As we’ve said before, aiming to buy the cheapest possible product is rarely a wise move. While paying the lowest price for a given product is sensible as a goal, going for a cheap imitation is a recipe for disaster.

Fortunately, we live in a time when it’s really easy to find a great product for a great price, with the Internet providing a huge amount of opportunity and information to help us make those decisions. There’s no better example than Amazon, who have a huge number of bestseller lists available to show us what’s really popular among their millions of customers. The help doesn’t stop there though, as there are also websites that help you spot price drops on Amazon, like CamelCamelCamel, and even websites reviewing the bestseller lists themselves.

None of those places are typical starting points for customers though, as we are all well trained in finding pages on the web via search engines. It doens;t really matter if you’re a fan of the well known and decades old companies like Google and Yahoo, or fans of the trusted names like Bing, or even turn to the more underground engines like DuckDuckGo, they’re all there to serve you up information when you need it on demand.

A lot of these best seller lists get returned by search engines, as they’re really helpful resources for consumers. All you have to do is look for whatever you want and virtually every time you’ll get popular products coming back.

For example, if you’re looking for a new microwave, you can just search for best microwaves.

As the world’s most popular place to search, you can bet Google know what they want people to see, and that’s likely to be whatever those people want to see. It’s no coincidence then that the top results for a search for a reasonably chunky investment that almost everyone buys are best seller lists.

Similarly if you go to Amazon itself, and search for microwaves, the first thing you’ll see is what sells well – just like Google, Amazon know that they are most useful when they give people what they want. In Amazon’s case, you might think they want to steer you towards the most expensive products as they’re the most profitable. In fact, they make a lot more money selling a huge number of popular products even if they’re priced lower, that selling a few premium alternatives.

That’s why being a bestseller portfolio reviewer is where the money is – it’s no coincidence that we do the same thing either!

Millions of people all over the world choose Amazon online shopping than heading to the malls. Why? Because this saves people from spending too much time since they don’t need to fall in line anymore. All you have to do in Amazon online shopping is surf, check out the item you want and it would be delivered to you according to the shipping terms. This is possible because Amazon is considered the largest e- commerce retailer. Amazon online shopping offers thousands of products like books, shoes, toys, games, clothes and almost anything you would ask.

Amazon online shopping with Amazon books is a different experience because you can try Amazon’s newest digital wireless reader. One major competitive advantage of Amazon books over brick and mortar bookstores is that it can offer millions of books and reach to a wider audience worldwide.

Amazon online shopping is also ideal when looking for shoes. The major classification of Amazon shoes products are categorized according to this division: Female (womens & girls,) and Male (boys, & mens). Shoes can also be viewed according to color so its easier to make a decision. Sizes information and availability of stock is always indicated. There’s also a sub-category for shoe accessories that includes shoe care and cleaning. Aside from brand category, there’s also price classification for those who have limited resources. You can tick the box under $25 under Price and see footwear offered at such price. The highest price category is $200 above for people who really want premium quality.

If you’re searching for great music, Amazon online shopping would lead you to Amazon Music. Several of the genre included at Amazon music are Blues, Alternative Rock, Children’s Music, Folk, Gospel , Jazz Indies, New Age, R&B, Hip Hop and a lot more. People from different parts of the world would find a very large collection of music products that would suit their taste. U.S. residents can download MP3s direct to itunes or Windows Media Player for a minimal fee.

If shopping for toys, Amazon toys spares you from the inconvenience of guess work since there are suggestions for certain toys. Also, discounted prices are available as well as information on shipping. The weekly deals give out discounts on hot brands. Besides, online ordering is always secure using Amazon toys.

You get what you pay for. It’s the mantra of the smug friend, relative, colleague or general know-it-all when something you’ve bought turns out to fail miserably in its purpose. It’s easy to listen to the naysayers and feel like a cheapskate and with the benefit of hindsight wish that you’d paid that little bit more.

Is it true though? If you pay more, do you get a better product?

Of course it’s not a 100% correlation between outlay and quality, but increasingly I’ve been wondering if there’s even a pattern at all. Of course some pricier products will out perform their cheaper counterparts, but I’m increasingly noticing the converse to be true as well.

I think the real issue here is that the power of the brand is being diluted. The rise of the internet has made it easier than ever for the small guy to compete with the biggest brand. Arguably that’s the perfect storm for the well known company – little manufacturers popping up specializing in a subset of the product ranges they once dominated. Customers are naturally drawn to lower pricing, especially if the quality is comparable.

As a result, some brands are falling into the trap of letting their standards slip in order to compete on price without taking too much of a hit on their margins. Soon enough the brand loyalty has gone south, and it’s no longer true for customers that it’s a case of ‘better the devil you know’.

Here at the PortfolioReviewer.com, we’re going to dive headlong into this paradox, and work out just how you can balance your spend with the highest quality.