Saturday, October 25, 2008

Research on Amazon.com

Amazon.com is an American e-commerce company based in Seattle, Washington. It was founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994 and was launched online in 1995. Amazon started off as an online bookstore, but soon, it started seeling other products like music CDs, computer software, video games, electronics, food, toys, etc. It is one of the most commonly used and biggest online shopping site in the world.






The website of Amazon.com is very bright and appealing. On it's home page, one is greeted by many advertisements, and also many of it's newer or more popular products. The name of a certain well known celebrity has also been used to promote it's very own product.


The Home page of Amazon.com is bright and lively. It's company colour (Yellow) is used for its headings and sub-headings. The homepage is very user friendly. One can navigate around the site easily thanks to the very organised toolbars at the side.




The items sold online are categorised into various categories like electronics, sports, tools, etc. You just have to move your cursor over the category and a pop up comes on. There, the category is further broken down into specific items for various uses. (as can be seen from the picture above)


On the top of the home page, there is a search bar for users to do a quick search for the products they are looking for. This makes things very much easier than searching through the various sub-categories just to look for one product.

Using the drop-down bar and the search bar together helps speed things up a lot. You are able to click on the category of which you want to find your product in, and then type in the product name in the search bar. Hit the "enter" key and you are transported to the product(s) you would like to purchase in an instant.



Product advertisemants are done with contrasting colours, Yellow to denote the product category, and blue as a quick link to more details of the product. Eye-catching images and catch phrases are used to catpure the attention of potential buyers, and even window shoppers. This in fact, boost sales as people seeing the products might buy on impulse.

Amazon.com also allows users to rate items, recommend products, suggest ways to improve the webpage. They even allow frequent users to have an account with them, so that it makes buying and shopping a lot easier. Payment can be done by visa or mastercard, which allows easy paymen for goods. this saves users a lot of time and its hassle-free.