Amazon.com Intros Service Allowing Purchases Via Text Message
Amazon.com Intros Service Allowing Purchases Via Text Message
Amazon.com has bridged the link (no seo pun intended) between Madison Avenue and Silicon Valley this week, sending a shot heard round the internet, that mobile transactions and marketing have arrived Amazon.com style on your cell phones.
The new service, called TextBuyIt, lets Amazon.com customers search, find & buy products in less than one minute via text message through Amazon’s Web site. Using Amazon’s service simply requires consumers to send a text message to “AMAZON” (262966) with the product name, search term, UPC or ISBN.
Amazon will send a message in rerply that includes options to buy one or more of the items, send a request more information about the listed item or any other that Amazon carries, you can also get help. Once Amazon receives a text messaged order, the retailer calls the customer’s phone to confirm. On approval, Amazon processes and ships the purchased items to the shipping address.
Advertisers are always looking for more methods for consumers to find & purchase their products or services because they are counting on impulsive behavior on the part of cell phone consumers. On Wednesday, Yahoo introduced easy search features and voice recognition in oneSearch 2.0, attempting to cut down the time and effort it takes to find information on restaurants, retailers, flight information and more.
Consumers are happily addicted to thumbing text messages to each other. In 2007, U.S. cell phone subscribers sent 48.1 billion of them –up from 9.8 billion in 2005, according to a study released this week by the wireless trade association CTIA.
It remains to be seen if Wall Street will find the link between mobile financial transactions and marketing and advertising, advertising agencies have.
Zaw Thet, CEO of 4info of Palo Alto, Calif., says the “dream goal” for marketers means closing the financial transaction from the mobile device.
“Amazon won’t change the industry, but it’s an important first step,” he says. “It signals other retailers they must provide mobile commerce. Banks have been introducing services. The technology they use makes it easier to advertise and market to consumers because they have found a method to get people through the purchase funnel.”
Amazon will be able to more easily track marketing and advertising campaigns. If Amazon targets adults 18 to 25 with incentives to buy the latest Video Game, it would likely ask thier shoppers to text a keyword to a short code.
Amazon could then track not only companies that place advertisements, but also shoppers who text a keyword to complete the transaction. “Keyword recognition will track the ads through the mobile phone to the purchase,” Thet says. “Madison Avenue is a whole different world from Silicon Valley, and it helps to understand both.”
