Amazon.co.uk > Reviews > Tall, Strong, Aggressive Woman

Author's product rating:   

Range of Services / Products	Good selection
Products & Services Pricing	Reasonable
Security & Privacy Statement	Good
Purchase Tracking Function	Good
Customer Services Support	Good

Advantages:	A huge range of products
Disadvantages:	High delivery charges for orders under £25

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

The overall layout of the Amazon.co.uk website is nice and well organised, with a subtle, blue and yellow colour scheme. They have not gone overboard with this, and as the page consists mainly of white space it looks uncluttered.

I think the fact that the website looks uncluttered is a great achievement, as there seems to be millions of products for sale! The navigation scheme is good, with menus across the top and links down the side, it is very clear where I should click if I am looking for something. Alternatively I can just jump straight in and use the search box at the top of the page to look for my products, which is very useful.

I like the fact that when you do a search you can choose the shop you want to search in, such as DVD or Toys, and then enter keywords to look for products in that particular shop. Alternatively you can do a much broader keyword search across all products in all shops. When I searched for the book 'The Selfish Gene' I misspelled it and the book still came out as the top search result.

I do find what I am looking for most of the time, however when they list the search results they do not always put the exact match at the top of the search results they return. For example, when I searched for 'Flash MX 2004' the top product returned was 'Studio MX 2004 with Flash Professional Student Boxed Edition', and Flash MX 2004 was number 3, which was a bit puzzling. They do however provide you with a sortable list of all the search results, and you can sort them in a variety of ways including by price and best selling.

When you see a product in the search results it clearly states the price underneath it (including the price if you want to buy it used from the Market Place). You can then click on the product, which takes you to a page with an abundance of information about it. For the book I searched for this included a picture, reviews, related articles, table of contents and other offerings from the same author, all of which could be reached through a table of links on the left hand side of the page. (The table of links about the product that appears is relative to the product you have searched for).

The site clearly states that you get free UK delivery on orders over £25, but my book was £7.19 and I didn't want to buy anything else. So, how much is delivery? I couldn't see the price of delivery on the page about the product so I decided to look for it. I went to HELP, which I easily found at the top right hand corner of the page and was taken to a table of links. I instantly saw a Dispatch and Delivery Links heading with a Delivery Rates link underneath it, and upon clicking this I was taken to a page that explained it. The cost of delivery wasn't immediately obvious though as you pay per item delivered and per delivery so you have to do a bit of adding up. I'm afraid the site loses points for this!

I was however, encouraged to continue with my purchase, as there was a very obvious 'Add to Shopping Basket' link on the right side of the page with a link to the Amazon guarantee that shopping with them is safe. Using the shopping basket is very straightforward. When you put something in the basket you get taken to a page which informs you what other customers who bought the same product also bought (plug plug). There you will also find a link to proceed to the checkout and edit the shopping basket. You can easily see exactly what is in your shopping basket, change the quantity of each item, delete it or save it for later.

When you proceed to the checkout you have to login, or register if you haven’t already. I found the registration process straightforward. You get taken to the registration page when you place your first order and they walk you through the process step by step. You only need to register your address and credit card details once, and all you need to do for future orders is sign in. You finally find out at the checkout how much your order is in total, for my book it was £9.94 (£2.75 postage and packing, a bit steep if you ask me) and was to be dispatched in 24 hours.

It is very easy to log in. When you go back to the site it recognises you - there is a personal greeting with recommendations for you. You can also improve your recommendations by telling Amazon more about your interests (there is a link to follow on the right side of the page). On the left side of the page there is a link 'Your Favourite Stores' where you can tell them your favourite store categories. Amazon will then base your recommendations on these as well.

All in all the site feels very current - it is nearly Halloween and there is a link to the Halloween shop at the top of the page. I feel like it is my own personal page as it seems warm and inviting. But sometimes they put something I really want in my recommendations and I end up buying it - which is great for them but not so great for my bank balance.

This site seems to have a much broader range of products than other sites; you can buy lots of different types of things all at once! I have not come across another site that personalises the page for you as well as Amazon. You can buy used items from the market place as well, which are often cheaper. I have bought items new from Amazon and from the market place and have always been pleased with the quality of the goods and the speed of delivery. Things usually arrive within a week and quite often in just 2 days. Overall, a great site to shop from but I am not impressed with their delivery charges!

Thanks to all who have read, rated and commented on my past opinions.