Snapchat Partners With Amazon, Bringing E-Commerce 'Visual Search' To Its Platform

Social media and e-commerce can mean two different things. But the two is just getting a lot similar with a cross path that makes it possible.

Snapchat has partnered with Amazon, so users can shop for things on Amazon directly from its app. It's like a marriage between technology and demographic, with the potential of increasing traffic directly to retailer's page from Snapchat that already boasts 190 million daily active users.

The feature is called 'Visual Search', which allows users to simply Snap, to then buy.

To do this, users can hold up their mobile device, scan an image or barcode and snap a photo. The Visual Search tool's algorithms will then work behind the scene to find whether the item or barcode is recognized. If it is, an Amazon card will appear, alongside a link for that product or similar ones available on Amazon.

Here, users can click through it, review the item, or directly purchase it.

Snap-to-buy

With more people are going to the internet to buy things, there is no doubt that e-commerce business is promising.

However, users on social media networks are increasingly served up with ads, and that can kill that buying urge. This is where the partnership has its advantage: allowing users to buy things directly, whenever they want. This experience has long been anticipated, but had been hindered because it requires too many steps.

But with Visual Search, Snapchat could help change that.

Shopping from social media networks is like a drive-through for purchases, particularly with younger shoppers, who are more likely to be tech-savvy and avid social media users that are generally impulsive in making decisions.

For Snapchat, it clearly has many of them.

Where searches happen
Where searches happen (Source: UPS Pulse Study)

But for Amazon, the partnership's payoff is a little bit more complex, which is true of most Amazon’s initiatives.

Most people search the web using search engines. This makes Google a titan of the web, by providing a search engine billions of people are using. But with social media and Amazon having their own built-in search engines, an increasing number of people are doing product searches, directly through them, forgoing Google.

And Amazon's partnership with Snapchat, is complementing that. It allows people to look for the things they want to buy, without having to query Google.

Snapchat has a strong, active daily user-base taking photos of everyone and everything. What's more, its app is camera-oriented, meaning that there is a seamless process between seeing a product and snapping it.

So here, Snapchat is a perfect fit for the job. It can also provide a huge benefit to Amazon, especially when the retail giant has been less successful when it comes to mobile.

The Visual Search tool which had a codename 'Eagle', is initially rolling out slowly as it's being tested.

Published: 
27/09/2018