Let me start off by saying I am a complete die-hard Amazon fan! Every time that we near the start of classes and I receive all my e-mails from professors about which books we’ll be using for the semester my first task is to write down the isbn numbers and start a price compare. And every single time, without exception, Amazon offers me the cheapest prices. I save literally hundreds of dollars every semester on books. If that wasn’t enough, Amazon gifted me a one-year free Prime membership, upgrading me to 2-day shipping on Prime products for no additional cost. Through their cheap prices, fast deliveries, and user rating system, Amazon gained my brand loyalty. I no longer even look at Ebay or Half.com when I purchase books- I just compare Wake bookstore to Amazon.
After my amazing book-buying experience with Amazon, I decided to expand my amazon use to beyond book purchasing. I started gift e-shopping for friends. The convenience of being able to purchase anything I want without leaving campus is just incredible. But lately I have been overwhelmed with Amazon- because with each purchase I make, they are able to better analyze my consumption patterns- they know how much I am willing to spend, what types of products I enjoy buying, how frequently I will purchase. Amazon now knows me better than I know myself- they know how to sell me products I will want before I know these products exist.
I am a coffee addict. (That might be an understatement). I purchase campus grounds an average of once a day, and additionally go to a cafe off campus almost every weekend. I did the math and realized that I was spending about $35-$40/ week on coffee beverages, and I decided that was much too much. My solution? I had to buy my own latte machine. I went to Walmart and saw a latte machine I thought I would like for about $120…But this seemed awfully expensive to me seeing as I would have to buy all the ingredients necessary to make the drinks. So I decided to go onto Amazon to check what they had to offer. I looked through 5-10 different machines and found one that had a higher customer satisfaction than the one I was considering at Walmart, and get this: the price was only $45 (including shipping!). So of course I bought the $45 combination cappuccino/latte maker without much hesitation. And that is when the downfall began…Because when I thought a mug would suffice for steaming my milk, little did I know, I needed a metal steam pot. So I bought the best one at such a discount for about $20 after shipping. And then, I thought I would be able to estimate the ideal temperature- but they actually e-mailed me informing me of the best thermometers for steaming milk- so I bought one for $10. And then after searching for chai extracts, I now receive the e-mails notifying me of sales and favorite products. I have accumulated so many coffee/tea accessories: and it’s true, Amazon has allowed me to buy more stuff and save a ton of money. But when I take a second to reflect I realize that all I wanted was the latte machine. That was all. And now my room is practically a fully functional Starbucks. By tracking my searches, purchases, and spending patterns, Amazon has been able to understand what I want to purchase better than I myself can identify what I want to purchase, and they do so in such a subtle way- which allows me to save money with every purchase, and ultimately spend more and more at Amazon. From the perspective of a marketer- incredible and amazing; from the perspective of a consumer- I better proceed with caution!
Rachel Goldberg
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