Amazon.com is an American based online shopping site that allows users to buy products from various retailers all around the country; versions that are adapted to the individual countries have been created, such as amazon.co.uk. It was launched in 1994 and originally sold only books; however due to popular demand it branched out it's stock and sold DVDs, music, games and other electronic goods. A 2009 survey stated that Amazon was the UK's top retailer for music and video purchases and third top overall. 
The layout of the website is very user friendly, the main screen holds host to many advertisements that help fund the running of the site. The main focus of the homepage is the 'What other customers are looking at right now' section; it shows various items that are popular and what other online users were searching for at the time. Also, once you set up an account with Amazon, it tailors this section based on previous transactions. This is a good way of advertising their goods as they know what the user will want to purchase and may promote sales. All the items in this section also show price cuts; these may be exaggerated or possibly made up to try and influence people to buy their products at a good value price.
There are hundreds of thousands of items that are sold on Amazon, so a good categorization method is needed so that users will know where to find them if they do not know the name of the product they are looking for. The search bar at the top of the screen is 'live'; this means that as you are typing what you want, a list of suggestions pop up asking if that product is what you're looking for. This can be useful to those who do not know the exact name of the product they want and saves time when searching. There are eleven sections that the site is split into; most of these are electronics or accessories however there is now a small section devoted to toys and furniture- this greater diversity of goods will attract a wider range of buyers. When you hover your mouse over each section a pop up menu appears showing examples of what you could expect to find in the section which is useful if you are not one hundred percent certain as to which item you are looking for is in which section.
When searching for you goods you can use a 'basket'; this hypothetical basket allows you to store items that you intend to buy without you having to individually purchase each thing you want. You can add as many items into this basket as needed, and when you come to the end of your purchase you are asked to pay for all items simultaneously. There is also a feature called 'Wish List'; this allows a user (who is signed in) to make a list of products that they want to purchase in the future so they don't forget. These may also be a list of expensive products that one wishes to save for- these wishes can also be seen by other users so it's useful if you have a birthday coming up; this ensures that you get gifts you really want. This feature is also really flexible; you don't have to add only amazon products into the list, items from any website you like can be added. 
Amazon also has a section devoted to Mp3 downloads; they have almost 15 million songs on record- almost as many as iTunes. These songs are often priced at either 89p or 69p however there are a large number of free tracks that can be downloaded- these may be older songs, or songs that have been requested to be downloaded free by the artist to raise the popularity of the song and to allow it to be heard by lots of people. There is also the option to purchase whole albums; these may appeal to people who are too busy to actively go and purchase an album from the store or for those who only wish to use the CD on their music device or computer. Songs can be arranged in order of price, time, bestselling, letter or length so it is easy to find any song you want. This feature of downloading songs may also appeal to those who do not have an iPod or another Apple product and therefore do not use iTunes or have an iTunes store account.
Advantages:
- Offer millions of products for cheaper prices
- Secure buying- if you do not receive what you were under the impression you were buying you can contact the sender and receive a full refund
- Fast delivery- you can often choose for free (or at a small cost) next day delivery
- Allows you to create a basket and pay for all your items together at the end of you purchases instead of one by one
- Can create a wish list so others can see what you want to buy and perhaps use this information to buy you gifts, and also for you to know what you want to buy in the future
- Not only can you purchase physical items, but Amazon now offer almost the same number of songs as iTunes and often for lower prices
Disadvantages:
- Users can be sold dodgy items and the sellers can provide false contact information so it is easy to scam
- There is such a wide variety of items and qualities that you may be unsure of which is the best value of money
News Stories:
Amazon removes all Macmillan ebooks from their site over a row involving prices
Tens of thousands of books fell drastically in the ranks on Amazon after an error; in particular many books themed around gay romances and causing outrage online, particularly on Twitter.
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