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Amazon enhances mobile Wish Lists with Twitter integration

Amazon is aiming to make holiday shopping easy for its consumers with the introduction of #AmazonWishList, a hashtag that allows individuals to add products into their Amazon Wish List directly from their Twitter accounts.

With a significant mcommerce season predicted for the remainder of 2014, more brands and retailers are turning towards Wish Lists to allow customers to save favorite items and send reminders to purchase prior to the holidays. Amazon?s partnership with Twitter is making Wish List shopping even easier for consumers.

?Mobile will absolutely enhance shopping wish lists this year,? said Maya Mikhailov, executive vice president and co-founder of GPShopper. ?More and more people will be relying on their mobile devices to create their wish lists and refer to them in stores while they shop.?

Rising trend
Wish lists have continuously been a rising trend, but look set to take off during this upcoming holiday season. Amazon?s new Wish List capabilities are a prime example of their convenience for guests, and the demand they have in the market.

Following the launch of #AmazonCart, which allows users to tweet the hashtag and have their item of choice automatically go into their Amazon shopping carts, #AmazonWishList is another simple way to shop without leaving your Twitter account.

The brand stated that it is now even easier for people to add holiday gifts and entertaining items to their lists, especially if they spot interesting products being tweeted by other brands, artists or friends. With Amazon Wish List being one of the most popular destinations for mobile users during the holiday season, the site is sure to see record sales.

Consumers must connect their Twitter and Amazon accounts in order to participate, and will be notified with both a Tweet and a confirmation email when the product has been added to their Amazon Wish List.

The Wish List is also introducing new features such as Save-A-Photo, where users can take a picture of any item and automatically have it saved to their list, and Universal Wish List Add-on, an add-on tool available from any browser that lets consumers add any product from an outside site to their Wish Lists.

The Don?t Spoil My Surprise feature hides already purchases items from the List creator, but displays which items have already been bought to other shoppers in order to avoid duplicate gifts. Virtual Notes enables guests to save an idea to their List and look for it at a later time.

Big retail impact
The new iOS 8 platform also possesses many widgets that enable retailers to do more effective push marketing (see story). Widgets can be enabled to track prices or stock quantities of items, and allow for interactive push notifications with Like, Comment or Reply buttons.

Many Wish Lists also send instant messages that show up on the notification screen once an item has been saved, which will aid customers in remembering to check on their desired products at a later time.

Amazon Wish List?s partnership with Twitter is also smart from a social standpoint. Many retailers emphasize social sharing, and with massive amounts of #AmazonWishList hashtags on Twitter, social engagement can only increase.

?Retailers should be using iOS 8 interactive alerts to start reminding their customers of products on their wish lists with an image of that product ? especially if it?s combined with an offer to incentivize the sale,? said Ms. Mikhailov. ?Any opportunity to help a customer build their wish list is a good idea for a retailer, whether that?s directly via mobile (like scanning products in-store to add to wish list), Twitter, Pinterest, or any third party.

?This convenience gives your app greater utility, encouraging increased downloads, conversions and brand loyalty.?

Final Take
Alex Samuely is an editorial assistant on Mobile Marketer, New York