Let’s say you see somebody talking about an Amazon product on Twitter, and you want to buy it. In order to do that, you have to click on the link, and then click on the “Add to Cart” button, and then complete your purchase. Ugh. Think of all the tweets you’re missing when you do that! There’s got to be a better way!
Now with the #AmazonCart hashtag (#AmazonBasket in the UK, because British people use words better than we do), you can remove that pesky “click on Add to Cart” step from your Amazon transaction, and let the entire world Twitter-using world know all about what you chose to do with your hard-earned money. All you have to do is connect your Amazon account up with your Twitter feed using the social settings, and then reply to a tweet with an Amazon product link with the hashtag.
Don’t get it yet? Here, let this Amazon approved advertisement explain it to you over and over again:
Luckily for Twitter users with low levels of impulse control, this does not automatically purchase the item for you. Instead you get sent an e-mail and a tweet from Amazon telling you to complete your purchase by going to your cart… which you do by clicking on the link. So, you know, exactly what you would be doing anyway.
It’s worth noting that it’s not a completely surefire method of adding items to your cart. For me, it only worked the second time I tried it — which means that yes, actually going to the website and clicking “Add to Cart” would have been easier.
@vqnerdballs Great! We added this item to your Amazon Cart. When ready, review your Cart http://t.co/vYa4sxSHrP and check out
— MyAmazon (@MyAmazon) May 5, 2014
You also have to be using the hashtag for your region for it to work, so if you’re a very fancy American who uses the word basket instead because you spent a summer abroad in London or whatever, then you’re shit outta luck, Sherlock — here in ‘Merica, we call it a ‘cart.’
Amazon stresses that this feature will be great for people who don’t want to leave their Twitter feed or switch apps on their tablet device to make a purchase, as well as forgetful people who won’t remember in ten minutes that they wanted to buy something. You’ve got to admit, they know their target audience remarkably well. I imagine that the Venn diagram of people who refuse to leave Twitter and people who can’t remember something they just saw on Twitter is pretty close to being a full-on circle.
(via TheNextWeb, image via Amazon)
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