Tweet to Buy From Amazon. #AmazonCart – a Partnership Between Amazon and Twitter.

Twitter keeps getting closer to social commerce. The social network just announced a partnership with Amazon where users can add products to their Amazon cart with a tweet.

The process is fairly simple. Amazon customers who are also Twitter users can add products by following three simple steps:

1. Connect their Amazon and Twitter account
2. Watch for tweets containing an Amazon link
3. Reply to above mentioned tweets and adding “#AmazonCart”

After users follow through these steps products are automatically added to their Amazon Cart and they can buy later. If Twitter users didn’t connect the accounts or the service is not yet available in their area, they get an automated message from @MyAmazon guiding them to a specific Amazon web page describing the service:

Most avid users – the Amazon affiliates

After quickly connecting my accounts I was expecting to see a public stream of Amazon shoppers announcing their purchases.

Not even close. Right now most of those tweeting the hashtag are Amazon Affiliates asking their followers to reply to tweets containing  their affiliate links.

Apparently this is somewhat of a feature, as Julie Law, Amazon spokeswoman states: “We have a significant number of customers who use Twitter, and a significant number of affiliates who use Twitter, too.“

Twitter is serious about eCommerce

The #AmazonCart partnership is probably just a first step for the two companies. Amazon is interested in social commerce and as Facebook is probably harder to steer, Twitter seems the right choice.

Twitter on the other hand, showed interest in developing ecommerce abilities by hiring ex Ticketmaster CEO Nathan Hubbard. Moreover, this year information was leaked about a potential partnership with Fancy.com and mobile payments company Stripe, involving a three way solution allowing Twitter to leverage potential customers.

Author: Mihai Mike Dragan

Mihai Mike Dragan is an ecommerce expert and the cofounder and COO of Oveit, a global company focusing on live experiences technology, both virtual and in-person. Mike has an experience of over 15 years in building digital products, with a focus on ecommerce. He has worked with some of the largest consumer brands in the world, advising on their digital go to market strategy.   Mike Dragan is also the author of the "Understanding Omnichannel Retail - beyond clicks vs. bricks" ebook, a guide for companies that understand consumer behaviour across media. He holds two degrees, one in International Economics and one in Computer Science. View all posts by Mihai Mike Dragan