Getting Personal
Unlike its brick-and-mortar counterparts, Amazon.com offers special shop- ping perks to the masses. But instead of having a well-coifed aide to help you find the ideal item, Amazon makes you your own personal shopper.
Figure 3-6:
You can make changes to existing orders from the Order Summary page.
The key to taking advantage of your personal shopping privileges is first, knowing what perks are to be had, and second, taking a little time up front to get yourself set up.
Address Books
When you sign up at Amazon.com, you automatically have an Address Book that lives in Your Account. Of course, it’s empty until you make your first pur- chase. After that, it’s just you in there — a lonely e-row to hoe. Want a little company? You have two ways to beef up your Address Book:
Get gifty:Every time you buy a gift and have it sent to a new address, Amazon automatically puts that address in your Address Book.
Do it the old-fashioned way:There’s nothing stopping you from sitting down with your paper address book and entering some of your favorite people into your Amazon Address Book. First, click the Your Account button at the top of the Amazon home page to go to Your Account, then click the Manage Your Address Book link and there, right at the top of the page, you’ll see an Enter a New Address button. From there it’s as simple as click and type. (You can delete or edit addresses just as easily.)
1-Click
®settings
1-Click®orderingis Amazon’s patented technology that allows you to com- plete the buying process — from choosing to shipping to payment — with just one click of your mouse. It’s delightful and potentially devilish.
You’re automatically set up for 1-Click®ordering after you make your first pur- chase, assuming you pay with a credit card. Amazon stores your shipping and billing information as your default 1-Click®Ordering settings. As soon as you’ve made a purchase, the detail pages for all your items show blue Ready to Buy?
boxes like the one in Figure 3-7. You’ll notice that the box still includes the Add To Shopping Cart option. It also includes a gift-wrap check box and a drop-down menu that will allow you to ship your 1-Click®orders to anyone in your address book.
Figure 3-7:
A typical 1-click ordering box.
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Chapter 3: You Are the Master of Your Account
If you buy gifts at Amazon and have them sent directly to the recipients, those addresses are stored in both your Address Book and your 1-Click Ship To: drop-down menu. Then you can buy for those people again with just one click. Very handy during the holidays!
You can change your 1-Click®settings easily. You manage your 1-Click® settings and your address book on the same page. (See Figure 3-8.) Here’s how to turn your 1-Click®settings on or off:
1. Click the Your Account button at the top of the Amazon home page to go to Your Account.
2. Click the View or Change Your 1-Click Settings link.
You’ll find this link in the Account Settings section under Personal Information. (Refer to Figure 3-4 if you need some guidance here.) 3. Turn 1-click on or off.
The box in the upper-right corner, below the nav bar, tells you the status of your 1-Click®ordering and offers a yellow button to change the status from “on” to “off” (or vice versa).
You can also customize your 1-click settings according to the addresses in your Address Book. You can choose:
Whether to put a particular person in your 1-Click Ship To: drop-down menu
How you’d like the entry to appear in the drop-down menu Figure 3-8:
You manage both your
1-Click® settings and your address book from this page.
What shipping method you’d like to use for that person What credit card you’d like to use for that person
To make any of these changes, simply click the Edit button in the 1-Click®set- tings box to the right of the address you want to customize. You’ll come to a page that looks like Figure 3-9. Check the appropriate boxes and enter informa- tion in the fields provided. (If you scroll down, you’ll find the credit-card infor- mation section.) When you’re finished, click the Continue button. Your changes will be reflected in your 1-Click®drop-down immediately.
Recommendations
Amazon is always building your recommendations — compiling information about you and using it to suggest things you’ll like. Every time you buy some- thing from the folks at Amazon, they store that information and use it to further refine your recommendations. Amazon has hundreds of nifty ways to connect you with your dream book, video, sweater, bird house, chain saw, juicer . . . They know just how to tickle your fancy (and I talk more about how they do it in Part III). But when you first sign up at Amazon, you have no purchase history for them to work with. That’s why they created the Recommendation Wizard — it’s expressly for new shoppers.
The Recommendation Wizard is an amazing tool. You’ll find it at the end of the sign-up process, or, if you chose the Continue Shopping option when you signed up, you can access it in Your Store, under Your Recommendations.
Figure 3-9:
The 1-Click® customiza- tion page.
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Chapter 3: You Are the Master of Your Account
To get to Your Store simply click on the tab that has your name on it — literally.
(Once you sign up, Your Store changes to bear your name — for example, mine is Mara’s Store.) You’ll find that tab right next to the Welcome tab on just about every page of the site. You’ll find Your Recommendations in the subnav.
Using the Recommendation Wizard is simple and fun. Here’s how it works:
1. Go to the Recommendations Wizard page.
You can do this by clicking on the Start Recommendations Wizard button either on the last page in the sign-up process or from Your Store. For the latter, click on the Your Store tab, then on Your Recommendations in the subnav. You’ll see the Start Recommendations Wizard button in a blue box in the center of the page.
2. Check the boxes next to the stores that interest you and then click the Continue button.
Check as many as you like. As you move through the wizard, you’ll be asked to give more information for each store that you picked.
3. In the new page that appears, check the categories that interest you and then click the Continue button.
Figure 3-10 shows the category choice page for the Books store. For each store you chose in the previous step, you’re offered a separate page of category choices. If you chose 3 stores in Step 2, you have 3 pages of category choices to work through. When you complete your last page and click Continue, you come to the Add Details page.
Figure 3-10:
Select your favorite categories by checking the appropriate boxes.
4. In the Add Details page, enter the requested information in the fields provided and click Continue.
For each store you chose in Step 2, you’re asked to enter one favorite or Soon To Be Purchased item. So if you chose 3 stores in Step 2, you have to fill in 2 fields — one for each store. Now it’s time to ask yourself some serious questions: Who ismy favorite author? Which movie in the Star Warstrilogy is the best? Do I want to buy a juicer or a Dirt Devil?
5. Choose the appropriate number rating for each item, and check the box if you own the item.
Amazon displays items from each store you’ve chosen based on the information you give them in Steps 2 through 4. You can give items a rating from 1 to 5 with 5 as the best. If you’re unfamiliar with an item, leave it as a question mark. If you own it, check the I Own It box. This will keep them from offering it to you as a recommendation.
6. Click Rate More Items or Finish.
At the bottom of the page, you have the option to finish or rate more items. If you click Rate More Items, Amazon will simply offer up another list. You can rate as many items as you like. Feeling frisky? Rate some more. It only helps hone your recommendations. Otherwise you’re through and ready to reap the rewards of your efforts! When you do hit Finish, you’re taken back to the Your Store home page with your recom- mendation changes recorded. Amazon generates instant recommenda- tions based on the information you just gave them.
E-mail notifications: get ’em or get rid of ’em
Spam, or unsolicited junk e-mail, stinks. No two ways about it. But getting informative, relevant e-mail that you asked foris kind of fun. Amazon stays away from the former and is pretty good at the latter. Table 3-1 lists the e-mail notifications you can get from Amazon.com and gives a quick look at what they’re about.
Table 3-1 E-mail Notifications at Amazon.com
The E-mail The Scoop
Alerts Lets you know whether one of your favorite authors, artists, actors, or directors has put out a new release.
Available to Order Lets you know whether a not-yet-released or out-of-stock Notifications item is ready to order.
(continued)
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Chapter 3: You Are the Master of Your Account
Table 3-1 (continued)
The E-mail The Scoop
Delivers Features recommendations and editorial content based on categories that you choose.
New for You Uses your shopping history to offer recommendations and notify you of relevant new releases.
Share the Love Part of the Share the Love program. If you choose to participate, you’ll receive e-mail notifying you of discount opportunities that friends can send your way (via Amazon).
Special Occasion You tell Amazon about important dates in your life and Reminders they’ll send you an e-mail so you don’t forget.
Weekly Movie Listing of movies playing in your area.
Showtimes
To sign up, go to Your Account by clicking on the Your Account button in the Shopping Tools menu at the top of almost every age on the site. Then click any of the seven choices in the E-mail Notifications section. To unsubscribe, do the same.
Shopping lists and gift registries
Making use of Amazon’s lists and registries is a great way to give and get good gifts. There are three kinds of shopping lists or registries that you can use — Wish Lists and Baby and Wedding registries — and you can access them (yours or someone else’s) by clicking the links in the Shopping Lists & Gift Registries section in Your Account. (I explain how to find specific lists and registries — and how to set up your own — in Chapter 13.)
You don’t get those good gifts if your shipping address is wrong. The links to change or edit your addresses are also in the Shopping Lists & Gift Registries section in Your Account.
Money Talk: Credit Cards and Payment Issues
If you make a purchase at Amazon.com, it’s likely you’ll give them your credit- card number. Most people who shop at Amazon pay with a credit or check card because it’s easy and it’s safe. (Check out the sidebar if you need convincing.)
After you’ve given them that first number, it’s easy to change, add, or delete credit cards. There’s an entire section in Your Account devoted to payment settings. When you go there, the first link invites you to Edit or delete a credit card. (See Figure 3-11.) Doing either is as simple as clicking the appropriate button and then either confirming your desire to delete or enter- ing new credit-card information.
For those of you who are squeamish about giving out your credit-card infor- mation, you should know that Amazon has a few other payment options. The first time you place an order, you can choose to enter only the last 5 digits of your credit card. Amazon.com will then give you a phone number to call to enter the rest of the credit card and complete the order. Amazon also accepts personal checks, money orders, and cashier’s checks. The only hitch is that Figure 3-11:
Here’s where you’ll edit, add, or delete credit cards.