Following the news earlier this week that Twitter users can now add Amazon products to their shopping list by tweeting #AmazonCart, we took a look at what this might mean.
Zoe Cox, social media account director, Manning Gottlieb OMD
Facilitating social shopping in the moment and monetising Twitter content offers an exciting and potentially lucrative future revenue stream for retailers and Twitter alike. The process is a bit clunky – consumers still have to visit Amazon to pay for their items which raises questions about conversion rates. Given that many shoppers are already nervous about the possibilities of security breaches through using linked accounts it is unlikely that we’ll see widespread adoption for now.Paying with a tweet isn’t new. Amex launched their pay with a tweet in February last year. Although it hasn’t had a huge take up with consumers what it has done is allow Amex to be seen as an innovator in the social commerce space. The new Amazon Twitter partnership ensures Amazon remains a heavy weight in e-commerce and brings consumers the products they want within social channels. Both the consumer and the brands are set to benefit from this collaboration through improved relevance based on data.
Andrew Darling, director of global marketing, TBG
The most obvious feature of #AmazonCart, at least initially, is probably to make brands' sponsored Tweets more actionable. It's a great way of making these tweets more accountable for brands because a user's purchase intent, and where they first saw a product, can be neatly tied together. By enabling a form of tracking to link exposure to Tweets to purchases on e-commerce sites, Twitter is able to demonstrate the link between product discovery and sales, at least on Amazon.People use Twitter to connect with the things they are interested in—but they aren't always in buying mode. So any commerce innovation is unlikely to compete with Google's ability to drive sales. However, more direct response dollars are definitely one area that will help drive Twitter revenue in the future. To create more solutions for the valuable set of commerce-based advertisers seems like a smart move.
David McDermott, performance director, 7thingsmedia
Twitter is making a big play for platform integration and, as the social network would put it, ‘create a bridge and not an island’ to a brand's site. Amazon’s #AmazonBasket integration will purely be the start, combining their ‘one-click’ ethos and Twitter’s partnership drive. Although the initial integration appears a little ‘clunky’ to the consumer, it acts as a clear indicator of both sides' intent.
Patrick Salyer, CEO, Gigya
While a novel idea, I think AmazonBasket/AmazonCart is a solution in search of a problem. Amazon has perfected the art of online purchasing and checkout on its own properties. Getting consumers to change their shopping behaviours can be extremely difficult and consumer adoption will likely be a major hurdle.In my view, AmazonBasket/AmazonCart is largely a data play for Amazon. One of the reasons Amazon has become the most prolific e-commerce company in the world because of its ability to understand and cater to individual customers - something apparent in its highly targeted product recommendations. By getting users to link their Amazon accounts with their Twitter accounts, the company is hoping to gain a better, more complete understanding of its users. If Amazon knows my purchase and browsing history on Amazon.com and then tie that to my Twitter identity and even my location using Twitter's geolocation features, it can personalise and recommend products to me in an even more accurate, relevant way. That is, of course, assuming I and droves of other consumers adopt AmazonBasket/AmazonCart.
