After the sometimes violent, sale-driven orgy knows as “Black Friday”, it is great to see that a few companies (like Microsoft and Feeding America) are today looking to give back to the community on what has now come be known as “Giving Tuesday”.
After what was no doubt an extremely lucrative Black Friday (and Cyber Monday), Amazon.com is now hosting an event of a different kind, where, this time, the “savings” will be in lives and not dollars.
For Giving Tuesday, Amazon is now pointing their users towards the “Amazon Smile” shopping page, in an attempt to help the partnering charitable organizations “cash in” on the increased consumer spending at this time of year.
How do you Contribute with Amazon Smile?
The retail giant has made the contribution process as effortless as possible, keeping the overall user experience (of shopping on Amazon) almost exactly the same, with only a few minor modifications to the overall checkout process.
Step 1
It all begins with the Amazon Smile homepage, where shoppers are presented with a few ‘legitimate’ charities from which they can choose one (to support).
Step 2
After the desired charity is selected, the user is then taken to a page that exactly mimics the regular Amazon.com home page (with a few minor alterations), and is presented with all of the products that are normally available for purchase on the website.
Step 3
The customer can then choose the product that they wish to purchase, keeping in mind that only items with “Eligible for Amazon Smile” in their product description will be treated as a charitable donation; and proceed to checkout.
This step strikes me as somewhat peculiar, as one would think that if they were truly aiming to help these charities, then they would make every product on the “Amazon Smile” page eligible for charitable donation.
Step 4
After the purchase is complete, 0.5% of the purchase amount is then donated to the charity that you chose earlier on in the process.
On a side note, If you do not want to support any of the larger charities that you are presented with on the homepage, or would like to view all of your available options, you can visit this page and try to find one that is more suited to your taste.
*Note : Amazon is also offering to donate $20 for every Kindle Fire tablet bought on Giving Tuesday (today).*
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