Consumer_Portals

Molly Wahler Week 2 Assignment - General Consumer Portals E-Commerce April 21, 2010 The two consumer portals I decided to use to look for a hat, microwave oven, and an mp3 player, were Amazon.com and Ebay.com. Amazon.com is a consumer portal I use and shop from often. Ebay.com is a website I have just recently started using. Both have strong and week points to their portal, but first I’ll talk about the products I searched for. For a hat, I searched both sites for a Chicago Cubs 1914 Cooperstown Franchise Fitted Baseball Cap. At Amazon.com, the hat cost $19.99 new, at Ebay.com the hat cost $18.99 new at the buy it now price. For a microwave oven, I searched for Panasonic NN-S251 1000-Watt Microwave Oven. At ebay.com the price was $89.00 buy it now. I could not find the same microwave at Amazon.com, but similar microwaves went for around $99.00 new. Finally, for an MP3 player, I searched both sites for an Apple iPod nano 8 GB Purple (5th Generation). At Amazon.com, it cost $124.95 new and $97.51 used. At ebay.com, I couldn’t find one new, but a used one cost $99.00 buy it now. ‘Buy it now’ prices, are just one difference between these two sites. Ebay.com is basically known to be somewhat of an online auction site. People have a certain time period to bid on certain items they want and in order to get the item they desire, must outbid everyone else before the time is up. If you don’t want to got through this hassle, most items have simply a buy it now price, which is usually higher than the current bid. I didn’t actually go through with any purchase at ebay.com, but I have at Amazon.com and it is so easy and the shipping is very fast. I feel like these sites have been refined to the point where there aren’t many weaknesses. Both sites have similar tools and similar navigation. I don’t have any complaints about either.