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10.10.07
Shopping Cart Tips That Even Amazon Could Use
 By
Yuri Filimonov
How many times have you started shopping, put a great deal of effort in entering all the required information, only to see the "You can't buy now" message.
Read where Amazon has failed and how you can improve your shopping cart (scroll to the bottom, if in a hurry).
The story
So, I wanted to buy a Seth Godin's book, The Bootstrapper's Bible: Volume 1 (Amazon fails to ship to me, so I'd eventually buy Seth's other books for a paperback price, if he had them in a digital format, too). For such a price, lower than any e-book I know - and of much greater value, I thought this was worth having.
(Btw, if you haven't read Seth's free e-book "Unleashing the Ideavirus", you must, ought to, have to and are absolutely obliged to read it. It is about why ideas rule the world and how you can make them spread for your benefit.
You can also find his other free e-books, including a free Bootstrapping Guide Manifesto (PDF, 1.2 Mb), in his lens. Thanks, Seth.)
But back to the story.
The button on the right, aptly named "Buy now with 1-Click®", was convincing enough.
So, I clicked and a window appeared, asking for registering or logging in (Bad) (why not do it using the info I use in buying the book, anyway?).
The form had my email address entered and simply wanted my password (Good - they remembered me and my email address).
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The next window wanted my payment method, name, credit card number and card expiration date. So far so good, but it wasn't the entire "1-Click®" purchase, though.
After clicking continue, I was hoping to get my e-book. Not so fast. It wanted my new billing information, prompting for no country, but absolutely requiring me to select a state (from the US states) (Bad)
When I did, it needed a zipcode, matching a state. Fun. Luckily, I remembered a 95001 zip code for California (CA), so I went through this hurdle, too. What would happen to some foreigner not familiar with the zipcodes of the US states I don't know (a lost sale, maybe?).
After clicking "Continue" for the 4th time (apart from clicking on the "Buy now" button), I got the following message:
All Amazon Digital transactions are completed with 1-Click® to provide you with a quick and easy purchase process.
Your e-Document purchase will be completed when you click "Continue" and your credit card will be charged. Your purchase will be available for you to download immediately.
Talking about the easy process after 4-5 clicks seems like an attempt to make fun of me. Don't make fun of your customers (please, Amazon). (To be fair, the same message does appear when you do have the "1-Click®" option enabled, after clicking on it).
Continue reading this article.
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