YCD News – On October 19th, Amazon announced that it will launch a new social media feature that will allow shoppers to request, view, and manage their friends’ feedback on products within its app.
The feature is called “Consult-a-Friend” (Consult-a-Friend), and in order to use it, users will need to select the product they want to consult with a friend about, then click the “Share” button, and then select their favorite messaging app and specify the The recipient will receive a message directing them to the product. The recipient will receive a message instructing them to click on the “Consult-a-Friend” link and go to the Amazon app to view the product details and choose an emoticon response (obsessed, thinking, sad) or add a review.
Once a friend replies, Amazon users can view the collective feedback from all their friends and scroll through all the text comments within the app. According to Amazon, early testing has shown that customers are most interested in getting feedback on clothing, footwear, electronics and furniture.
Amazon explained that the move is designed to help customers make informed purchasing decisions, and recommendations from friends and family are often one of the most trusted sources for customers. Additionally, Amazon’s internal data shows that many customers share products with friends for feedback through the existing “Share” button on the app, which has been clicked hundreds of millions of times this year to share products through messaging services, social media apps and email.
The feature is currently being tested with select customers in the U.S., Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sweden, Turkey, the UAE and the UK.
YCD has learned that “Ask a Friend” is not the only social media feature Amazon has introduced. Earlier this year, Amazon also launched a “shopping summary” (Inspire) function, Inspire adopts a TikTok-like information flow presentation, supporting users to discover products, shopping tips and direct shopping through short videos.
Amazon says Inspire is designed to provide shoppers with a new way to discover ideas, explore products, and make easy purchases through content created by other shoppers, influencers, and brands, and now Amazon has added Create to Inspire, which allows users to share content with other shoppers and share their favorite products with other shoppers. Now Amazon has added Create to Inspire, allowing users to share favorite products with other shoppers.
Users will be able to take a quick photo or record a video of their favorite product by clicking on the new “Create” button in the upper right corner of the Inspire home tab, and users will also be able to upload content on their phones, tag products, and share the image or video, according to the company. Once the content has been reviewed and approved, it will be displayed publicly in Inspire’s feed. Users will be able to see all the posts they’ve made and the likes they’ve received on their public profile page in the Posts tab.
Inspire is currently only available in the Amazon mobile app on iOS and Android, and only for users in the United States.