Overview
I am a loyal customer to Amazon.com since the introduction of free shipping to Hong Kong when you spend over US$49.00 on eligible items. The price is affordable and the shipping is fast which takes around 1 week on average. Apart from the US site, I also purchase goods from Amazon.JP although no free shipping is offered.
Flow that shoppers follow to make purchases
Overall speaking, the checkout process is very seamless and easy to understand. Here is a possible flow a user would go through to make a purchase.
Common design pattern
Usually I already have an idea what I am looking for and I will add the item to the cart and go straight to checkout. Let’s take dishwasher pods as an example to illustrate common design patterns.
Reviews
I have no idea which brand to go for in the very beginning. I search “ dishwasher pod” in the search bar and I got a list of product results to choose with. Since I have not tried any of the brands, I click on the items with the highest number of reviews i.e. Cascade and finish. In the product page, I simply read through the descriptions briefly and add the item to cart after a few minute.
The review pattern of Amazon is very useful in helping consumers to make a decision when they are have no preferences yet.
Shopping Cart- Save for Later Button
I will add all the items that I am interested in into the shopping cart in case I forget the list and need to search again. I found the “Save for later” option really magical in the way that I could put those items in the list when I am still interested in it, but do not want to make a purchase at that moment.
Move to Cart
I might come back to the item later on. Whenever the amount in the shopping cart does not over US$49.00, I will browse through the Save for Later list right underneath the cart and “Move” some items back to the cart. This truly saves a lot of effort for consumers to memorize their preferences and save their time in browsing the full search results again.
Search Result — Buy it again
After I have purchased Cascade dishwasher pod, I still manage to see the my purchae history of the item easily when I search for the product again after a few months. I have probably forgot what I have bought but the “Buy it Again” reminds me immediately and I could simply click “ Add to Cart” and checkout.
Amazon.com pays a lot of attention to the checkout process with great details. It saves users’ memory space and let them finish their job in minimum amount of time.
