I know I'm not the only one this happens to: I'm waiting in line somewhere, or riding the train to work, or waiting for Max to get out of school. To stave off boredom, I turn to Twitter, chatting with friends, doing a little blog reading, seeing what shows up in my feed, just wasting a little time until I have something to do. Something that shows up in my feed from time to time? Links to products on Amazon.
Enter #AmazonCart.
This amazing new feature from Amazon uses the ease of a hashtag to connect you with the vast inventory of Amazon, and simplifies getting items into your cart. Whether you see something from one of the official accounts like @Amazon, @AmazonDeals, @AmazonToys, or even if a friend just tweets out a link to a product, simply reply to the tweet with the #AmazonCart hashtag, and poof! It's in your shopping cart.
To use the general @Amazon account as an example, I spotted some awesome lightsaber chopsticks they'd tweeted out. Because the first thing I thought to myself? “OMG, these will be amazing with our R2D2 soy sauce dispenser!”
When I'm on my phone, in ye olde days before #AmazonCart, I would have had to tap the link, have it open in my browser, log in to my Amazon account, then add the item to my cart. With #AmazonCart, I simply reply to the tweet:
And moments later, there it is, waiting for me to check out at my leisure. The Amazon system then automatically sends a tweet, from the @MyAmazon handle, informing me that the item has been added to my shopping cart.
And if you're curious and/or worried, like I was, the first time you use the #AmazonCart hashtag to add an item, you'll get a quick response directing you to a page to connect your Twitter and Amazon accounts. That tweet looks like this:
Easy. Peasy.
Even this guy can do it.
I have since been adding all sorts of cool things to my shopping cart, since #AmazonCart makes it so easy! Want to give it a try yourself? Just reply to one of these tweets! You can order yourself one of the famous banana slicers, one of my favorites, some R2D2 measuring cups, or maybe just get ready for summer with a personal USB-powered fan.
Amazon put together this video to demonstrate just how easy it is to use #AmazonCart, wherever you are:
As for my chopsticks? They arrived in just a couple of days, like my Amazon Prime items always do, but I've been unable to use them thus far, because would YOU want to pry them away?
I can definitely tell that #AmazonCart is something I'll be using quite a bit; I'm especially looking forward to it this holiday season, when I'm stumped trying to come up with ideas for certain family members. (I'm talking to you, Dad!)
Here are the Amazon Twitter handles that are tweeting out product links that will work with #AmazonCart.
Take your pick, and give it a try!
@amazon | @amazonmp3 | @AmazonKindle | @amazondeals | @AmazonVideo
@amazontechdeals | @amazongames | @AmazonFashion | @amazon_movies | @amazonappstore
@amazonbooks | @AmazonMusic | @amazonwishlist | @AmazonAppDev | @AmazonToys
What a great idea! Although I’m afraid I would end up abusing it. 😉