Week 3 - 2 Websites I Use Often

www.ebay.com

I am totally a bargain shopper. If I can find a good deal on something, then I enjoy that purchase so much more. For bargain shoppers, eBay is a great site to go to. If you like the thrill of the hunt, then you can participate in auctions where you bid against other people for a great deal. If you don't like to wait for an auction to end, then you can Buy It Now and get that immediate gratification taken care of.

I also am a seller on eBay. They say that one man's junk is another man's treasure, so why just throw something away. I especially like to resell my used college books.

I believe that eBay is effective because they do exactly what they advertise. Their focus is pretty small - Advertise and sell things that people want to buy.  They go to a lot of trouble to categorize the items for sale, so you can put in search keywords and a specific list of products that you want to see comes up.  Then you can easily compare the different options, sort them in different orders, see pictures of them, ask questions about them and finally purchase what you want. They have also developed their branding. Everyone knows about eBay because it is so big and widely used, that you trust that they will not mess up the transaction.

For website design, they keep the main site pretty simple.  The main thing you want to do when you get there is search for an item, so that search box is right on top. Then, if you do need to do something different, they have convenient menu bars for you to get there. 

What makes me come back again is the fact that I can trust that I can get a good deal, and that they will facilitate the transaction. If there is a problem they are there to help you get it resolved.

I think that there are things about their search engine that could be improved. Although you can put in search terms, I've found that people will find ways to get around that. For example, if I want to buy ink for my printer, and I want to see only the ones that are made by the manufacturer (OEM), I can put OEM in the search term, but non-OEM will also show up, and there's a lot more of those than the original that I have to sift through.

www.amazon.com
I never cease to be amazed by Amazon. They have such a reliable and usable website.  I can compare prices from different vendors, see products they sell directly and also products from their competitors right on their website.  Probably the thing I like best is the super fast shipping that is provided when you buy from Amazon.  Sometimes I'm willing to pay more to get something so quickly. Amazon Prime is also a genius concept. I pay one fee and for a year I can get free shipping on anything I order through them. I'm more likely to buy from them because I get free shipping, and it also comes really fast.

Their website is really easy to use. Just put in your search term, and a list of choices appears, then you choose what you want and go to that item. It is consistently built, so I always know where to go to start over. The photos they use are high quality and helpful.

I haven't really got any ideas on how they could improve their website. Everything works so well for me. I'm sure they will come up with some new genius idea soon, though, and then I'll wonder how I ever managed without it.