Consumer Corner : amazon

Expand Your Searches Across Multiple Sites With One Click

Mike Phillips — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 15:32:00 GMT

Try This Search On is an extension installed through Greasemonkey that lets you search multiple sites for your search term with one click. You can search the likes of Google, Ask, MSN, YouTube, Wikipedia, Flickr ... the list goes on. It all sits very neatly at the bottom of your window (or you can choose to display the bar at top), so it's extremely unobtrusive, but delivers powerful results.

There's really no magic to it, but enter a term and start clicking to find results on other sites. It's that simple and it's fast. Click the "?" to customize Try This Search On, or the "x" to hide the bar.

Not only is this tool a valuable time-saver, but for Web professionals, this serves as a reminder to get your content and your brand spread across the Web. Customized search tools like this are becoming quite popular with users. That means you need to have a presence on sites like YouTube and Flickr, and multiple shopping sites. (Try This Search On supports Amazon, eBay, Yahoo Shopping and more.)

Straight Talking Consumers with Answer Sites

Mike Phillips — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 17:00:00 GMT

It's always important to address consumer concerns and questions directly, and as quickly as possible. One way to do this is to place an easily located FAQ section on your site. But these days the conversation about your brand or products is taking place all over the Web, not just on your website. One product of the Web 2.0 era is the development of question-and-answer sites, and their traffic numbers have exploded over the past few years. (See chart at bottom.) They have become hugely popular peer-to-peer networks because consumers feel they are getting straight, unbiased answers to their questions. As we learned recently, consumers don't exactly trust company blogs. As the conversation has shifted, we must find our consumers and address their concerns quickly, before we lose control of the situation.

Answer sites are not just for consumers. Businesses can benefit greatly by monitoring these sites. And it's not just for your own brand. These sites present an excellent opportunity to become an authority in your industry without appearing as if you're pushing an agenda. That's not to say you should try to hide your identity. In fact, if you're going to get involved in this arena, it will serve you well to brand yourself just like you would anywhere else. As you can imagine, transparency is key. As with any other Web 2.0-style site, participation is also key. Don't just answer questions about your business, but address industry-wide concerns. Some of these sites will even let you include links. It's one way to get traffic, but use it sparingly. Users can get upset if they feel you are only there to drive traffic, so don't be afraid to post links to other sites and news sources when you answer a question.

Below are five answer sites worth checking out:

Yahoo! Answers: Far and away, the leader in the space. There are categories for just about everything, and it's an extremely active space. You'll notice that answers appear almost immediately when a question is posted. Answers can be chosen as "best" by participants, and the reward is increased exposure for the answerer.

Wiki Answers: As the name suggest, this is a wiki-inspired site. Not only are answers posted, but the community can edit the answers. It's an excellent place to show your authority on a topic.

Amazon's Askville: Of course, this is a nice place to keep tabs on products, but there are many other categories unrelated to retail. There's also a "watch list" so you can keep a close eye on any question, and if you click on any question you will see other related questions. Like Yahoo! Answers, Amazon's Askville rewards good answers with points.

Answerbag.com: Here, questions are split into four main categories; Social, Expert, Local and Shopping. Therefore, it's a good site for businesses. Consumers are more open to a company answering their questions when they have already chosen a category like "Expert."

LinkedIn Answers: No surprises here. Here you can not only answer questions and brand your businesses freely, but also make connections to other businesses in your field.

Finally, check out Ask's AnswerFar m technology. Go to Ask.com, enter your search term and click "lots of answers" before hitting the "search" button. This index pulls the most frequently asked questions by Ask users and related answers. Here's an example.

Online Sales Since Cyber Monday are Up This Year

Mike Phillips — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 18:11:00 GMT

Amid all the economic doom and gloom, there's a bright spot for online retailers. For the week including and after Cyber Monday (Dec. 1 - Dec.5) online sales hit $3.74 billion, up 9 percent from last year, according to Comscore. But the numbers can be slightly deceiving, as the holiday shopping season is shorter this year than last.

The fastest growing categories during this period were sports/fitness (35%), consumer electronics (24%) and toys and apparrel/accessories (16%). Interestingly, both jewelry/watches and music/movies/videos were down, at -22% and -24%, respectively.

So where were consumer's spending all that cash? The top retail sites in terms of unique visitors last week were eBay (-9%), Amazon sites (10%), Wal-mart (7%), Target (-2%) and Apple (29%). eBay continues its free fall, and Overstock.com fared worse, dropping 15% from the same period last year.

YouTube Introduces Click-to-Buy

Mike Phillips — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 14:47:00 GMT

Still looking for that one, killer way to monetize, YouTube has announced a click-to-buy feature on select videos. They are starting with the most logical place, music videos. Videos from select partners (EMI Music and Capitol Records are two) will include links from iTunes and Amazon (see image at right.) Click the link, purchase the song.

They will also include click-to-buy links for trailers of the upcoming Spore video game release on videos from Electronic Arts.

In the future, YouTube plans on selling everything from books to movie tickets from partner videos. The exciting part of all this? Get in good with YouTube, become a partner and start sharing revenue. Or, if you manufacture a product, when that product is featured on other videos, even user-generated content, have the ability for viewers to instantly buy your product. From the YouTube blog: "And those partners who use our content identification and management system can also enable these links on user-generated content, by using Content ID to claim videos and choose to leave them up on the site."

It's early, but this is a pretty exciting development - both for users and businesses of all sizes. Stay tuned.

Secret Amazon Discount Finder

Mike Phillips — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 13:25:00 GMT

Yesterday we looked at where consumers are comparision shopping. Following that theme, check out this new shopping tool from Deal Locker, Secret Amazon Discount Finder.

Here, enter your search by specific keyword or broad terms, choose your category and discount level (between 10-99%). You will be redirected to an Amazon page that shows those items matching your criteria. You can search Amazon US, UK, Canada, France and Germany at this time, Japan is coming soon.

So before you buy on Amazon, you might want to give this tool a try, it could mean significant savings.

Amazon Video on Demand Goes Public

Mike Phillips — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 14:05:00 GMT

Out of beta, Amazon Video on Demand is open for public use. Movies are available, as well as documentaries and television series. Typical movie rentals are $3.99, but range from $1.99 to $9.99 depending on the title. Movie purchases seem to average about $14.99. Television shows average around $1.99 each. There are some freebies if you want to give it a test run.

To watch programming on your television you can connect your computer to your TV, through Windows Media Center PCs, through Xbox 360, the Sony BRAVIA Internet video link or through TiVo DVR. There is also the option to watch on some portable video devices through the Unbox video player, but the iPhone and iPod touch is not included in that list.

Amazon's Green Store

Mike Phillips — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 13:46:00 GMT

Shopping online sure has its benefits - convenience is one of them and so is eliminating the need to travel, thereby saving fuel and preventing carbon emissions. Online shopping giant Amazon is providing a way to further green up your online shopping experience by releasing their AmazonGreen. The store sells environmentally-friendly products and includes a blog and tips about shopping and living green.

If you want to learn more about Amazon and their green efforts, check out Amazon.com and the Environment. Included is a study determining why shopping online is environmentally friendly.