AmazonCart – Add items to your Amazon.com shopping cart without leaving Twitter
amazon.com
amazon.com
Other sites you have no idea if something you added to your cart will be there later, but with Amazon it's almost a guarantee.
The way Twitter would want this to happen is by using Twitter Cards with a button to add to the cart. Of course they would be able to tax the use that way. I wouldn't be surprised if Twitter makes a move to block this functionality.
I personally don't see any need for this in my life right now, though I do buy a lot on Amazon.
For marketers, this could be a huge deal.
Even people like small authors could do great with this: they can have a smooth transition from talking about their book with people online to having them buy it without relying on people's keeping their short term memory together so they remember to pick up the book. Authors sell books on their book tours because people don't have a chance to forget to pick up a copy.
If you find it annoying, you can just either not follow the Amazon accounts or block them. This is a nifty little thing, and it'd be a shame if it gets screwed up.
1. Influential person says "Hey check this book I co-authored".
2. Followers don't think twice about what the book is about or whether it's something they should buy, they'll just insta-add it to their cart. This is the most frictionless and convenient way to do so.
3. Amazon probably sees huge value in getting items into consumer's carts, since it means they can optimize for conversion. oh you're interested in <Famous person>'s newest book? you might like XYZ as well...
This is of course, assuming no one is going to tweet about things they actually need like: "#AmazonCart http://amazon...toiletpaper" and so on, but someone could surprise me.
I think the goal here is to benefit brand name Twitter handles. They could feasibly see their exact reach if Amazon made that data available to them.
'Automated scans for tweets' are what Twitter already sells to advertisers. That's their entire ad product. Who you follow and what you talk about on your account are already used to target ads to your feed. @mentioning when you don't follow just dumps you into the non-default notifications tab, which users have to tap to 'all' to actually see.
You're totally correct that it's a privacy concern. It helps a little that Twitter doesn't have a real name policy. I am more concerned about the total lack of privacy in credit card transactions, because there is no way to opt out of that. In this case the user can at least opt out of sharing their transactions with the world. With credit cards we're all opted in to dumping our account data into a marketplace that can be easily connected to a real name.
I agree but think about it this way. I follow Starbucks because I like them and visit them often. Now I see a link for discounted Starbucks coffee on Amazon and purchase them via twitter. Prior to that Starbucks had to make assumptions or run some machine algo on my tweets to determine: a) I am not a bot and b) My loyalty can or cannot be leveraged. However with this purchase, whenever they bring out a new flavor they could be certain with some confidence that I would make a purchase, thus messaging me personally or including me in one of their tweets.
Its not necessarily a bad thing but history has it that convenience always has its price.
I understand the need for privacy and announcing your purcheses to the world seems both uncomfortable and a little gauche to me but spam is a separate problem that each platform will have to deal with regardless.
"@ACME I have been using X but I love this product Y more, what do you think? bit.ly/1234"
Sure most techies might not fall for it but there are plenty of others who will.
Thanks Amazon, your innovative spirit truly knows no bounds.
On a more serious note, very few people actually hit the buy button before spending a few minutes on the product detail pages to at least verify it's the stuff they want to buy. People usually spend more time to research the product, and various buying options to make sure they get a best deal.
This is probably an intern project that was somehow hyped up to get some PR for Twitter.
There's a myth among social media marketers that their worth is measured by how much they "engage" users. Problem is, the word "engage" is vague enough to cover any action. Liking is engaging. Clicking is engaging. Commenting is engaging. So companies post crap on Facebook that does nothing for their bottom line, but justify it by the number of times it was liked or shared. That's how we get all this clickbait nonsense. It doesn't actually "engage" anyone, but it gets clicked.
So lets be specific. This is not "engaging clientele via social channels". This is using twitter for window shopping, not to mention free advertising. And I for one think it's a terrible idea. Twitter an unsuitable interface for shopping, and I don't want the whole world to know what I'm buying on Amazon.
Sorry to flip out on you. It just seemed like the ideal place to criticize the breezy, bs-filled lingo of the tech industry. Likewise, I'm annoyed by "other players in the space". You could have easily said "other online retailers."