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Window Shopping the Amazon Way
Amazon just launched Windowshop.com. When you get there you see a wall of images that you can then scroll across using a mouse or keyboard. By zooming in you get a preview of a particular album or film or book. If you want to purchase it, just click through to the Amazon website.
They advise people to come back every Tuesday to see what is new. I am not sure why they didn’t include a way to subscribe here.
When you go there, make sure you have your speakers on.
I am curious what our readers think of the experience. Please comment below.
About the author
Bryan Eisenberg is the co-author of New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling books Call to Action, Waiting For Your Cat to Bark and Always Be Testing. Bryan is available as a professional speaker. You can friend him on Facebook or follow him on Twitter (@TheGrok).
More articles from Bryan Eisenberg
- Nobody wants to read your sh**!September 21st, 2009
- Redesign? Ask The Right Questions!September 18th, 2009
- Cross-post: How to Improve a Product Page, Part 1September 15th, 2009
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October 29th, 2008
9:19 am
Pretty cool. Kinda weird. Zoom in and out is VERY cool. Annoyed that when I hit R or L arrow, I am pushed all the way to the top of a row instead of taking the scent of the image I see RIGHT THERE.
October 29th, 2008
9:41 am
Paul I agree left or right should be just that.
October 29th, 2008
10:26 am
Paul,
I have the same complaint. Of course, I wish I would have thought of the concept. It’s really pretty amazing.
October 29th, 2008
10:37 am
Great gee whiz factor, pretty much uninteresting to me as a shopper. If it was tied to my previous purchases and actually relevant to me then I find it useful. Now I’m impressed but not have no plans to use it to shop.
October 29th, 2008
10:38 am
I totally agree that it is annoying to get pushed to the top. From user testing I have heard a few users asking for a site such as this. This just may be the future of shopping!
October 29th, 2008
12:52 pm
Genius, one thing I wanted to see was the bandwidth requirements.
We have slower connections than normal here in South Africa (we have DSL but it’s not 10mbit, but you have to pause to youtube and let it buffer/cache before you can enjoy the video…). But even the slow one that I’m on at the moment suits it perfectly.
Genius.
Agreed that it should be integrated into Amazon using your personal data if applicable.
October 29th, 2008
1:13 pm
I think I figured out why they push you back to the top when you use the right or left arrows. It’s because the titles are organized by category vertically. So they assume if you want to move over, you want to start browsing a new category.
Clearly though, this should have had some more thought put into it from a useability standpoint.
October 29th, 2008
1:46 pm
Really great services, the reason I think they ask customers to come back each Tuesday is a simple way to make the new visitors into loyal customers.
Even if I can’t find anything that I like, who knows maybe next Tuesday I will…
On classic e-commerce websites I doubt a new visitor will come back just to check if this time, THAT product is for sale now.
October 29th, 2008
2:07 pm
The “idea” is interesting, but to me the execution ends up being just to much “visual noise.” Some kind of interest based experience that leads the user past windows that might actually interest them.
This kind of random approach, I think, will prove to be just another page of internet eye candy.
Cheers,
Adam
October 29th, 2008
2:26 pm
Very cool – tried it out on my 16yr old daughter who loved it!
Frustrated that you can use the mouse with what is visible on screen but not able to move off screen with the mouse.
Think that the books have room/should have information when in the overview section but obviously this is a technical issue due to what happens when you zoom in.
Also, I’m busy and won’t remember to come back every Tuesday and neither will my daughter. We would though if we could sign-up.
Overall though, excellent for the mainstream market.
November 4th, 2008
12:50 am
To me its a mistake and actually annoying to view. But the main problem is what I like best about amazon.com, the text. The reviews of books or products by both professionals and consumers. I’m not sure how this will appeal to consumers after a couple of visits.
June 7th, 2009
11:36 am
just checked out this site. It is the most awful shopping experience I have ever had. I know I’m my very own type of demographic, but I really wonder what their results have been with this method.