Online retail behemoth Amazon recently launched Windowshop.com, which offers a new way to browse through items from its main site.
Other than looking quite nice, does this new tool offer any extra value to Amazon's shoppers?
Windowshop.com displays the latest releases and bestsellers each week, adding new products each Tuesday.
Shoppers can scroll through the items and zoom in and out using either the mouse or arrow keys and space bar, though keyboard is best here. Zooming in will prompt an audio description of the product or a song sample / movie trailer to be played:
Users can then click through to Amazon.com to buy the product or find out more details, read reviews etc.
The site is excellent visually, and unlike some other Flash based scrolling tools, such as Borders' 'Magic Shelf' it is fast, and doesn't delay users while new items load.
I'm not sure how many people will use this over the normal Amazon site; the range of products is limited, it lacks the all important search option, while important product details, delivery charges etc are also missing.
I do like the idea of visual shopping sites though, Shopwave from Mpire and Browsegoods are two such examples, though neither works as smoothly as Amazon's offering.
This kind of visual tool may be more suited to allowing shoppers to browse through goods where photos matter more, such as shoes and clothes.
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Reader comments (1)
8:11PM on 31st October 2008
Love the new Amazon Windowshop. When I shop online or in a bricks and mortar store I don't always know what I want; Windowshop brings exciting new items to the forefront with a snippet of music or comments from an author - for example, it's almost as good picking up a book in your own hands and previewing it to determine if it's what you want. In about 3 minutes of checking out Windowshop I have 3 possibilities for Christmas gifts -- Good Work Amazon!!!!!
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