TikTok-style shopping: Introducing Inspire, Amazon’s brand-new social feed

- Written by e-Comas Team

Amazon has been dabbling in social commerce for a while now. Its Posts feature allows customers to browse their favourite brands Instagram-style, while Amazon Live has proved a brilliant challenger to YouTube, livestreaming and shopping TV models.

Now it has brought the TikTok model into the marketplace as well, with new product Amazon Inspire.

What is Amazon Inspire?

Inspire is an in-app shopping feed, made up of shoppable photos and short-form videos.

When shoppers sign up, they select your interests from a list — hiking, skincare, gaming, babies and toddlers, mixology — and their feed is then populated with content relating to those interests.

The idea is you can scroll through posts from brands, influencers and other customers to inspire you.

All images and videos are shoppable, so it’s an easy step from browsing to buying.

[Photo credit: Amazon]

Why has Amazon created Inspire?

While high street retail has recovered somewhat since the pandemic, online shopping is here to stay.

But there are distinct differences between high street retail and eCommerce. The one trades on impulse buys, in-store marketing and an open shopper mindset; the other is traditionally for buying things you already know you want.

Social media plays a big part in blurring these lines, and tempting customers to shop more impulsively online. Where do you see the most effective ads for gift ideas, homeware or fashion? Where do influencers have the biggest reach? On the likes of Instagram and TikTok.

By aping these social media platforms, Amazon hopes to create a better shopping experience for customers, and therefore tempt more spend.

This seems to be the way eCommerce is going: influential, engaging, content-driven shopping that inspires customers, and as usual, Amazon is…