Amazon shopping doesn’t take a single wakeup call to Alexa now, thanks to Snapchat’s Visual Search capability, just released today and already blowing sales up on consumer goods on Amazon. Visual thinking triumphs here, with this disruption of the shopping cycle. From discovery to decision making to purchase, it’s a faster journey than ever. Visual communication triumps, thanks to this blend of high-quality visuals available everywhere on handhelds, and decision making to purchase bottlenecks removed through this partnership between Amazon and Snapchat, which may cut heavily into Alexa’s strides in that direction. Google, Instagram, Pinterest.. what are you all going to do about that?
Visual recognition is connected with artificial intelligence tuned to consumer goods and voila: Alexa herself has competition, just using your hand-held phone. This may be a variation on Augmented Reality, but certainly is a strong hybrid that marketers will have to consider, whether thinking about impulse shopping, or the millions already using Pinterest to gather wish books and other visual curation to plan purchasing.
Congratulations to Snap for the innovation, though in a way it seems more a natural evolution that was due to come from Google or Instagram. Seems like it just took the right partner.
Here’s the short notice from their news feed:
It’s super easy to use. Simply point your Snapchat camera at a physical product or barcode, and press and hold on the camera screen to get started.
When the item or barcode is recognized, an Amazon card will appear on-screen, surfacing a link for that product or similar ones available on Amazon. Tap your selection to visit the Amazon App (if you have it installed on your phone) or Amazon.com, where you can complete your purchase or keep browsing.
Happy shopping, in silent bliss.
