Amazon

Author: Kalicia Bateman

Anyone who has done any shopping online has no doubt used Amazon.com. Founded in 1995 and based in Seattle, Washington, Amazon is the king of online shopping. The company boasts an amazing $88 billion in revenue annually and has more than 183,000 employees. The company has a number of subsidiaries and does business internationally. Amazon is also very active in the community and has been a staunch contributor to charitable causes and efforts.

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The Good

• Reviews
• Product selection
• Ease of use
• Shipping speed and options

Amazon is most likely the best known of any online shopping site. Its popularity can be traced in large part to the many wonderful aspects of its site and service. Here are just a few:

• Amazon.com provides a tremendous amount of customer reviews for each product. The reviews are thorough, well conceived and especially helpful if you are struggling to know whether a certain product is for you. You can see what the average star rating is for each product, giving you a fair idea of how good the product is.
• Product selection. The product pool is practically endless. Everything from electronics to books to toys and many, many items in between are available. Even older items you might never find at a store can be found on their site.
• Ease of use. Amazon makes the entire shopping experience a piece of cake. Even a novice online shopper can find and buy his or her product of choice with little problem at all. Products are easily searchable, and the checkout process is fast and easy.
• Shipping speed and options. Your item might arrive at your door in as little as a day or two. If you are willing to spend a little more, you can opt for overnight shipping. Even standard shipping only takes a week or less.

Product quality. A purchase from Amazon will come to you just as if you ran down to the corner department store and picked up an item fresh off the manufacturing table. Rarely will you get a product that has flaws or damages, and if you do, Amazon will make it right.

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The Bad

• Customer service
• Product availability

There's not much to complain about when it comes to Amazon.com. Here are a few small items:

• Customer service could be better. If you need to make a change on an item, cancel an order or discuss any issue, customer service can be a little hard to work with. Response and resolution times are bit longer than one would like, and making order changes can be a hassle.
• Product availability. Some products have limited availability whose selections go fast. You need to be prepared to act quickly if you see an item you want or it can be gone in a flash.

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The Bottom Line

Clearly, Amazon.com is at the forefront of the online shopping industry. No one is better at providing an overall satisfactory customer service experience. Amazon is so good, in fact, that once you use it, you may very well never do online shopping anywhere else. Some people may never do much shopping at all at traditional stores. This is unfortunate for the competition, but the fact is that Amazon is an excellent option, and you are almost certain to like what it has to offer. There's no compelling reason to go anywhere else.