The Amazon Effect: What Amazon Has Done to the E-Tailing Experience

by Joanna Pineda Posted on December 2, 2009

Woman shopping online surrounded by shopping bags Like the rest of America, I went shopping on Black Friday.  However, I didn’t get up at 3am and I didn’t brave the crowds.  I did my shopping online, largely in response to promotional e-mails that I received throughout the day.  What struck me was how I compared the shopping and checkout experience on all other sites to Amazon.com. I call it “The Amazon Effect” (I’m sure I’m not the only one to call it that, btw).

I actually hear it all the time from friends, family and clients: why can’t this (insert name of site here) work like Amazon?  Okay, forget for a moment that that Amazon has spent tens of millions on their site.  Here’s what I’ve come to expect from Amazon and would love it if other e-tailers followed suit.

Some of my other favorite retailers embrace a lot of the practices above.  I think Land’s End does a particularly good job, as does Snapfish.  The smaller retailers, not so much.  Do I do a lot of my shopping on Amazon?  You bet, and the superior user experience on the Web site is the reason why.

Does your company have an online store?  How can you make the user experience more like Amazon?

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