Cashback, Comfort & Convenience (amazon.co.uk)

Member Name: campb3ll

Product:	amazon.co.uk
Date:	05/09/01 (99 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Up to 15% cashback through associates program, Product range is constantly increasing, Price reductions of up to 50% on many products

Disadvantages: Delivery charges may seem prohibitive

Shopping at Amazon.co.uk is a dream. It is incredibly easy to locate and purchase products and you can always be assured of prompt delivery and excellent customer service. There are few offline stores that can rival Amazon.co.uk when it comes to comfortable, convinient shopping.

Shopping At Amazon
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Amazon.co.uk is part of the large Amazon chain, which includes Amazon.com, Amazon.de and Amazon.fr. The store is divided into several departments: books, DVDs, music, videos, electronics, software and toys.

Amazon.co.uk was originally known solely as a bookstore and it certainly carries a wide selection of books, including many US editions and foreign language editions, in a range of formats from hardback to audio. You can browse for books in three ways: you can explore the categories e.g. computing, you can run a keyword search, or you can look at the recommendations. Browsing the categories is fairly self explanatory, so I'll leave that to one side. At the top of each page is a small text box with a drop-down search menu; simply enter a few keywords such as title or author, select "books" and press the search button. If your memory fails you, then you can turn to curiosity and take a look at Amazon.co.uk's book recommendations or, if you have previously shopped at the store, you can look at your personal book recommendations. Simply sign-in and Amazon.co.uk will generate a selection of books based on your previous purchases. It works in two ways. Firstly, by rating (on a scale of one to five) your previous purchases and/or any books that catch your eye, you will demonstrate your reading preferences. Secondly, Amazon.co.uk keeps track of customer purchases so it knows what people are likely to buy if they have previously bought particular books. These three browsing mechanisms apply to the entire store, not just the books department.

On making your product selection, you can purchase it in two wa
ys - by adding it to your shopping basket or through the "1-click" service. The latter option will immediately order your product using a previously stored address and payment method. Although you can cancel the order or amend it, I am not convinced of its usefulness unless you are happy to ignore order details through lack of time. If you add the product to your shopping basket, it will remain there for up to 90 days. Clicking on your shopping basket icon, at the top of each page, will bring up a list of its contents. You can either leave them in the basket or save them for later. Once you have completed your product selections, you can proceed to the checkout. If you are a new customer, you will have to enter an email address and select a password; returning customers will simply enter their details and log on using either the secure server (recommended) or the standard server.

The checkout process is very thorough and very easy. You can specify different addresses for delivery and invoicing. You can opt for multiple delivery addresses (subject to multiple delivery charges), which can be convenient if you are ordering a number of gifts. If your purchases do include gifts, you can include an optional free message for the recipient and you can opt to have the item(s) giftwrapped at a cost of around £2.95 per item. Payment can be done using a credit or debit card (over the internet or by phoning the store with your card details), by cheque (to be sent to the store before delivery) or by gift certificate. Card details are stored for 30 days, which is perfectly safe if you signed in using the secure server. Gift certificates may used as full or part payment, and any unused balance will be stored in your account. You will be notified by email when your order is placed and, later on, when it is dispatched. This information is also available within your account and you can review your order or modify/cancel it right up till it is dispatched.

Wi
sh List & Bargains
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I have no doubt that at the end of the day, most shoppers are secretly hoping for a bargain that is either free or extremely cheap. Amazon.co.uk provides both of these, in a manner of speaking.

Setting up a "wish list" is very easy. Whenever a particular product catches your eye, you can simply add it to your wish list. The first time you do this, you'll have to enter a few personal details including your name, address and brief description. You can choose to either keep your wish list private or to leave it open to public viewing. The latter option allows other customers searching for your wish list to view your choices and hopefully (in your dreams) buy some for you. Once your wish list has been created, you can email it to your friends and relatives as a subtle hint around your birthday or whenever you feel like badgering them for a present. Although your wish list can be open to public viewing, your address will not be displayed to all and sundry - what is actually displayed is a discrete message saying the item(s) can be delivered to Jane Doe. A customer will actually need to know your name and/or address to find your wish list, not the other way round; this pretty much ensures that only very close friends and relatives are likely to (a) locate your wish list and (b) send you a free present.

The bargains sub-department contains a selection of cheap, reduced products. Typical offerings include DVDs for £9.99 GBP a pop and books for under £5 GBP, although there are offerings from all the main departments. Products are usually reduced either because they're "old" or because they're on the bestsellers lists. Amazon.co.uk maintains bestsellers lists for all its departments, so you can find such gems as the top 100 books and the top 25 toys. Although Amazon.co.uk usually offers savings on most of its products, the "hot" items usually carry the largest redu
ctions in order to entice new customers e.g. the bestselling books have up to 50% reductions.

Amazon Partners
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As wonderful as Amazon.co.uk are, sometimes it is necessary or mutually beneficial (to them) to take on a "partner" rather than carry particular types of products in their own warehouses. At the moment, Amazon.co.uk's only partner is Carphone Warehouse, which provides a range of pre-pay cellphones. The Carphone Warehouse is probably one of the biggest independent cellphone stores in the UK, so they are undoubtably a good choice of supplier for Amazon.co.uk. When buying a cellphone at Amazon.co.uk, you order the phone in the same way as any other product. The only difference is that, in addition to all other benefits, you receive a warranty from Carphone Warehouse - the original supplier of the product - i.e. if the phone becomes damaged, you can go to an offline Carphone Warehouse store and request a repair/replacement.

This arrangement does seem to be A Good Thing for Amazon.co.uk customers as it doesn't affect the shopping experience and provides additional benefits. I'm not sure, though, if I'd be happy with this on a wider scale. One of Amazon.co.uk's sister stores, Amazon.com, has a vast array of partners which don't just provide products through the store - instead, they actually replicate entire departments. So, instead of buying your health and beauty products from Amazon.com, you are actually buying from XXX who have just placed Amazon.com's name at the top of their micro-site. I can't really say that this appeals to me. I understand that the Amazon brand is widely known and has a good reputation but you can't turn other stores into comparable brand names simply through association with Amazon. On the other hand, perhaps I'm not allowing for the differences between the British and American markets.

Gift Certificates
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r><br>Gift certificates make a great last minute present, especially if the recipient is one of those people who seem have everything. On the other hand, it's probably a lot nicer to receive a gift certificate, from your point of view. You can immediately claim the value by signing in, going to the "your account" page and selecting the view/claim gift certificates option. Enter the certificate code(s) and the balance will be stored; you can select your gift certificate balance as a payment option when you next shop at the store.

If you are a new Amazon.co.uk customer, you can get a £5 GBP gift certificate to offset against your first purchase. This is part of the "introduce a friend" scheme that Amazon.co.uk operates. Existing customers simply send an email via Amazon.co.uk to their friends and each new customer, as well as the existing customer, will receive a promotional email including a £5 GBP gift certificate. So, if you are not an existing customer, just ask one of your mates to refer you through the "introduce a friend" scheme. (I am, obviously, happy to do this but I am sure that Amazon.co.uk's popularity will ensure that at least one of your friends already shops there.) This scheme operates across all the Amazon stores, so you cannot become a "new" customer at Amazon.com after registering at Amazon.co.uk.

Amazon.co.uk's popularity makes the store a perfect partner for many companies seeking to do promotions. For example, Thomas Cook recently did a promotion featuring a £3 GBP promotional gift certificate upon registration for their newsletter. If you receive a promotional gift certificate, it will typically have a minimum spend condition e.g. £3 GBP redeemable against £7.50 GBP or more. When using promotional gift certificates in part payment, you cannot store the value in your account - you must claim the value at the checkout.

Associates Program
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Amazon.co.uk run an associates program, which is open to almost anyone with a website. You simply provide details of your website and what products you intend to "sell" and Amazon.co.uk will process your membership. Unless your website is clearly empty or offensive, you will be accepted for membership within a few days. You can change your website details at any time, so don't worry if your fan site switches loyalties from Steps to Radiohead. If you are an Amazon.co.uk, you will use the same email address and password for both your customer account and your associates account.

Simply browse the store for suitable products and use the appropriate page in the associates section to generate links. An individual product generates more revenue than a general link to the store; typical earnings range from 5% to 15% of a product's price excluding giftwrap and delivery costs.

If you happen to have a popular website with a large amount of unique visitors (as opposed to hits) then the associates program may prove to be a useful secondary income. This is a pretty unlikely scenario for the typical Amazon.co.uk customer. Don't let this stop you from taking advantage of the associates program, though. Once you've registered for the program, there is nothing to stop you from generating individual products links for your own use - effectively giving you between 5% to 15% cashback on all your purchases. If you don't have your own website, it is not difficult to create one using a free web space host e.g. Tripod, GeoCities. The benefits outweigh the small amount of effort needed to generate a simple one page website.

The associates program pays out every quarter, provided you've reached at least £10 GBP. You can choose to be paid either directly into your bank account or with Amazon.co.uk gift certificates. Alternatively, you can also opt to let your funds accumulate in your associates account - when you want to be pa
id, simply select one of the two payment options.

Final Summary
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Amazon.co.uk is a wonderful store; if it was possible to do all my shopping there, I would. My purchases have always been delivered promptly and in excellent condition. Gifts have always been tastefully wrapped and messages have always been faithfully transcribed. I have only shopped at one of its sister stores, Amazon.com, but, allowing for the distance between the UK and the US, my purchase was handled with the same care that Amazon.co.uk exerts. I have not mentioned delivery charges in this opinion because they vary greatly depending on the combination of products ordered, the country of delivery and the applicable V.A.T. of the country in question. For example, an order of two books for delivery in the UK by first class post would cost £2.16 GBP plus £0.59 GBP per book. Delivery charges are not cheap but do ensure reliable, rapid delivery which proves the adage "you get what you pay for" is true. Over all, I would definitely recommend this store to anyone - this is a store that all other stores should aspire to become.