Why would anyone want to go anywhere else? You just wouldn’t!
Boots also offer free delivery if you spend over £45 in one transaction. If you spend less then their standard 4 working day delivery charge is £3.50 (not bad).
If you haven’t tried Boots on line shopping yet, then please give it a go. We were not dissappointed and I’m sure you won’t be either, it certainly beats pushing and shoving other customers/shoppers out of the way.
The site itself is well laid out and it is easy to locate the goods you want, you can either click in the “i am looking for” box and then type in either a keyword or a product code. Or you can do it the long way round by selecting a category which are located on the left hand size of the page this includes:
*Audio& hifi
*Refridgeration
*vacuum cleaners
*washers & dryers
*in car entertainment
Overall there are 23 different categories to choose from. Once you click on one category for example cameras & camcorders, several sub categories come up which are digital cameras, camcorders and accessories. In this case i clicked on digital cameras, after a couple of seconds loading a screen appears asking if you want to refine your search or you can browse through the whole collection of digital cameras on offer.
If you refine your search you can select the brand name, the picture resolution, the minimum value and the maximum value then you select search and you can then adjust the search again by choosing whether to sort the products listed by highest price first or by lowest price.
Seeing as though the product im looking for is the “featured product” it is located first so i click on that. After a couple of seconds loading i see a small photograph of the camera i want to buy (but this can be enlarged, but you can only see the front of the camera and the quality of the photograph is not great) a small description, the price, delivery price, whether its in stock, then below this is the product specification and overview which clearly states the specification for the camera in a well organised table. The table is easy to read and understand and tells me all the information i need to know about this camera, for example:
*camera weight
*optical zoom
*connection type
*picture effects
*digital zoom
To purchase the product you simply click on ADD which is located at the top and the bottom of the screen, once clicked it will tell you the name of the item you have selected and you can either continue shopping or purchase the product by selecting “continue to basket”
after this has been selected you are taken to another screen which shows you a small table telling you the description of the item, quantity, price, cost of delivery, then it states to type in a discount code (if you have one of course which i hadnt) after you have checked over the details you click on “go to checkout”.
If you are unsure of what you are looking for in a mobile phone, tariff, or service provider, then a trip to the Carphone Warehouse should go a long way to solve any problems you might have. As you may guess from the name, the shop originally started out selling car phones to businesses and people who spent a large amount of time in their vehicles, but this has now changed so that they sell mobile phones and accessories.
Why Carphone warehouse?
With the Carphone Warehouse (CW from now on) being an independent retailer, it is able to cover all the mobile networks with detailed information on all the products and tariffs that it offers, and not be biased towards a specific network due to contractual obligations.
The site
So – onto the web site proper then. The front page loads fairly quickly to a plain-ish site with little information, but lots of promising looking links e.g. mobile encyclopaedia (wittily called “Encyclopaedia Mobilia”), online store, store locator etc.
Getting around
There’s a navigation menu at the site which helps you get around the site, and they have split the site into six main categories, some of which are links on the main body: home, online store, company information, contact Carphone Warehouse, Company Policies and the aforementioned “Encyclopaedia Mobilia”.
Individual parts
First of all, let’s take a look at the most interesting part of the site – the “Encyclopaedia Mobilia”. It claims to be a source for almost all the information on mobile phones and mobile technology you could need, and to be honest, it does appear that they could be telling the truth. Not only does it downloadable customer guides (in PDF format) for you to read and use, but also has information on new technology, a complete guide to mobile phones, help on using the site, FAQs (frequently asked questions) and a glossary of all the terms used. All in all, this seems to be a very useful area of the site, especially if you need some information on what’s going on in the world of mobile telecommunications.
Their contact pages are very concise with not only lots of contact points via email and phone, but also a handy store locator that will locate Carphone Warehouse stores near a city/address that you type in.
The only other bit of information of any relevance is how good the online store is. From the main page of the online store, you can see that the CW sells mobiles on lots of different networks and tariffs, ring tones for your mobile, phones for landlines, PDA’s (handheld organisers) and other accessories. CW appears to have a wide variety of things to sell – not only the phones themselves, but carry cases, leads, covers etc. from this point of view they seem to be very good indeed.
Pricing
Now, there’s one thing I simply do not understand about the CW Online shop. The prices on the Carphone Warehouse web site are no cheaper than you would get if you walked into your local CW and bought something there. I know that it’s not the law for online retailers to be cheaper than their high street counterparts, but surely CW should realise that people who use the Internet are now more than capable of hunting down the best prices?
Overall
As far as I can remember, this is the first online shop where the prices online are no cheaper than those in the High street, which I consider a bit weird and not really a good advertisement for WC Online.
On one hand their information is very good with an easy to navigate web site and some nice features like the “Encyclopaedia Mobilia” or the “Assistant” in the actual store part of the site, but the prices are just not going to tempt you to buy while you are there.
3 have built a reputation for the best value mobile phone deals in the marketplace, and the 3 store has even greater value with its offers direct from the network.
You can choose from the full range of handsets on either 12 or 18 month contracts, some of which have Half Price Line Rental for anything up to the full length of the contract.
3 have also recently introduced two bargain tariffs for just £15 a month, whether you are a talker or a texter, they have something to suit. They also lead the market with mobile phone technology, have a fantastic music download service that is bettered only by I Tunes, and you can access the internet on your handset and can even have an instant conversation with Windows Live Messenger on your mobile.
The site has recently been updated to make it even easier to use, and if you get stuck, you can open an online chat with a 3 sales agent to help you decide what you want, and help you make that purchase.
Everyone knows who HMV are, they have a store in most major cities and everyone knows their logo is the cute little dog and a grammar phone. I am not writing a review about the stores that I have been to but on their online store, www.hmv.co.uk. In the past this site has been viewed as a cheap add on to try and boost their sales a little. The website was slow and very hard to navigate through and searching, well good luck! But recently their website has had a major overhaul, which has improved it no end! This is a review about their new website.
Home Page
The first thing that hits you when you get to the homepage is that they have followed the format that the most successful webites, like Amazon, BOL etc…, have used. This is the major item that they sell are accessible via their categories. At the HMV website these categories are: Music Albums, Music Singles, Classical, Video, Games, DVD and Gifts. You can also access your area of the website, if you are a registered user, this gives you access to your order details etc… When you click on the individual sections you get a review of the latest releases in that particular section.
Searching
The search facility at the HMV website is quite good and it allows you to search on the following criteria: Artist, Title and Song. If you go to the different section like video you will get different criteria such as Title and Keywords to search on. You can also browse for the record that you are looking for by genre, such as Rock and Poop (Intentional!), Soul and Dance, Soundtracks etc… or browse videos (these are also broken down into smaller genres).
When you perform a search the results that you get are quite detailed, in that the information about the artist or the CD is quite good. The sort of information that you can get are things like the formats the album comes in, maybe a video or audio clip is available, track listing, notes or even reviews. The results are displayed in a very clear way at 20 a page, if there is a picture to be displayed then this is also displayed.
Content
The content as far as I can see is very good, okay some of the lesser known bands are not available but we can forgive them for that, or not? They have all of the new releases or the about to be released available so you could pre-order if you wish.
Ordering & Delivery
To be able to order anything from the HMV website you have to be registered with them, like most sites these days. The things that you have to give in order to register are as follows, name, address, your e-mail address (used as your username) and a password. You can redeem gift vouchers on the website, all you need to do is log into your account and type in the voucher number, and this then gives you how ever much credit.
When you are actually selecting the items, which you want to purchase, this is shown in the top right corner as number of items in your basket. When you click on this you get an overview of your order, so far, to complete the order click on the proceed to checkout button. The only thing about this website is that you have to pay for delivery, this comes at £1 for first class, £4.20 for special delivery and £5 for special courier. I have only ordered here using the first class mail and the orders appeared in just under a week, which I thought wasn’t too bad.
Prices
On the whole the HMV website is cheaper than the HMV stores but you then have to pay for delivery. This is not the cheapest place to purchase CDs or Videos and combined with a delivery charge is quite expensive compared to other websites. Reputation and selection is what you pay for.
Amazon.com is one of the most popular web sites in the short history of the internet. It began as a book seller and has expanded to include all sorts of general merchandise from clothing to appliances and more. Amazon.com once sold only new items but the people in charge quickly discovered that a large market existed for selling used merchandise. They decided to tap into this market for used goods, creating the Amazon.com Marketplace, a place for consumers to find products at low prices.
What Does This Service Offer?:
Amazon.com Marketplace is simply a service within the Amazon.com web site that caters to those who want to find used versions of products in order to save money. Also, it provides a means to find items for sale that are no longer in print, like certain books and CD’s that are no longer manufactured.
There is no official link to the Amazon.com Marketplace from the main web site. To get here, you lookup a product you wish to buy. If there are any used versions available, you will see a link that says “xx Used and New Available from yy”, with the “xx” representing a quantity of items available and the “yy” representing the lowest available price. If you click this link, you will be taken to the Amazon.com Marketplace.
Amazon.com’s Marketplace organizes these items by category. Used are listed first; followed by Collectibles and then New. Within each category, the items are listed in order of price, from lowest to highest. You will also see the price of the item; the shipping charge; the condition of the item (“new”, “almost new”, “very good”, “good”, etc.); notes left by the seller detailing any specifics about the condition; the sellers name; the percentage of positive ratings for the seller over the past twelve months; a “star” rating for the seller from one to five; the total number of lifetime ratings; and shipping information that details where it will be shipped from and how long one can expect to wait before the package arrives.
How Does it Work?:
Using the Amazon.com Marketplace is as simple as using Amazon.com itself. You select the items you want by clicking the link to add them to your shopping cart. Then, you proceed to the check out, pay for your items, and wait for them to arrive. If you purchase Amazon.com Marketplace items along with new merchandise from Amazon.com itself, everything will be combined together in one shopping cart and one payment. However, the items will, of course, be shipped separately because the Marketplace item will be coming to you from an anonymous seller- someone who could live next door to you or several thousand miles away.
A short time after you receive your merchandise in the mail, Amazon.com will send you a link and ask you to logon to your Amazon.com account and rate the seller. You will be asked to rate the seller from one star (lowest rating) to five stars (highest rating). You can also leave a comment if you wish. And if you don’t want to give a specific rating but want to leave a comment, you can do that, too. Amazon.com gives the buyer 90 days to rate the seller. After this time has passed, you can no longer rate.
What About Selling?:
For selling, Amazon.com Marketplace is easy to use. There is no need to take pictures or anything like that. You simply find the product category and create a new listing by clicking the link that says “Sell Yours Here”. It is up to you to determine a price level and how you want to handle shipment.
Unless you make a sale, Amazon.com collects no fees. If you do sell, the fees collected by Amazon.com Marketplace include a flat 99 cent charge, a variable selling fee, and a commission. These last two charges vary based on the price level of the item you sell. If you are selling something like a book, DVD, or CD, Amazon.com Marketplace will charge you a flat fee. If you are selling something larger, like a DVD player, you will be charged a fee based on the weight. Commissions are computed as a percentage and depend on the category of the item you sold. If you sell an electronic item (except for a computer), the commission is six percent. If you sell a computer, the rate is eight percent. Musical instruments carry a twelve percent commission while items in the “Everything Else” store will charge you ten percent. All other products will charge you fifteen percent commission.
When you make a sale, the transaction is handled completely by Amazon.com Marketplace. You do not need to setup a Paypal account or other on- line financial account. All you need is a bank account. Amazon.com will deposit the money directly to your bank every two weeks.
Shipping Charges:
Probably the greatest disadvantage of the Amazon.com Marketplace for buyers is the added shipping charges. Almost everything you buy will have a shipping charge added. And, unfortunately, you cannot take advantage of Amazon.com’s free shipping offer on orders of $25 or more. If you are buying from the Marketplace, this and other “free” offers no longer apply.
In the case of individual people offering items for sale, the shipping charges are not too bad. A book, for example, will usually carry a shipping charge between $2 and $4. But with actual merchandisers who sell products in this Marketplace, the shipping charges can be much higher and they vary greatly from item to item.
Final Thoughts:
Amazon.com is my most visited web site ever, in terms of the number of purchases I have made. I have been buying merchandise from this site for almost ten years and it has become a permanent part of my weekly web site visits. I logon to see what new books are coming out, what is recommended to me, and what special deals are available.
With Amazon.com Marketplace, I admit that it took me a little longer to warm to the idea and I didn’t make my first purchase from this part of the site until 2004. The reason for my reservations for so many years were mostly based on settling for used items when I could have new for little additional cost. See, part of the reason I make so many purchases through Amazon.com is because I am constantly receiving Amazon.com gift certificates from other sources. It could be a $20 reward for taking a series of surveys; a $15 award for sampling new software; a $25 reward for taking part in an audio conference; etc. Whatever the reason, I always seem to get these certificates and thus I didn’t see the need to settle for used merchandise when I could get new for a reduced rate.
But the more I checked into this Marketplace, the more I liked it and I finally gave in and made my first purchase two years ago. One thing I didn’t realize at first is that this Marketplace isn’t just a huge garage sale for used items. It includes new items as well, often at a cut rate from Amazon.com’s regular prices. In many ways, this Marketplace is much like Ebay.com. You have individual people like you and me who offer used items for sale and you have actual on- line merchants who use this Marketplace as another way to sell their goods. It makes sense, especially in the case of a lesser- known on- line retailer. Amazon.com gets millions of visits every day so it offers smaller, less established retailers a way to market their goods and gain maximum exposure.
What I like best about Amazon.com Marketplace is that it offers consumers a way to find bargain deals on books, CD’s, and more. Sometimes, these goods can be very cheap and on occasion they can be less than $1.00. Of course, you have to factor in the shipping cost. But even with this added, the bottom- line price is often very attractive and many dollars less than it would cost if purchased directly through Amazon.com or some other site.
The other thing I like about this Marketplace is also one of the key reasons I like Ebay.com: The ability to find goods that are no longer produced. In fact, the first time I ever used the Amazon.com Marketplace was to purchase a music CD that is no longer in print. I knew the internet was probably my only hope to find this CD and I inquired into both Amazon.com Marketplace and Ebay. Amazon.com had what I wanted and I was able to buy it immediately without any bidding, like is often the case with Ebay. Also, it is possible to find special Collectible items and special editions in this Marketplace that you cannot find in other places.
Most buyers in this Marketplace are ethical and will mail you exactly what you ordered in the promised time frame. Here, like Ebay, it is important to check the sellers overall rating and read comments. If the person has a strong history of good service, then your risk will be minimal. I have had no problem using the Marketplace, but I was disappointed once when the item I ordered was no longer available. I made my purchase and waited to receive my CD in the mail but after a few days, I got an e-mail from Amazon.com stating that there were no copies left from my chosen seller. I could live with this, but it meant that I had to go back to the site and search again for the same item, and this time I had to pay a slightly higher price for the same CD.
Even though the base prices in the Marketplace are generally less expensive than those in Amazon.com’s main product section, you have to be careful and remember to add the base price with the shipping. This is especially true with the new items listed in the Marketplace. With the shipping added, the price might increase to a level that makes it greater than Amazon.com’s regular price. And since Amazon.com is usually offering a free shipping offer on orders greater than $25, this can mean that the Marketplace won’t actually save you any money at all. Most of the time, Marketplace is less expensive. But this isn’t true all of the time and this is why it is so critical to check the overall price first before you make a purchase. You also need to keep in mind that newer items and top selling items will often command higher prices in the Marketplace, like you would expect. And this can mean that the Marketplace price is unreasonable, making the regular Amazon.com price the better deal.
This Marketplace has a gigantic selection, like Ebay. But there are a few disadvantages. One is the lack of photos. When you are shopping for a “standard” good, there is no need for a photo because they all look the same. But in the case of a collectible or special edition, a photo would be nice. This marketplace doesn’t offer these things. Another thing that would be nice would be to have a way to sort the items available for sale. When you enter the Marketplace you are presented with the different categories with the items sorted by price within each. But there is no other way to sort. You cannot sort by condition, by seller rating, or anything else. Price is all you get. Yet another big disadvantage is that you cannot apply gift certificates to your purchase. These are not valid on items purchased in the marketplace.
Overall, Amazon.com Marketplace is still a nice place to shop and its greatest advantage is having the ability to find rare or out of print items. Prices are generally low, too, but you have to be careful and always compare the Marketplace price (with added shipping) with the regular Amazon.com price to see if the deal is good or not.
Amazon.com will continue to remain one of my favorite places to shop on- line. I love the product listings, the product information, the customized recommendation lists, and the gargantuan selection. The Marketplace will also continue to be a place I check for bargains and for hard to find merchandise. It offers good deals on many different items without having to place bids.