People who use Amazon to remind themselves of what to buy tend to end up accumulating a lot of links, as evident from my own Amazon wish list. And I have to agree that the stuff you put on there tells at least a sub-plot story of who you are – and perhaps even to which extent greed and consumerism dominate your personality. ;o)

Amazon.com is an amazing business. They sell pretty much anything under the sun. If they don’t or can’t stock it themselves, they’ll partner up with someone who does, like Target or Toys R Us. And their easy-to-use wishlist features, dead-on product recommendation engine, and one-click purchasing make it really, really easy for the customer to spend lots of money.

The most ingenious thing they’ve done is psychological, though: they don’t give you time to regret spending the money you’re about to spend. In a brick and mortar store or even in most online stores, you have to enter several screens of information (addresses, credit card number, shipping info, etc.) before you can actually place the order. With Amazon, you do all that once, and then subsequent orders just take one or two clicks. It’s easy to see why they patented the process. Before you can even think about how much money you’re spending, you’ve spent it. Sure, you can cancel the order later if you change your mind, but most people don’t.

I know I’ve sure spent lots of money there. Sigh.

Thanks, Greystork, I fixed it in the article :P

Wow, I thought 4 pages was a lot. I stand corrected.

I don’t really have that impulse-buy problem - I am actually LESS likely to rush ahead with buying things online than at brick-n-mortar - maybe because I know if I want to change something, or want more than one thing, I will have wished I had waited.

However, it is extreeeeeeeeme convenience.

This is why I will never turn on one-click ordering.

But yeah, you’re right. It is a good business. I’ve always been impressed by their data mining fu.

I really used amazon a lot in college. Being in a city without department stores (well, ok, there are some in the burbs, but not in Cleveland itself), and without a car, ecomerce was by far the easiest way to buy stuff. Plus, all college students like to get packages, even if it’s just stuff they ordered for themselves.

Actually, I really like the convenience of one-click ordering. I don’t impulse buy so much as I buy things I’ve wanted to buy for a while but don’t really need. The convenience helps me deal better with the after-purchase guilt. ;)

I’m not a college student anymore, but I still like getting packages! Even if I order them myself (Because, unlike during college, that’s about the only way I get packages these days. Too bad…).

I mean, who doesn’t like getting packages, college or not? Are there weird don’t-like-to-get-packages people out there that I don’t know about?

Sometimes, I don’t like getting packages from my Mom. Cuz I go, “WOW! A package! And then it’s an odd sock of mine she found, a WWF newsletter, and two credit card offers that came for me to her address.