thepurplebook: The Definitive Guide to Exceptional Online Shopping (Paperback)

by Hillary Mendelsohn (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Think of it as a Google for shoppers. Marketing consultant Mendelsohn and her colleagues have poured over tens of thousands of e-commerce Web sites and come up with a whopper of a directory listing their favorites, which they arrived at by using such criteria as how easy a site is to use, how good its selection is and how long it takes to download the site. The book divides the offerings into 19 categories, including pets, gadgets, maternity, entertainment and travel. Each entry lists the site's URL, a review and information regarding shipping costs, the availability of gift certificates and other particulars. The reviews are not all positive-e.g., Beauty.com's site is "confusing," and VillasOfTheWorld.com uselessly divides accommodations as either "First Class," "Deluxe" or "Luxurious"-which helps give the author and her team credibility. The sleekly designed book brims with helpful cross-references and hints for getting the most out of an online shopping experience.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Description
WE TAKE THE GUESSWORK OUT OF ONLINE SHOPPING

Attention shoppers! Tens of thousands of Internet retailers are clamoring for your business, but you stand a greater chance of being struck by lightning than of finding the best online shops out there. Now get ready to be struck by lightning over and over again, because you hold in your hands the first edition of the most complete, authoritative guide to online shopping that has ever been available—thepurplebook™.

Here are more than 1,600 of the best Internet shopping sites— selected, tested, and organized for your information and convenience. Every site in this book has been poked, prodded, scrutinized, and held to a rigorous set of standards. For every store reviewed here, six or seven were left out because they simply were not up to par.

Those sites that are featured have demonstrated superior qualities of product selection, consumer service, and/or price, covering a full range of tastes and interests. thepurplebook, at long last, makes it easy to find the right something for yourself and everyone on your shopping list.

Find vital information and the most exciting sites for these essential categories:

Art & Collectibles
Charity
Entertainment
Epicurean
Gadgets & Electronics
Health & Beauty
Home & Garden
Lifestyles & Megastores
Maternity
Minors
Men’s Apparel
Pets
Seniors
Shoes & Accessories
Sports & Outdoors
Stationery & Gifts
Travel
Weddings
Women’s Apparel

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 672 pages
• Publisher: Bantam; First Printing edition (October 14, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553382780
• ISBN-13: 978-0553382785
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #859,583 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars All things to all people?, November 24, 2003

By	"wernie" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This is a rather Zagattish commentary (unfortunately without the point score) on the 1600 or so sites the book tries to cover.

The real value and unfortunately the (slight) failing of the book is that it tries to be too broad. In addition not everything in the book is perfect. I spotted some slight inaccuracies in some websites that I am a regular customer of. Secondly, the narrative is simply too Categorical in its comments, and one suspects that a lot of insight may be colored by the perspective garned from the particular website itself and not through a real user experience. Unlike Zagat, there is very little of the equivocation that may suggest the particular (shopping) website could have failings, or that it may not be so good. Indeed, it would appear that virtually all comments about each (shopping) website highlights the positive ...

Nevertheless, this opus provides the reader with a valuable trove of information. I personally found the epicurean section as well as the stationery/gifts section most useful, although that might reflect my personal biases. While I also question the breakdown of the shopping categories in the book, but on the whole, I recommend it, and think that it is by far the best in its class.

I'm slightly surprised that Amazon did not put out sample pages (at least of the writing of this review) as that would allow customers to have a much better feel for the book. In any case, here's my input:

Opening a random page in women's wear includes the following sites in (continued) alphabetical order:
1) Peruvian connection
2) Pieceunique.com
3) Purpleskirt.com
4) Ravinstyle.com
5) Sauvagewear.com
6) Seamlessbody.com

And just in case you were wondering what they thought about Amazon? Amazon appears twice. The first is under the segment "Entertainment" (which includes books). The entire spiel is as follows:

"The first name in Internet retail has come a long way from its origins as strictly a bookseller. Its expanision started, logically, with music and videos, but has gone on to plenty else. But it's a continued master of entertainment media that keeps us coming back. Here you may listen to music samples, read book samples and read customer reviews of just about anything. There are plenty of reasons these guys are No. one, and you probably don't want to read about them here. Suffice to say, if for some strange reason you've never visited, check it out"

Here's one more random example from www.clambakeco.com:

"Clambakes to travel. When it's time for a good old-fashion clambake, you can do no better than to visit this new-fangled speciality retailer. What's a clambake? Well, as these guys have it, its a shindig that involves steamed lobster, mussels, vegetables, Portugese sausage and of course clams. Yes it sounds like a lot to prepare, but that's the great thing about this site: they send you a pre-packed steamer pot ... You simply add water, put over a flame and 20 min or so later you have a full fledged clamback for as any people as you need. It couldn't be easier, and you get to keep the pot."

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Guide for the Shopaholic!!, November 10, 2003

By	Sanaz Limouee (Tysons Corner, VA) - See all my reviews

When I first found out about the Purple Book I was very excited, I love to shop and to find unique buys and often don't run across great websites because they are hard to find. This is a great resource across many categories to help you find what you need online and to discover some great sites for shopping.

The one aspect of the book that I didn't like was that it listed sites that are very known an common such as some brick & mortar stores or very promient online stores (Gap, Abercrombie & Fitch, Ebay, etc...) I was hoping there would be more focus on stores that were unique and off the beaten path but I have found some sites that I never knew of before and it is a great resource so I would highly recommend this for anyone that loves to shop as much as I do!!

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Shopping Guide Ever!, October 21, 2003

By	patriot (California) - See all my reviews

I have found over 100 sites I had no idea ever existed. The humor combined with the depth of shopping indexed info makes this book a must have for me. I bought 9 books for my friends. The epicurian section is to die for and the baby section is goo goo gaga. 5 stars is an understatement AAAAAAAAA+