The Main Stops on the Shopping Circuit

The Main Stops on the Shopping Circuit

Chapter 2: The Main Stops on the Shopping Circuit

There are also two or three fun things at the top of Amazon’s home page.

Here’s a quick overview:

The Greeting: It’s nice to be greeted when you walk into a store — Amazon knows that — so at the top of the home page, just below the subnav, a little line of text welcomes you to the store and invites you to sign in.

Your Gold Box:Calling all bargain shoppers! Your gold box is a collec- tion of ten screamin’ deals that Amazon gathers for you, basing the list on your shopping history. You get one chance per day to open your gold box, and one chance per deal to buy or pass. The deals get refreshed every 24 hours; it’s good to check back each day.

The Segway:Some people think it’s weird that there’s an ad for the Segway Human Transporter on just about every page of Amazon.com.

They’re right. Why is it there? Are the Segway people hurting for cash?

No. It’s there simply because Jeff Bezos loves it. And you have to admit, it iskind of cool.

Left, right, and center — the meat of the page

And a very meaty page it is! Here’s an easy-to-digest description of the good- ies you’ll find below the subnav on the leftside of the page:

Search:The main search box for the site sits atop the Web search box on the left-hand side of the page. You can enter keywords to search the whole site or use the drop-down menu to search within specific stores.

Web Search:Use this search feature to search the entire Web without leaving Amazon.com.

Browse:The browse box on the left side of the page is a complete listing of all stores at Amazon.com. It serves the same purpose as the See More Stores link — just another way to navigate the site. You’ll notice that the first heading within the Browse box is called Featured Stores. This spot is typically reserved for new stores that Amazon is introducing.

Make Money:This box features links to all the moneymaking opportuni- ties at Amazon. Again, you can find the same information at the See More Stores page.

Special Features:The last stop on the left side. This is the catchall box for “everything else.” You’ll find a range of links from e-mail notifications to free e-cards.

Here’s what you find on the rightside of the page:

Featured Product: Amazon picks the item or service featured in the box at the top of the right column, basing its pick on your shopping history.

What’s new:This box, on the right side of the page, is a snippet of the personalization Amazon.com has to offer. You can see what’s in your shopping cart, get some recommendations, and view other features (such as New Releases).

And now for the middle:

Editorial Content: The content you see in the middle of the page — before you start scrolling — is an assortment of featured products and their corresponding editorial content. Again, Amazon picks them accord- ing to your history. If you’re a new customer, you’ll be looking at content chosen according to the cumulative buying patterns of all Amazon cus- tomers. So if you want to get more personal, get shopping!

Abridged Help:Toward the bottom of the page, below the editorial content, there’s an abridged version of the links you’ll find in the Help section. You can track orders, get shipping info, and access the help desk from this box.

Search #2:Below the abridged Help box there’s another Amazon search box. It works the same way as the one at the top of the left column.

The Footer:Below the search box you’ll find a series of blue links, including a directory of the stores (takes you to the same place as the See More Stores link), links to the international stores, and a bunch of miscellaneous links. This is where you’ll find corporate info like press releases, job listings, investor information, and so on.

Bottom of the Page Deals:More screamin’ deals that change daily.

The mystery of the missing tabs:

How the home page changes

It’s not you. It’s them. Amazon is always changing the home page. So if you go to the home page on Monday and then go back on Tuesday, it won’t look the same.

Here are the parts of the home page that will change each time you visit:

The Tabs:The Welcome tab will always be there but the other tabs change to reflect the stores you most frequently visit.

The Editorial Content:Again, Amazon refreshes the editorial content on the home page depending on how you shop and what you buy.

Your What’s New Box:This, too, will update itself to reflect any new purchases or shopping data.

Featured Product:Something new each time you visit.

Bottom of the Page Deals:These change daily.

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Showing you new merchandise is one way Amazon makes your shopping experience engaging. (People like novelty — just imagine if every time you went by your favorite boutique, everything in the window was exactly the same!) But how do they know what to feature and change? You tell them.

Again (and I may be sounding like a broken record here), it’s all based on your shopping history and that of the Amazon customer population at large.

Hello, John Doe: What happens after you buy

I’ve mentioned the greeting at the top of Amazon’s home page. When you set up an account at Amazon.com, you are officially part of the club, so your greeting changes. Figure 2-2 shows what the home page looks like for me each time I visit Amazon.

Amazon uses cookies (for more about cookies see Chapter 3) to remember you, greet you by name, and offer you personalized recommendations.

Books, Music, and More:

Pages in the Store

Though it’s important to know your way around the home page, the really good stuff lives in the stores themselves. Navigating those is as simple as navigating the home page — and many of the elements are the same.

Figure 2-2:

A person- alized greeting from Amazon.com.

The Store Directory: Master list at your fingertips

Imagine you’ve gone to Amazon to buy a toaster, but when you get to the home page, there’s no tab for “kitchen.” Remember, the tabs are always changing in response to what you buy, so the home page may not always have a specific tab you’re looking for. Instead, try the Store Directory, conve- niently displayed for you in Figure 2-3.

There are three ways to access the Amazon Store Directory:

The Browse Box: It’s always on the left side of the home page. So if you’re at a loss, click that Amazon logo at the top left, go back to the home page, and voilà!

See More Stores:It’ll always be at the top of every page, to the right of the tabs (see the arrow in a circle right next to it?). Click it and you’re taken to the store directory.

The Footer:The footer is at the bottom of every page on the site. The second blue link is the one for Directory of All Stores. Just click and you’re there.

Anatomy of a store home page

The store home pagesare a lot like the main home page. They’re set up the same way — navigation at the top and left, content in the middle — but a few important things are different.

Figure 2-3:

The Store Directory is the place to find any store any time.

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Here’s a list of elements you already know about that change from store to store:

Subnav:The subnavs are store specific, so each one is different. As a rule, though, the subnav offers links to top-level destinations within a given store. For example, you won’t find a link to “juicers” in the Kitchen store’s subnav — but you dofind a link to “small appliances” and other broad categories.

Browse Box:Here’s where you get full access to the subcategories in each store. Figure 2-4 shows the Browse box for the Kitchen store.

You can also access each store’s directory (where you find the master list of subcategories) by clicking the Browse link in that store’s subnav.

Each store has one, though the link isn’t always called “Browse.” I’m confident that your powers of deduction can find it!

Editorial Content:The center of any store’s home page is devoted to content from, you guessed it, that store. (Forgive me if I’m taking this whole Dummy thing too far.)

The store home pages also offer some new elements:

Top Sellers:Not every store has a Top Sellers box on the right side of the page, but most do. You’ll also almost always find a Top Sellers link in the store subnavs.

Figure 2-4:

Kitchen’s Browse box includes links to all the subcat- egories.

Your Recent History:Figure 2-5 shows an example of a Your Recent History box. This handy box of links lives at the bottom of the page below the editorial content. As you shop, Amazon keeps track of where you’ve been so that if you lose track of a specific store tab, you can still use these links to get back to the stores you’ve visited.

Drilling down to subcategories

If you know what you want, it’s easy enough to go to Amazon, enter a key- word in the search box, and find it (and I show you exactly how to do that in Chapter 8). But if you’re not that certain — say, you know you want a Latin CD, but you’re not sure which one — No hay ni una problema. Each store at Amazon, including the Music store, is broken into several subcategories.

Browsing is a snap.

There are two ways to access the subcategories within any Amazon store:

Use the Browse Box:Ah the browse box. The source of so much shop- ping goodness. You’ll find one in each store and it’ll list subcategories galore. Just click to go straight to that subcategory page.

Click the Browse Link in the Subnav: Clicking this link in a store’s subnav will take you to that store’s directory. Once there, you can click again to get to specific subcategory pages.

You should know that not all subcategory pages are created equal; they don’t all work exactly the same way. They do, however, all serve the same purpose — and if you’re comfortable with the way Amazon works as a site, you won’t have any problem clicking your way around the subcategory pages.

Figure 2-6 shows the Latin subcategory in the Music store, broken down into even more specific genres. They’ve also thrown in a few featured items on the right side of the page.

Drill down one more level (to, say, Mambo) and the page changes again to reveal a list of products. This is the last stop until the detail page — the page that features an individual product (more on this later in the chapter).

Figure 2-5:

Your Recent History helps you combat missing tabs!

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Chapter 2: The Main Stops on the Shopping Circuit

Changing your view

You may have noticed that when you hit the subcategory pages a new naviga- tion option shows up. Between the main and subnavs and the meat of the subcategory page there is a new set of tabs. These are the View tabs: Featured, Recommendations, New Releases, Top Sellers, and Used. Just as you can with the tabs on the main nav, you can click these tabs to change your view within a subcategory page.

Again, not every store has this View Change option in exactly the same place.

Don’t let this throw you off. Often (as with many Amazon navigational features) you can access the same information in a variety of ways — through the subnav, in the Browse box, on the right side of the page, and so on.

Where am I? Following the trail of breadcrumbs

It stinks to be lost. And when you’re online, there’s no kindly old man on the corner to ask for directions. Amazon has solved this problem with the Internet equivalent of a breadcrumb trail.

The breadcrumb trail is the simplest way to locate yourself when you’re up to your ears in shopping. You’ll find it at the top left of the page below the subnav, Figure 2-6:

The Latin music subcategory page.

but you’ll only find it on pages between the first subcategory level and the detail page (see the next section for more on the detail page). Happily, there’s no hungry, evil witch waiting at the end of this trail to serve you as dinner.

Figure 2-7 shows the breadcrumb trail for the Comic page in the bookstore — the line going Books➪Subjects➪Literature & Fiction➪General➪Comic. Notice that you not only can use it to locate yourself, but you can also click the links in the trail to access the other parts of the store.

Getting the Most Out of the Detail Page

Every item sold at Amazon.com has its own detail pagewhere you can (usu- ally) see a picture of the product, get product information, read reviews, and actually add the product to your shopping cart. The detail page is the end of the “just looking” line — the last stop before you enter the order pipeline. It’s also a wellspring of information — and if you’re a serious shopper, it can help you make informed buying decisions.

Detail page basics

The detail page shares the same basic setup with both the home page and the store home pages: navigation on the top and left, content down the middle.

Figure 2-7:

A bread- crumb trail comes in handy when you’re lost.

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Here are some of the other new elements you’ll find on the detail page (see Figure 2-8):

Product Image:Most, but not all, of the items for sale at Amazon are accompanied by a product image. If you click the image, you can see a larger version of it.

Product Information:You’ll find the essential product information — price and availability — right next to the product image in the center of the page. There are links to more detailed buying information in the box in the left nav.

Ready to Buy? Box:Here’s where the magic happens. On the right side of the page, just below the nav, you’ll find the Ready to Buy? box. If you’re new to Amazon, it’ll only offer you the option of adding the item to your cart. If you’ve already made a purchase, you’ll also have the option to buy with 1-Click — the absolutely divine (and patented) tech- nology that stores your credit card and shipping information and allows you to buy things by clicking just one button!

More Buying Choices:This sits just below the Ready to Buy? box and offers you other options for the product you’re looking at — usually used items, but sometimes the exact same product you’re already look- ing at, offered at a better price from some other merchant. It pays to check this out!

Figure 2-8:

The detail page for eBay For Dummies.

More product information

You can actually find out a lot about a product on the detail page — more than just how much it costs and when it will ship. To get detailed product information, just scroll. Below the product image, but above the editorial reviews, you’ll find a heading called Product Details, or maybe Features; it varies from store to store. Figure 2-9, for example, shows that “Features” is the term of choice for an item in the Electronics store. This is where you’ll find more specific information about your product. If you’re looking at an item in the Electronics store, you’ll likely find technical data here. If you’re browsing the Books store, you’ll see stuff like the number of pages for a title and pub- lisher info. You’ll also discover the item’s Amazon.com sales ranking — not essential, but kind of fun.

Sooner or later, you come across some items where the product information is downright lame. Apparel, Home and Garden, Tools and Hardware, and cer- tain other stores have the occasional dead end when it comes to information.

That’s when it’s not a bad idea to visit that manufacturer’s Web site to find out more about the product.

“Customers who bought this...”

and other nifty tricks

Amazon’s nothing if not an amazing discovery machine — and they know how to make online shopping fun. The detail page is a shining example of their genius at work — chock-full of clever, fun “discovery” mechanisms.

Remember, they are always collecting data about their customers and then putting it to good use.

Figure 2-9:

Electronics offers more detailed product descriptions than other stores.

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The Customers Who Bought This Also Bought This feature is one fun way of finding other products you might like. But it’s not exactly the same store to store — it doesn’t always have the same name and it isn’t always in the exact same place and some items don’t have it at all. Scroll below the product image and detailed information to check.

Editorial reviews

Editorial reviews are one of the things that put Amazon on the map. They are expert opinions — not entirely unbiased (because what opinions are?) — of people who are industry experts who’ve sampled the products, regular people who’ve sampled the products, or Amazon editors who’ve sampled the products. Either way, the reviews are legitimate, not a bunch of sales-ey schlock.

Not all products have editorial reviews, but if they do, you’ll find them some- where between the detailed product info and the footer. You might find just an Amazon.com review, or a review from another industry source, or a com- bination of both.

Customer reviews

What a novel (and risky) idea — let customers review the products they buy and post their reviews on the site. Customer reviews are one of the things that keep Amazon on the map. They’re an essential and excellent part of shopping at Amazon.com.

Customer reviews always live beneath editorial reviews on the detail page.

Some are positive. Some are negative. You’ll often find both positive and neg- ative reviews for the same product (as my mother would say, “that’s what makes the world go ’round.”). The key thing about customer reviews is that they’re honest.

Figure 2-10 shows a customer review for eBay For Dummies. Every customer review is made up of five components: the star rating, a review title, the date it was written, the reviewer’s information, and the review itself.

For more about customer reviews, see Chapter 8 — and get a head start on writing one of your own in Chapter 12.