Top Customer Reviewers to Give Advice about Stretching Your Dollar over the Holidays as Well as Gift Recommendations...and They Will Expose Black Friday Deals!
SEATTLE, Nov 24, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) today announced it has formed a Holiday
Customer Review Team comprised of six of its top Customer Reviewers.
These tell-it-like-it-is consumer advocates will provide fellow Amazon
customers with top gift picks for the season as well as helpful tips on
cutting costs over the holidays. They have also been given exclusive,
early access to some of Amazon's top Black Friday deals so they can
share their favorites with fellow shoppers beginning today.
"Amazon's customer reviews have revolutionized the way people shop,
helping consumers to make informed buying decisions," said Russell
Dicker, senior manager of Community at Amazon.com. "Our customers have
come to rely on the third-party expertise our customer reviews provide,
and the Holiday Customer Review Team is an extension of that resource
over the holidays. We're looking forward to seeing their reaction to our
Black Friday deals, and we're excited that they can share those deals
with our customers."
The Amazon Holiday Customer Review Team page (http://www.amazon.com/review/holiday08)
features the reviewers' favorite deals and their own hand-picked gift
guides. It also features a discussion board where customers can post
questions directly to the Review Team members.
Amazon.com first introduced Customer Reviews in 1995, and to date, more
than 5 million customers have reviewed products. The Holiday Customer
Review Team members have contributed nearly 5,000 product reviews
collectively and each member ranks within the top 100 reviewers out of
millions of reviewers.
The Amazon Holiday Customer Review Team will be available now through
Dec. 25 to discuss Black Friday and other holiday deals, tips for
cutting costs over the holidays, best holiday gift items, and specific
products they have reviewed.
Get to know the Amazon Holiday Customer Review Team:
Mark Espinosa, Jersey City, NJ, and New York, NY
Reviewer since: August 2002
Reviews: 415
Areas of expertise: Gadgets, computers, consumer electronics,
games, music and movies.
Why he became a Customer Reviewer: Mark is currently Amazon.com's
No. 1 reviewer. Mark's passion for reviewing comes from his "desire to
help customers make great choices with as much detailed testing and
information as possible."
Debbie Lee Wesselmann, Allentown, PA
Reviewer since: February 1998
Reviews: 672
Areas of expertise: Books, music, DVDs, kitchen appliances and
electronics.
Why she became a Customer Reviewer: As an author herself, Debbie
started her Amazon reviewer stint reviewing books. As Amazon expanded
its stores, she started reviewing CDs, DVDs, kitchen appliances,
electronics and other items. Her main goal is "to write balanced reviews
that help customers decide if a product - whether a laptop or a novel -
might be right for them."
Marty Hogan, San Francisco, CA
Reviewer since: February 1999
Reviews: 1,068
Areas of expertise: Electronic devices and gadgets, sports and
outdoor items, books, music and DVDs.
Why he became a Customer Reviewer: In addition to his Amazon
reviews, Marty is a consistent participant in the San Francisco
Chronicle's award-winning opinion column, "Two Cents." He started
reviewing products on Amazon because "to be able to share my reviews and
thoughts with readers and actually receive feedback is immensely
rewarding."
Zack Davisson, Seattle, WA
Reviewer since: January 2000
Reviews: 970
Areas of expertise: Personal interests like Japanese cooking,
film and literature, as well as his "pop culture roots" with reviews for
toys, video games, comic books and pulp horror films.
Why he became a Customer Reviewer: At the time Zack wrote his
first Amazon Review, he owned a store specializing in comic books, games
and collectibles, and was also serving as a "pop culture expert" for
National Public Radio's "All Things Considered." He "saw some great
products that I knew were really cool, but lacked enough catalog
information for potential buyers to get excited about them."
Joseph Boone, Irvine, CA
Reviewer since: September 2000
Reviews: 367
Areas of expertise: Books and movies, and as an amateur
photographer, "everything from photo paper to Adobe Photoshop and most
everything in between."
Why he became a Customer Reviewer: Joseph found himself utilizing
Amazon's Customer Reviews to make purchasing decisions and decided in
2000 that he wanted to contribute to "give back the same helpful
resource to others."
Ed Uyeshima, San Francisco, CA
Reviewer since: July 2004
Reviews: 1,483
Areas of expertise: Ed's product reviews span across nearly all
of Amazon's categories but he has particular interest in books, music,
movies, electronics, and home and garden items.
Why he became a Customer Reviewer: Ed enjoys reviewing because he
aspires to be "a renaissance man never tiring of exposing myself to the
works of those who have the audacity and (hopefully) talent to fulfill
their creative destinies." His popularity as a product reviewer, and
prolific output of reviews, have led Ed to frequent freelance
assignments as the "Travel Examiner" for the online edition of the San
Francisco Examiner.
Customer Reviewers were selected to be a member of the Holiday Customer
Review Team based on the number and breadth of products they have
reviewed. Members are real people giving unbiased advice to fellow
consumers. They are not employed by Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.
About Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), a Fortune 500 company based in Seattle,
opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers Earth's
Biggest Selection. Amazon.com, Inc. seeks to be Earth's most
customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything
they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the
lowest possible prices. Amazon.com and other sellers offer millions of
unique new, refurbished and used items in categories such as books,
movies, music & games, digital downloads, electronics & computers, home
& garden, toys, kids & baby, grocery, apparel, shoes & jewelry, health &
beauty, sports & outdoors, and tools, auto & industrial.
Amazon Web Services provides Amazon's developer customers with access to
in-the-cloud infrastructure services based on Amazon's own back-end
technology platform, which developers can use to enable virtually any
type of business. Examples of the services offered by Amazon Web
Services are Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), Amazon Simple
Storage Service (Amazon S3), Amazon SimpleDB, Amazon Simple Queue
Service (Amazon SQS), Amazon Flexible Payments Service (Amazon FPS), and
Amazon Mechanical Turk.
Amazon and its affiliates operate websites, including www.amazon.com,
www.amazon.co.uk,
www.amazon.de,
www.amazon.co.jp,
www.amazon.fr,
www.amazon.ca,
and the Joyo Amazon websites at www.joyo.cn
and www.amazon.cn.
As used herein, "Amazon.com," "we," "our" and similar terms include
Amazon.com, Inc., and its subsidiaries, unless the context indicates
otherwise.
Forward-Looking Statements
This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning
of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the
Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Actual results may differ significantly
from management's expectations. These forward-looking statements involve
risks and uncertainties that include, among others, risks related to
competition, management of growth, new products, services and
technologies, potential fluctuations in operating results, international
expansion, outcomes of legal proceedings and claims, fulfillment center
optimization, seasonality, commercial agreements, acquisitions and
strategic transactions, foreign exchange rates, system interruption,
significant amount of indebtedness, inventory, government regulation and
taxation, payments and fraud. More information about factors that
potentially could affect Amazon.com's financial results is included in
Amazon.com's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission,
including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31,
2007, and subsequent filings.
SOURCE: Amazon.com, Inc.
Amazon.com, Inc.
Media Hotline, 206-266-7180
