1 to 5 how much you liked a certain product. When you purchase something Amazon will also suggest other products you may be interested in, based on what others have bought. I have found the recommendations to be quite useful on occasion and they have at times alerted me to authors, etc of whom I was not previously aware. However, the system is not foolproof. Amazon often just seems to identify similar products, so for instance I have been offered hardback or audiobook versions of paperback books which I have already bought, although I have never once purchased an audiobook and am not likely to do so!

Amazon offers you the facility to draw up a “wish list” of items you would like people to buy for you – your friends and admirers can then view this online and hopefully buy you lots of pressies! (I have never used this myself, though I did once buy a CD for my brother’s birthday from his wish list.)

Amazon is a well-laid-out, easy to use site and as it is now so well established, has a good reputation for reliability. Personally I have bought things from Amazon on many occasions and have never had a problem with the speed or efficiency of despatch, although doubtless things do occasionally go wrong. One of the beauties of Amazon as far as I am concerned is the enormous range of products, especially books – it’s a great place to track down out of print or hard to find titles, and even if Amazon is not selling the product itself, there is often a used copy available via the Marketplace. You do have to watch out for prices, though – some sellers try to charge ridiculous prices for out of print – but not intrinsically valuable - items, presumably on the off-chance that somebody is prepared to pay it.

While on the subject of price, it’s also worth mentioning that while Amazon often offers substantial discounts on many items, it is not necessarily the cheapest, particularly when the cost of postage is added on. It is definitely worth shopping around to compare prices for certain more costly items, such as computer games. There can be a tendency to think everything will be cheaper from the Internet, and indeed this is often the case, but sometimes you may find an item more cheaply on the High Street. Of course, shopping from Amazon does have the advantage that purchases are delivered to your door, avoiding the need to trail around the shops!

Overall, based on my personal experience I would highly recommend Amazon on the basis of the efficiency of its service and the wide range of items it can offer, either directly or via the Marketplace facility.

Summary: One-stop shop for books, CDs, DVDs and much more.