Why Amazon is taking cues from social media platforms

Brands are increasingly trying out Amazon’s Instagram-like features.

In the latest move, the company has been increasingly pushing a program called Amazon Posts, launched in late 2019, which lets brands curate a social feed of photos that are displayed at the bottom of a product page. Many of those photos look like Instagram posts, but the slots are becoming more and more coveted, according to e-commerce experts.

Posts is building off of a long history of Amazon trying to bring more social cues to its platform. Over the last few years Amazon has tested — as well as sunset — a number of services that let brands look more social media-like on the platform. While most didn’t resonate with customers, more brands are testing out Posts. The results so far have been mixed, but some sellers are seeing traction; by some estimates, the highest-performing Post images have netted the same number of impressions as Instagram posts from major brand accounts.

Amazon’s social commerce tests In 2017, Amazon debuted Amazon Spark, a photo-based social feed on which only Prime users could comment. The launch was complete with a rewards feature that paid people for posting engaging content. But, as Digiday reported at the time, few media buyers took any interest, and influencers who tried Spark said they witnessed minimal returns on investment. Spark has since been revamped as #FoundItOnAmazon, a fashion-focused reincarnation where influencers direct users to their storefronts. Amazon also added a Pinterest-like feature called Scout, which gave users an option to thumbs up or thumbs down product photos in order to serve them more targeted recommendations. (Scout has been repackaged as Discover Your Style, and takes a particular furniture-oriented focus.) Read More https://www.modernretail.co/platforms/why-amazon-is-taking-cues-from-social-media-platforms