Amazon.co.uk > Reviews > Who needs High Streets

Author's product rating:   

Range of Services / Products	Very complete
Products & Services Pricing	Excellent value
Security & Privacy Statement	Excellent
Purchase Tracking Function	Excellent
Customer Services Support	Good

Advantages:	Huge range  Good service
Disadvantages:	Free Postage and Packing would be nice

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I really wish I'd never been given access to a credit card and I also wish that sites like AMAZON.CO.UK didn't make it so damn easy to spend my hard earned pennies.

The Site
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Accessed via www.amazon.co.uk, the website is very well laid out and the range of goods they sell is amazing. At the top of the page is a list of all the departments. From left to right they are:

1)Welcome - This is the home page that greets you when you log on. It gives you a basic overview of what's new and what's on offer. If you've used amazon before and registered, it brings up items that are similar to your previous purchases that you may be interested in. Very good sales technique.

2)Your store - This allows you to personalize your home page on amazon so that it comes up with the departments that you'd be most interested in.

3)Books - A truly staggering selection of books and amazon is regarded as the last resort when trying to find an elusive title. You can search this section, as you can with the entire site, by entering text in the search box at the top of the page. You are shown their top 100 selling books list along with special offers. Not only are you likely to find any book you could imagine, you may also find a few reviews on it by customers and more often than not, you'll pay a couple of quid less than the publishers rrp.

4)Electronics and photo - Yet again, a truly awe inspiring range of electrical goods varying from cameras to dvd players to mobile phones. They have a comprehensive range that makes this section of the site resemble a combination of Dixons, PC world, Jessops, carphonewarehouse and the type of shop in Tottenham Court Road that always seems to have the very latest stuff from Japan a few months before everyone else.

5)Music - An excellent site (and topic of one of my previous reviews) called CD wow sells chart CD's for £8.99 with free postage and packing. Amazon kind of went one better and you can now buy the majority of chart CD's and pre-releases for £8.49. Every musical genre is catered for and it's as comprehensive a source of products as the books section.

6)DVD - As with music and books, you can get just about every title available from this section of the site and they seem to have reductions on every single title. There is a list of forthcoming titles which you can order so that they are despatched to you on their day of release (this is in common with every other part of the website). Unlike a lot of other websites, they only seem to stock the region that works on UK dvds which could be limiting if a title you really wanted had been available in Japan for months and you had a multi-region dvd player.

7)Video - As above but with VHS videos.

8)Software - This section offers a huge range of programs for household computers but doesn't include games. The kind of titles on sale here are utility programs such as anti-virus and firewalls, educational programs for adults and children alike and useful programs such as autoroute which helps you navigate this countrys fabulous road network. PC's, Applemacs, Linux and PDA's are catered for.

9)PC and video games - Could also be titled "where Richards salary goes" as there always seems to be a brand new Xbox or PC game on the main page that I feel compelled to buy. Every platform is covered by this section from PC through to Gameboy advance and you can generally get five to ten pounds off the price you'd pay in the high street. A huge range of games and accessories such as memory cards and extra controllers.

10)Kitchen and home - A new section at the time of writing. This section deals with electrical home appliances such as food processors and the smaller electrical goods you'd find in most kitchens. They don't stock the larger items such as freezers or dishwashers. You can also buy a large range of cutlery and other items used in the preparation and devouring of food.

11)Toys and kids - Everything for kids that you could possibly want. This contains a selection of quality toys and educational goods. Items are classified by the age group of the child up to 16 years. There is a large amount of crossover on this page with kids dvd's, videos, video games and software but it's handy to have it all in one place.

12)Travel - This is a direct link to expedia.co.uk and is the standard format for these types of websites. Enter destination, dep date, arr date etc etc but is nevertheless a useful part of the site and I'm sure there are many fine bargains to be had here. Sadly I don't get many days off work to find out.

13)Gifts - Basically a collection of goods available elsewhere on the site but presented as good gift ideas. You can search by gender, age etc of the person you are buying a gift for and when I tried it for my girlfriend, it returned a lot of very good and interesting ideas.

Ordering
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As with nearly all on-line shops, you select items to go into your shopping basket. When you have selected all that you want, you go to the checkout. Here you enter your credit card details and they add the postage and packing price to your total. This varies hugely depending on how quickly you want the item delivered, if you are ordering numerous items do you want them all despatched as one parcel and how heavy your order is. It's all explained. Once you've given your card details and they've been accepted, you are given an order reference and an e-mail is sent to you confirming your order. An e-mail is also sent once your order is despatched from their depot. I usually order CD's, books and video games. They normally come in 4 days or so and are wrapped in strong, corrugated cardboard. If there is a delay then you can track your items using the order tracking service where you enter your order number.

Experience
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I've used amazon a few times now and I've yet to experience any problems. They're quick, efficient and being able to track your order gives people like me (technophobes!!) peace of mind. Even with added P+P, buying from Amazon is cheaper than most other websites and certainly far less expensive than the high street. The only downside is that you can't see or sample what you're buying.

Overall
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I would thoroughly recommend this site as it is incredibly easy to find even the most obscure titles and goods. They are honest about delivery times and are now such a big company that the whole process is run very professionally indeed. By all means shop around, CDwow will get close to their prices but I favour Amazob.co.uk over all the other online shops.
Thanks for reading.