Breaking News! Amazon’s attempt in new shopping format

Amazon's new shopping format attempt - Breaking News!

Amazon’s earliest foray into social media was through the Amazon Spark program, a social media function similar to Instagram. Prime members can use Spark to post pictures on the Amazon shopping app and attach product links to the items featured in the pictures. Other Prime members will receive product suggestions based on their interests. While Spark’s original intention was good and its image-based format was effective in appealing to potential buyers, compared to other social media platforms that have transitioned into e-commerce, Amazon’s Spark appeared too commercial. The social software with inherent transactional genes could easily make users resistant. Eventually, Spark quietly withdrew from the market after Instagram began testing its shopping module. However, Amazon inherited the data accumulated through this project and integrated it into its new #FindItOnAmazon feature, which is a separate page that provides customized product display pages for users in the program and is not fully available to everyone. After shutting down Spark, Amazon launched another feature called Amazon Posts. Posts are similar to Spark, but essentially a seller/media-led posting and buyer-questioning feature that is oriented towards shopping experience sharing. This form avoids direct competition with social media giants and fully leverages Amazon’s existing e-commerce advantages. At the same time, Amazon also integrated Posts into its advertising system, recognizing its potential as a new form of in-site advertising. Posts and in-site ads have many similarities in terms of display location and matching logic. This feature is another way for consumers to learn about products, with almost no social implications. Another feature that appeared around the same time as Posts is “Editor’s Picks,” which was launched in a small-scale test a few years ago. This section appears directly on the consumer’s search results page, initially only showing some Amazon products mentioned in external website product reviews. Combining product links with editorial content in search results is very helpful for conversion. Later on, Amazon expanded the threshold for “Editor’s Picks,” and many internet celebrities and KOL could participate in this column. “Editor’s Picks” appears in the third column of the search results page, which is a very valuable position and its importance goes without saying.

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