Insightful additions at Amazon

Following on from our post about Wantful earlier this week, Amazon’s latest service additions have given us food for thought.

The online giant have created the ‘Universal Wish List’, a button that users simply drag onto their toolbar that allows them to save products from any website in one place. The aim is to make it easier to consolidate the items you’re after and also, alert people to all the gifts you might be angling after.

The list can even contain items that Amazon doesn’t stock. Why is Amazon allowing this you might ask? Well the benefit for them is simple – knowledge. Allowing users to do this gives Amazon’s buying team a clear advantage as they get direct insight into the products that customers want to buy that they don’t currently offer.

Amazon also plans to begin operating another gifting initiative - one that offers recipients happy but sneaky returns. Dubbed the ‘Aunt Mildred’ button, the service allows users to secretly exchange unwanted presents for more desirable items before they are even shipped. If your Aunt Mildred has bought you a festive jumper or a CD from a band you stopped listening to years ago, the new system alerts you, and with the click of a button you have a gift certificate to spend as you please instead. And all the while Aunt Mildred is none the wiser.

The idea is efficient, if a little heartless. The button will save Amazon millions in return shipping costs, the recipient gets to choose something they actually want and of course poor old Aunt Mildred doesn't waste her money…

These two new initiatives and the recent Amazon barcode scanning app (that rewards shoppers for buying through Amazon rather than at the store they’re in at the time) show that Amazon is a brand pioneering the use of behavioural insight to drive clever and compatible shopper tools, making it easier to buy. Helping others to shop for you is something that more retailers should be thinking about, particularly as the gifting market continues to diversify and grow.