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My new favorite place to shop online is Amazon.com. This place has such a huge amount of inventory it is ridiculous. In fact, if I don't watch it, it is going to replace ebay as my new #1 shopping store online. I am very much into the fact that if I can't find what I am looking for in a store, like a rare dvd, more often than not Amazon.com has a huge stockpile of just what I need.

I have used Amazon.com a few times in the past a couple of years ago I guess when they were just landing on their feet. At the time, I had a bad view of them because it took something like a month and a half for me to finally recieve what I had ordered. Well, afterwards I had a somewhat bad taste leftover in my mouth from them and refused to order from that site again. Well, recently, I've been ordering holiday gifts online, for the same reasons everyone else does, because it is more convienant and I don't have to go to the store. I needed to buy a gift for someone except I couldn't find what I needed anywhere. So, I was led to Amazon.com, where of course I found a large quantity of what I needed in stock. Even though I was wary about it, I needed to order the dvd from them since they were the only place I could find that could hopefully get it to me quick enough. I made my account, set everything up and chose to upgrade my shipping to the $6.00 option. That would deliver it to me in an estimated 2-3 days. So, I woke up the next day and checked my email, suprised to see that there was a tracking number. And that what I had ordered was out for delivery! A couple of hours later, I had it in my hands. I think that has to be one of the speediest shopping experiences I've ever had online. It arrived sooner than the suggested delivery date! I think what has added to the credibility of Amazon.com is the fact that they paired up with Borders and the more handy feedback system that they have. Maybe by attaching the name Borders, they have whittled out the poor sellers and now aim to be more reputed. For me, they are no longer that vague website where you can order things and only half expect them to come!

Site appearance and ease of navigation

When you first enter to the site, you might sit there for a few seconds with the mouse arrow poised over many different categories and subcategories. You're eyes try to take in all of the choices and sales at once. But once you figure out what it is you have come for, you can get the ball rolling pretty quickly. The layout is orderly and just a white background with blue font so no eye straining shopping session here. No loitering scams are in place and everything is very simple to understand at just first glance. To sum it up, it is very concise. Like for instance, in the movie category, theres subcategories which have options such as; browse genres, new releases, top sellers dvd deals, etc. All very useful and adds to your shopping experience in a very pleasant way. I like to be able to browse by genres instead of just combing through every dvd known to mankind.

Product Selection

Perhaps one of the best aspects of Amazon.com is the fact that they offer new and used products. Just find what you want and you can pick and choose from a slew of sellers with a slew of different prices. Even from Amazon.com if you want. Whatever you desire, the prices can vary greatly from used to new. For instance, if you want to purchase a new dvd you can get it for $18.00, but if you do not mind it being used, sometimes they can go real low, like $5.00. Its good cause the sellers seem to be competitive with their prices, so you can always find a good deal. The books and dvds sections will never run dry. It seems they have every title known to exist.

Shipping and Pricing

In the recent times that I've shopped on Amazon.com, shipping has been a breeze. One of the reasons I started ordering from here again. Although I know that every experience won't be all good. The majority is. Just read the feedback of the seller you are ordering from to protect yourself from slow or faulty shipping. On the ordering page, you can select lots of methods of shipping. The smaller the item the more you should think about getting 2 day shipping, because whats $6.00 to get your item tomorrow, versus $3.00 to wait a week or two? The bigger the item, of course, the more you will pay. Watch for the discount shipping items all over Amazon as well. Usually they have good ones that you can use and save some money with. A new addition to the ordering page that I really love is the fact that they give you an estimate of how long it should take for you to recieve your item to the day! I've never seen that before and think that that feature is worth shopping here for over Ebay alone!


Product reviews

Another one of the best things about Amazon are the user reviews. Sometimes I will come to this site purely for the reviews to help me make my buying choices! Every book, every movie, and cd, plus everything that is sold on here has multiple reviews if not hundreds or thousands of them. They are short, rate with stars and each is given an overall rating. The best part is all you have to do is scroll down and they are right underneath the product description along with lists and recommended items. They are all layered on top of one another so you can do some pretty good detective work real fast. I think I have been coming to Amazon for the reviews since this site has existed!

Help Pages and Contact

Visiting the help pages is a little messy. Link upon link brings you to yet another link. You have to really do some searching around to get the help that you are seeking. Contacting support is also somewhat mind-boggling. I can't locate a phone number or email address on this site even though I'm pretty sure you can order over the phone. Just looking at those help pages will give me a headache. Maybe I'm just impatient when it comes to scouring those things.

Maybe Amazon.com will become the #1 online store, who knows? From what I've seen so far, they have come far and are only gaining full steam. Ebay was my go to shop online, now I don't know where I will go to anymore. In some ways Amazon.com has them beaten, like in quickness, reliability and the almost non-threat of lurking scams. Those seem like a good enough reason to ditch Ebay. However, I don't think I could fully do that though, since Amazon.com does not have as stellar a collection or multitude of choices for shoes like Ebay. Thats pretty much the only area Ebay has them beaten. Plus, Amazon.com is customized, they take note of your purchases or browsing activity and recommend some things you might like or enjoy. Ebay definitly does not do that. Amazon.com's trustworthiness and extra features pushes it just over the top of Ebay for me. Check it out and decide for yourself.