Amazon.com has launched #AmazonCart on Twitter. What might seem as a simple #hashtag is actually a clever way for Amazon to drive more sales traffic to its site without the need for it to incur large advertising costs.
#AmazonCart works by allowing Twitter users (who have their Twitter account linked with their Amazon account) to reply with the hashtag #AmazonCart to any tweet containing an Amazon product link. Once the reply has been tweeted with the #AmazonCart included, the item to which the tweet links to is added to that user’s Amazon Cart. The user will receive a reply tweet from @MyAmazon describing the status of the user’s request (e.g. the product has been successfully added to the cart, is out of stock etc.).
It is important to note that replying to a tweet, which has an Amazon product link, with #AmazonCart does not automatically purchase the product for the user. Instead, replying with #AmazonCart will save the item to the user’s Amazon Cart. The user can then go to their Amazon Cart at a later time to proceed to checkout or edit items in the Cart.
This innovate idea from Amazon is only the start of more functionality being delivered through social media news / twitter feeds (news feed).
The news feed on social media platforms is fast becoming a central location where all sorts of tasks can be performed. For example, in a recent Mediaweek podcast @dannykeens from Twitter Australia discussed with James Manning and Brenden Wood a Twitter function called ‘See It’. The ‘See It’ function, which is currently only available in the US (it is a partnership between Twitter, NBCUniversal and Comcast), allows users to tune in to a TV show directly from a tweet. For example, if Seven were to post a tweet that the latest episode of Suits was about to start or Nine News post a tweet about breaking news coverage that has just begun, in the tweets there would be a button that says ‘See It’. When the user taps on the ‘See It’ button their TV will automatically tune into the channel broadcasting that program mentioned in the tweet.
It will be interesting to see if Amazon releases any data as to how much sales traffic it generates through #AmazonCart. The only thing that may discourage people from using #AmazonCart is that most content on Twitter is public. #AmazonCart replies will be visible to whomever the user replied, to those viewing the conversation, and on the user’s own Timeline (unless the Twitter account is set to private). Nonetheless the convergence of e-commence and social media is here and #AmazonCart is just the start.
References:
Mediaweek podcast with Danny Keens
Change the channel directly from Twitter
COMCAST CORPORATION, NBCUNIVERSAL AND TWITTER FORM SOCIAL TV STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP