Who Does Online Shopping Better? - Amazon, Google, or Bing

Online Shopping Ventures

Who does it better: Amazon, Google, or Bing?

I'm going to let you in on a little secret: I don't like shopping. Wandering around a store, searching for what I need has no appeal to me. As an Amazon Prime member, I find online shopping to be closer to my taste. I search for what I want, click "purchase” and I’m done. Yet Amazon isn’t perfect. The selection can be poor or the search results yield things completely unrelated. Do Google or Bing offer a better selection, or an experience worthy of paying a few bucks for shipping? I ventured online to find out.

I decided to shop for new lunchboxes for the kiddos to take back to school.


Starting with Amazon I typed "lunchboxes" into the search criteria and was rewarded with ... Tupperware. Huh? A company named "EasyLunchboxes" makes a Bento Box Lunch container and Amazon apparently thought that's what I wanted. Results were not much better when I refined the search to "Kids' Lunchboxes." There were plenty of cute options on the first page, but there was also an assortment stuff that was definitely not a lunchbox. I only reviewed the first 24 results out of 2,150 returned, but I expect my search to hit pretty darn close to what I am looking for in that size of a sampling.

Microsoft's search engine Bing is launched through www.shopping.com. My search for "lunchboxes" was rewarded with nearly all of the first 40 returns fitting my criteria. To the left was an option to sort by those options offering "free shipping," which is a nice feature. Another difference: Bing lists the vendors, right on the search page, something you have to dig deeper to find with Google and Amazon. I found listings from JC Penny, EBay and Etsy. Bing even linked me back to Amazon. When you order, you do so directly from the vendor once you've clicked on the product link.

Google Shopping surprised me. Even though Amazon is my default shopping site, I still expected Google to offer the most robust and refined results. Yet I when typed "lunchboxes" into the search bar, over half of the first page (including the first 3 entries) were not lunchboxes at all, but plastic containers, and hardly any of the items on the page were kid-related. Really, Google? At a time of the year where nearly every other vendor is screaming "Back to School" you don’t refine results to such a common category? While Google returned the highest number of results (a whopping 143,000) their relevance left something to be desired.

Amazon's robust rating system is hard to beat, too. This lunchbox has 181 customer reviews, as opposed to Google's mere 4. Incidentally, searching specifically for "R2D2 Lunchbox" via Bing resulted in nothing remotely similar.

 

Use Amazon at Your best

Get the Best when you Use Amazon.com

Whether you’re in the market for the latest hit movie, coffee, electronics, or even a drum set, Amazon.com has just about anything you can imagine buying online. In addition to massive selection, Amazon is known for its competitive pricing. Save even more time and money by taking advantage of some of its shopper incentive programs.

While the $79 price tag may seem steep at first glance, Amazon Prime entitles users to more than just free 2-day shipping on eligible items – though that’s a big selling point. One-click shopping stores your billing and shipping information so you don't have to type it in every time or navigate multiple confirmation screens. Stream a large selection of on-demand movies and TV shows for free over the Internet to any device that supports Amazon Prime Instant Video (including your computer, most gaming consoles, and many TVs and set-top boxes). Kindle owners can take advantage of the Kindle Owner’s Lending Library to borrow one e-book a month to read on your Kindle device with no late fees or due date. There are currently over 145,000 titles available.


Even if shipping is the only Prime benefit you’re likely to use, one holiday’s worth of shipping to family members throughout the U.S. can make it break even: you need only make about 13 purchases a year for it to pay for itself.

If you're already a Prime member, share your account with up to four other people for added value. In the upper right-hand corner after logging in, click on "Your Account." Under the Settings section, select "Manage Prime Membership." Just below your membership information is a section labeled "Invite a Household Member." Enter their name, relation, email address and birth date. Each person you invite will need to know your birth date to confirm their identity. Once they're set up, they'll benefit from unlimited two-day shipping, but not Amazon Prime Instant Video or Kindle Owner’s Lending Library benefits.

The Amazon Mom program (www.amazon.com/gp/mom/signup/info) is free to join and benefits caregivers of small children with three free months of Prime membership, 20% off diapers and wipes subscriptions, and exclusive deals and discounts.

Students currently enrolled in a college or university with a valid .edu e-mail address can sign up for Amazon Student (www.amazon.com/student). Membership includes six months of free Prime membership and the option to continue Prime for up to four years at $39/year. One caveat: you can't share an Amazon Prime Student account.

You probably wouldn’t consider Amazon a good place to pick up a jar of peanut butter - shipping costs as much as the item, unless you buy in bulk and have more than you need. Amazon's new Add-on Program now offers thousands of small, low-priced items, available to be "added on" to orders of $25 or more. These items can be combined with free super saver shipping or Amazon Prime accounts for additional savings.
While e-books are great for tomes that would be bulky and unmanageable in hardback, there are some books you want to hang on to. Harry Potter series, anyone? With Amazon Upgrade, you can have the best of both worlds. Purchase a physical book from Amazon that's part of the program and Upgrade lets you obtain a digital copy for a discounted price. You can even upgrade past purchases, so long as you've made them through Amazon and the titles are included in the program.

Lastly, if you find yourself purchasing certain products regularly, consider Amazon's Subscribe and Save program. Eligible items include everything from toothpaste and deodorant to diapers and cereal, and garner up to a 15% discount in addition to free shipping. Simply choose an eligible product and the quantity you'd like to receive. Customize your delivery schedule, from once-a-month to once-every-six months. Amazon sends an email notification a week prior to shipment, so you can delay or cancel at any time. You're only charged when the order ships and subscriptions are managed through the Your Account page so you can manage or update them any time you like.