Amazon - helping you buy more (amazon.co.uk)

Member Name: Astavar

Product:	amazon.co.uk
Date:	15/06/09 (12 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: easy to search quickly

Disadvantages: busy, cluttered pages

I have really only started using Amazon in the last couple of years, and then only to buy products. I like that the service gives you the choice of purchasing from Amazon directly, or through a private seller - it's like being able to go into your local department store, choosing what you want to buy, and then also being offered the choice of purchasing your item from another store or even a charity shop! I also like that when you click on the link show the other 'new & used' offerings of an item, the site orders them from cheapest to most expensive including postage - rather than just by the item price. The ability to immediately read reviews on the items you're considering - without having to search other sites - is also a bonus.

What I don't like is the clutter. Once you've clicked on an item, the page returned by the site has a LOT of information - much of which is intended to encourage you to buy more. Suggestions of other things you might like to buy, what other people bought after viewing the item, suggested tags of interest... Encouraging people to buy more than the one thing they went looking for is a constant challenge for websites, where you don't have the easy temptation of shelves full of goodies to walk past on your way to the checkout. Amazon deals with this using clever software to make matches & suggest things you might be interested in, and then forces you to scroll past all this waffle while you're on your way to the reviews section right at the bottom of the page. When I'm looking at a toaster, I want to know if other people think it works - not get sidetracked by six other kitchen appliances I might also be interested in!

Yes, I do love shopping on Amazon. I've never had a problem with deliveries from Amazon or any of the sellers advertising items on Amazon. Packages arrive on time & undamaged, with no unexpected surprises. And I do appreciate that it gives me suggestions I might not have thought of previously - that's particularly good for gift shopping. You can go online with one idea and have ten more possibilities with a few keyboard strokes. I just wish that they didn't try to put every possible piece of useful information on the same page.

Summary: Good to use, so long as you're not easily distracted.