Amazon is the undisputed king of online shopping, but as shopping becomes more social, the ecommerce giant is taking steps to ensure it is not left in the dust.

The Seattle-based online retailer has clearly followed the success of Pinterest and is now trying to bring similar functionality to its own offerings. However, by not having a mobile element, Amazon is missing an important opportunity to leverage the convergence of mobile and social.

?Since its launch, Pinterest has provided users with a product discovery experience that is unique to ecommerce platforms largely because it is not based off of past product searches or purchase history,? said Amanda Williams, social media strategist at Resource, Columbus, OH.

?Instead, Pinterest relies on social connections with friends and favored brands to guide user discovery and provide decision support,? she said. ?The key difference is emotion. Pinterest knows what users like or are inspired by before they ever think about researching it or purchasing it, for that matter.

?This new layer of emotion - inspiration, or even aspiration - is absent from the current Amazon experience, limiting product search and discovery mostly to items that users already know they want.?

Mobile social
Amazon clearly understands mobile, but the site is just beginning to show its skills in mobile social.

The company has a successful mobile site and mobile application.

According to a report from Parago, Amazon is used twice as much as Google for showrooming (see story).

Amazon is also keeping up with Apple, having recently won the rights to use the phrase "app store" (see story).

What is left to be determined, however, is whether or not Amazon can bring a social aspect to its mobile presence.

With this Amazon Collections, Amazon is showing that it is definitely interested in expanding its services to social.

By drawing inspiration from Pinterest, Amazon will be able to generate more traffic to the site when consumers share items with each other and take part in a community of shopping.

?By adding a social element, Amazon can allow their loyal customers to spread the word and market their offerings for them, at a relatively low cost,? said Wilson Kerr, vice president of business development and sales at Unbound Commerce, Boston.

Social challenges
The question, however, is if the community will work.

As of now, consumers cannot find friends on Amazon Collections. There is no way to integrate the site with Facebook or with a contact list.

?Without a platform to see what friends are viewing, purchasing or are interested in,? Resource?s Ms. Williams said. ?Amazon is limited in how it can use social influence to drive purchase.

?Thus far, the platform has built infrastructure to support connections between the platform and the user, not connections among users and their existing social networks,? she said. ?While Wishlists are a great way to purchase gifts for others or even get input for a registry, they don?t support organic discovery."

Another concern is that the scene is overcrowded. Especially with Pinterest entering the ecommerce scene, Amazon needs to figure out a way to stick out in social commerce.

Pinterest recently added a ?pin price? feature to its site, which lets users see the current price of a product. This means that Pinterest is making a shift towards Amazon as well, allowing Pinterest users to act on their Pinterest searches and actually make a purchase.

After launching in 2010, Pinterest quickly rose to fame and found a place both in mobile and social (see story).

?There are many tracked social recommendation engines already on the market, so Amazon will need to be sure to borrow all the right elements, while avoiding the pitfalls,? Unbound Commerce?s Mr. Kerr said. ?No one likes to be bothered with pop-ups or sales pitches, but most welcome word about a special deal from a trusted friend. Getting this right can be tricky.?

Mobile shopping
While Amazon Collections is not yet optimized for mobile, the site seems like a perfect fit for mobile.

As opposed to Amazon?s regular site, Amazon Collections features large images and focuses less on text. This would seem to work well on mobile devices.

Additionally, Amazon Collections enables consumers to quickly browse through multiple images and favorite products by clicking on a heart. This too would make for a great mobile experience.

?Providing the same organic and emotional product discovery experience in mobile may be even more important than the desktop experience as it allows her to act immediately and fuels more impulse purchases,? said Resource?s Ms. Williams.

As Amazon fine-tunes this new feature, one can only assume that the site will see increased traffic, be it on mobile or desktop.

?People love Amazon because they deliver fast and offer a competitive landscape where vendors need to compete from buyers by tightening their margins,? Unbound Commerce?s Mr. Wilson said.

?This benefits the consumer while also benefiting the seller, since they tap into a huge pool of potential customers,? he said. ?A social-sharing element can accelerate the discovery of Amazon by new shoppers, since the message is coming from a happy consumer, versus the retailer.

Final Take
Rebecca Borison is editorial assistant on Mobile Marketer, New York