Windowshop's innovative shopping experience gives consumers a new way to browse Amazon.com; click for source.
Looks like I missed out on Amazon.com’s Fall 2008 launch of “Windowshop,” a sexy, sleek new way to browse the site’s bread and butter product of literary and visual entertainment. If you did too, check it out right now.
As its name suggests, Windowshop puts a visual storefront on Amazon’s traditional text-laden site. Browse music titles and you’ll instantly hear samples; scroll through a visual medium (movies/tv/video games) and you’ll see the item’s trailer. Click on a book to see the title’s front cover and and listen to a description. Bestsellers are the only content supported now, but I imagine users will be able to sign-in and see personalized recommendations in the future.
Windowshop is fun and feels iPhone-ish. If you’ve ever used Cooliris, you’ll feel right at home. The site is in beta mode currently and I’ve subscribed to the official updates so I don’t miss out on Windowshop news again.
This is a breakthrough in the otherwise clunky task of browsing Amazon page-by-page. Amazon pages are littered with text and often too much information for the casual window shopper. I’ve found that browsing Amazon for extended periods of time can become monotonous, and the experience can even feel like a chore as my eyes tire from scanning so much text to find what I’m interested in.
My dream Windowshop experience would include the ability to see one’s personalized recommendations, a search feature, and the freedom of viewers to cherry-pick information from the traditional Amazon page, such as product reviews and customer discussions (neatly tucked away and easily expandable of course). If Amazon adds 1-click to Windowshop, I can foresee users engaged in a wave of radically-addicting impulse purchasing. (Maybe Windowshop could be the economy’s answer to frugal consumer spending!)
