Online Store: Amazon

Many people choose to buy on Amazon.com (including myself). And what's not to like? The website has a very useful interface, which contains many useful features to enhance a customer's shopping experience.

On entering the site however, I can't help but notice that the layout is a little too busy. There are a lot of images and several menus, and it will take a good few minutes to figure out where to go next.

The search bar, however, is very prominently placed in the header, and as long as there is a search bar, it will hopefully navigate you to the link with the info that you wish to search.

Also on the page is a 'cart' button where a customer can purchase and check-out and a 'wishlist' button where a customer can compose a list of items they wish to obtain someday.

On the left hand side, there is a list menu with different departments in which you can shop. A similar list can be found as a drop-down option pick menu next to the search bar. The rest of the page is filled with images of various products currently on sale, but because amazon.com is the American branch of the store, items other than books, CDs and DVDs cannot be shipped to Australia, which is disappointing. And there is not Australian branch, despite Amazon having other branches around the world like the United Kingdom and Japan.

Ok back to the layout, despite the slightly clunky interface, the site architecture is rather straightforward. You search in the 'search bar' it then takes you to a list of items with the relevant search result and from it the user picks the desired product.

The product outline. Is a very useful page, as it offers the customer lots of information about the product. The first way we can judge the product is by its user rating based on a 5-star key.

There are the product details such as the ISBN of the book, the editorial review as well as Amazon's suggestions of better value deals and related product recommendations. A feature on the page that I find very useful is the list of customer reviews. Reading several of those helps me formulate an opinion on what the product may be like in real life. On some product outlines, there is an option to flick through some sample pages of a book. Sometimes the customers even post youtube videos of them showing the different pages inside the book.

Overall I am very impressed with the functionality of the online store. Having shopped there before, I have to say that their service is very good too. I do wish there was an Amazon.com.au so that it be possible to purchase more types of items.