Why Amazon’s My Best Friend

Although not our usual style blog post, we decided to deflect from the norm this week to post an homage (of sorts) to Amazon!

Written by a hard-core Amazon buyer (ok fine, addict).

Amazon is my best friend and I’ll tell you why. After a really crappy weekend, running from errand to errand, everything going wrong on me, and basically not relaxing at all, I rolled into work this morning, bleary eyed and in desperate need of a coffee, and logged into Amazon.com.

Yes, it was only 9am and I was already in need of some much-deserved retail therapy!

And although I had no clue what I felt like purchasing, I knew that my trusted friend Amazon would not disappoint me. And how right I was. My home page was immediately filled with recommendations of items Amazon thought I might like to view. The first thing that caught my eye was the coolest wine glass ever!

Always one for funky home d’cor and accessories, and feeling like I could actually do with a large glass of the red stuff right then and there, I immediately clicked “add to cart” and bought it before I could regret spending $13 on something I didn’t really and truly need.

And I smiled. 🙂 Oh Amazon, I thought to myself, trust you to really understand what makes me happy.

Avoiding the eyes of my boss, lest he decide to bestow some actual work on me and destroy any prospects of me truly achieving complete happiness this morning, I continued scrolling down my beautifully personalized Amazon homepage. While I’m already shopping, I reasoned, I may as well look for a wedding present for friends of mine who had recently tied the knot.

Even though I honestly do not remember ever having looked for couple presents on Amazon, for some incredibly strange but wonderfully timely reason (perhaps Amazon can really see deep into my inner core?!), in the Inspired by your shopping trends? section were displayed the cutest set of his & her pillows.

I didn’t even know such a thing existed, I thought excitedly as my grin spread even wider! Eager to find the exact set my friends would appreciate, I clicked through to the product page and browsed through all the pillow case options available. There were simple ones with cute quotes etched on the edge, colorful ones with large pictures boldly splashed onto the center of the case, and even ones you could personalize with the couple’s name and wedding date!

Shopping on this site is way too much fun!

I still hadn’t found the perfect set though. And I then I happened across a section I had never previously seen on Amazon, just past the customer reviews the Product ads from external websites? section. What’s this? I wondered. Curious, I clicked on one of the images and a separate tab opened to a random website. And there I found the perfect present just staring me in the face!

What do you think?!

Curious to know why Amazon would purposely direct people away from their site, I flicked back to the Amazon ad I had just come from and clicked on the little ?What?s this? explanation. It said, ‘We are bringing you these links to products from other websites in order to provide you with greater product selection.’ We want Amazon.com to be the place you think of to find, discover, and buy anything online.

As the age-old adage goes, a true friend is one who anticipates your needs and points you in the right direction if there is anything they themselves can?t provide you with.

Thank you Amazon!

Having completed my retail therapy and feeling infinitely happier than I had two hours previously, I leaned back in my chair and sighed contently.

Oh Amazon, if the already-large flame of love I felt for you could burn any stronger, it just did.

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