Extending its collaboration with Twitter, Amazon.com last week announced a new feature that lets shoppers quickly add items to an Amazon wish list by replying to a tweet with the hashtag #AmazonWishList.
Artists, experts, brands or friends might use the #AmazonWishList hashtag in tweets that include an Amazon.com product link. Customers need to connect their Twitter and Amazon.com accounts to make it work. They can then type #AmazonWishList to automatically add items to their Amazon Wish List without leaving Twitter.
"Twitter offers Amazon customers a great environment for inspiration and discovery," said John Yurcisin, director of social at Amazon, in a statement. "#AmazonWishList makes it easy for people to quickly add holiday gifts, décor or entertaining items tweeted by interesting people, friends, or brands on Twitter to their Amazon Wish List, allowing customers to simply save items to their Wish List and keep on Tweeting."
The deal expands upon Amazon's #AmazonCart deal on Twitter that allows Twitter users to tweet an Amazon product link to add items to their Amazon shopping cart. It also builds on the popularity of Amazon's Wish List with both online and mobile Amazon users. Last year, one in three Amazon customers worldwide added items to their wish lists. Last holiday, Amazon customers added seven books and five toys every second to Amazon Wish Lists.
For Twitter, the initiative expands on its exploration of e-commerce. In July,
Twitter acquired CardSpring, a payments infrastructure startup that lets merchants create credit card-linked offers or tweeted promotions. Earlier in September, Twitter began testing out "Buy" buttons in tweets with a small handful of retailers, following Facebook's "Buy" button addition in July.
Since #AmazonWishList only works with public Twitter accounts, anyone can see what items shoppers are interested in. Some tech bloggers say the low-pressure alternative could appeal to Twitter users.
"#AmazonWishList indicates your interest in an item without committing to it," wrote Caitlin McGarry for PCWorld. "Twitter and Amazon see what strikes your fancy and can show you more stuff like it in Promoted Tweets. Eventually you'll click 'buy,' but it won't feel forced."
Wrote Sarah Perez for TechCrunch, "Indicating an interest in a product, evangelizing or opining on it fits in better with the way people use Twitter today. It's easy to imagine users retweeting deals and product news from favorite merchants and adding the #AmazonWishList tag as a sort of 'note to self.'"
- Amazon Customers Wish with Tweets - Introducing #AmazonWishList - Amazon.com/Business Wire
- Amazon turns to Twitter to build shopper wishlists - CNET
- Amazon Expands Its Twitter Integrations, Now Lets You Add Items To A Wish List By Tweeting - TechCrunch
- Amazon's Twitter wish lists make more sense than its shopping cart - PCWorld
- Amazon and Twitter team up for some social shopping - RetailWire