How to Shop on Your Kindle Fire
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
In addition to making the Kindle Fire, Amazon runs a little e-commerce website that sells everything from toothpicks to e-books. Of course, Amazon wants you to have access to the full Amazon shopping experience on your Kindle Fire, so it has created an app designed just for that.
Shopping is given its own place in the library navigation on the Home screen. The Shop app is an aggregator because it serves as a jumping-off point to the stores baked into the other libraries on the Kindle Fire (Books, Music, and Video). The Shop app is also a storefront because it lets you browse all the physical items for sale at Amazon.com.
This chapter shows you how to use the Shop app to buy a variety of things right from your Kindle Fire with a few taps.
Browsing the stores
The Shop app is a central place to access several different stores on your Kindle Fire. Launch the Shop app by tapping Shop on the Home screen’s library navigation 
. At the top of the screen is a Search Store box. Tapping it takes you to the stores search (covered in Chapter 3). Below that is a large picture promoting products that Amazon wants to draw to your attention. Swipe left and right with your finger to cycle through the four different promotions. Notice the four dots at the bottom of the promotion; they let you know the position of the promotion you’re currently viewing. Tap anywhere on a promotion to go to the item it is representing.
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The Shop app provides access to all the storefronts Amazon has to offer, as well as highlighting new or notable content.
At the bottom of the screen are all the stores you can browse. The digital stores are grouped together on the left:
- Books
- Music
- Videos
- Newsstand
- Apps
- Games
- Audiobooks
Amazon Prime
Amazon Prime is a $79 yearly membership program. Membership includes the following:
- Free two-day shipping on Prime-eligible items denoted by the Prime logo
. - Discounted expedited shipping ($3.99 per item for one-day shipping for a weekday delivery and $8.99 for Saturday delivery).
- Access to an ever-expanding streaming video library called Prime Instant Videos (all of which you can watch on your Kindle Fire).
- The ability to borrow one e-book a month from the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library. You can keep the book for as long as you like, but you can have only one book out at a time and borrow only once a month.
Tapping any of these takes you to that specific digital store. These stores are covered in the chapters devoted to the library of the same name.
What happens when you tap the Amazon Prime store depends on whether you’re signed up for a membership. If you are a Prime member, it reminds you of all the benefits to membership and highlights some content available to Prime members 
. If you aren’t a Prime member, you can sign up right from this screen.
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Amazon Prime membership has its benefits. If you aren’t a Prime member, you can sign up right from your Fire.
Finally, in the lower far-right corner is the button for Amazon’s physical products store (also known as Amazon.com).
To order physical goods from Amazon on your Kindle Fire
- Tap Shop on the Home screen’s library navigation.
- Tap the Shop Physical Products button.
- This takes you to a rather familiar-looking storefront
. The front page contains items from your Wish Lists; swipe left and right to scroll through them. You’ll also find recommended items, what other customers are looking at, and a section that shows particularly popular items.
- Tap any item of interest to get more details
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An item’s entry page gives you information about it, the chance to purchase it, and reviews to read. - On the Item Detail screen, you can read the product description, see the price, and look at reviews. Once you’ve decided you want to purchase the item, tap either Add to Cart or Buy Now with 1-Click, and select the shipping you want.
- After you add an item to your cart, tap Continue Shopping or Go to Cart
. If you opt to continue shopping, you can always get to your cart by tapping the Cart icon at the top of the screen.
After you add an item to your cart, you can continue to shop, add even more to your cart, or just go to your cart and check out. - When looking at your cart, the subtotal is displayed at the top, with the items in your cart listed below
. To change the quantity of an item you’re purchasing, tap the number and enter a new one with the onscreen keypad 
. Tap Done when you’re finished.
The cart lists all of the items that you’ve placed in it, along with buttons to delete it or save it for later.If you no longer want to buy an item, tap Delete. To save an item for later consideration, tap Save for Later. The item is moved to your saved list and out of your cart (tap Move to Cart if you change your mind)
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Saved items appear in the lower section of the cart and can be added by tapping Move to Cart. - Once you’re happy with your cart’s contents, tap Checkout. You’ll need to supply your Amazon account and tap the Sign In button to continue.
- An order summary with the total price, taxes, and shipping costs is displayed along with the payment method and the shipping address
. Change either of these by tapping the Change link and selecting either another payment method or address.
Your order summary includes the order total, payment method, and shipping address (blurred in this picture for privacy reasons). - Tap Place Order. An e-mail is sent to whatever e-mail address is associated with your Amazon account.
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To find something to buy
- At the top of every screen in the Shop app is a Search field. Tap it and type the name of whatever it is you’re looking for
. Suggested terms appear; tap one to search for it or tap the orange magnifying glass on the keyboard to search using your exact terms.
The search results are shown and can be filtered using the Refine button as in the stores search (see Chapter 3). Tap an item to see details about it.
- If you would rather browse by department, just tap Shop by Department and select a department from the list
. Once you’re in a department, you can tap its name to see a list of subdepartments 
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You can browse by department. Tap any department to see a sortable list of the best-selling items.
Each department, in this case Books, has a number of subdepartments that you can browse as well.
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To share a link to an item
- Locate an item in the Amazon store. Tap it to get to its detail page.
- Tap the Share button.
- A list of available methods of sharing appears
. This list will vary depending on the apps you have installed, but e-mail is always listed because it is a default app. Tap the method you would like to use.
The Share options depend on what apps you have installed, but you can always share via e-mail. - A link to the selected item is pasted to the sharing app of your choice, waiting for you to share it with friends and family
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A tweet created by the Share button includes a link to the item on Amazon.com.
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