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Amazon and Twitter team up for some social shopping

May 6, 2014Written by George Anderson

At first, I couldn't quite shake the feeling that #AmazonCart, a new feature that syncs tweets on Twitter with shopping carts on Amazon.com, provides a solution for a problem that doesn't exist. But since Amazon has 1.08 million followers on Twitter and AmazonDeals has 423,000, maybe I'm wrong.

Amazon offered a succinct explanation of the new service in a tweet. "When you discover a tweet with an Amazon.com product link, simply reply to that tweet with #AmazonCart and the product will be added to your Amazon.com Shopping Cart."

A YouTube video presents #AmazonCart as a convenience for consumers. No longer will people have to remember where on Twitter they saw a particular link so they can track down a product. Nor will they have to open a separate window to add items to their shopping carts.

One downside to the new service is that those who use it with public profiles will announce their purchasing intent to the world. But those who make their tweets available to the world may not be concerned with others knowing what they buy.

The e-commerce and technology giant clearly feels there is a need for the new service.

"We have a significant number of customers who use Twitter, and a significant number of affiliates who use Twitter, too," Julie Law, an Amazon spokesperson, told The Wall Street Journal. "So to be able to allow customers to add something to their Amazon cart without leaving Twitter was sort of a logical step."

It could be #AmazonCart is just the beginning of a new social shopping push for Amazon. "We are certainly open to working with other social networks," an unidentified company spokesperson told CNET. "Twitter in particular offers a great environment for our customers to discover product recommendations from artists, experts, brands and friends."

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