Serena Kiss, Staff Editor
Online shopping has become a nationwide phenomenon. Some favor it over shopping in actual stores; instead of having to trek to the mall and go from store to store, a click of the mouse from one page to another can lead to a complete shopping trip. Mimicking Black Friday, there is even a deemed “Cyber Monday” when there are super sales online. In particular, Amazon.com has built its own internet empire, with many products to purchase online. In many cases, Amazon is the only site people enter to complete online shopping sprees.
Generally, individuals are shopping by means of the internet more and more frequently.
“Online shopping is faster, with getting it delivered to your house,” NHS senior Pauline Fitzgerald said. “I also save money when I shop online.”
When searching for items on Google, Amazon is often the first website that comes up in the search. Amazon has anything from sweaters, to books, to home appliances, and much more. Companies such as UGG and Nike even sell their own products through Amazon. The flourishing site has grown to a net worth of roughly $90 billion. Amazon does not sell anything of its own; simply selling other companies’ products has caused the site’s popularity and fortune to grow.
An informal survey suggested that 88% of students use Amazon most often while online shopping. In one week, over 130 million Amazon customers order from the site, while 60% of the total customers place an order at least once a month. Many people enjoy shopping with Amazon.
“I like that it is a retail store and that it’s not just people posting used items,” NHS senior Jason Savoca said.
“Anything you need is on Amazon, and it’s usually cheap,” NHS senior Kaitlyn Sugarman said. “I haven’t had any problems.”
Each item ordered from Amazon had shipping charges; however, the introduction of Amazon Prime enables customers to have free two-day shipping on items that are marked as “prime.” Customers are also able to filter searches on the site to only show “prime” items. Amazon Prime costs $80 per year, but it allows frequent online shoppers to save a lot of money on shipping costs. To top it off, a free 30-day trial of Prime is available to customers.
Some feel they do not use Amazon frequently enough to become a Prime member.
“I don’t really use [Amazon] that often,” NHS senior Isabella Saraceni said. “If I did, I would probably be a Prime member.”
“I use the site once every couple months,” Savoca said. “It’s not worth me being an Amazon Prime member.”
In its initial days, Amazon was an online book store. To this day, however, the site has grown and flourished into an internet hub for products of every sort.
Photo credit to www.blog.complete.com.
