How Will Amazon's New Social Media Platform Benefit Brands?

Online retailer giant Amazon just found another way to make it easier for people to part ways with their money. The company has ventured into the world of social media with Amazon Spark, which was launched last July.

Amazon Creates Social Media Platform

At first glance, Amazon Spark looks a lot like some other social media platforms such as Instagram and Pinterest. The newcomer platform's feed is also heavy on photos but a marked difference is that these are images of products available on Amazon.

Of course, encouraging people to post pictures of the products they love or make reviews on items they have tried is Amazon's brilliant way to deepen consumer engagement on their platform. At the moment though, only Amazon Prime members can make posts or comment on them, but non-Prime members can still use the platform to view posts.

Just like your typical social media platform, Spark requires first-time users to register. Once a user has logged in, Spark requires the user to choose at least five interests that would later become the basis for what posts will be included in the feed. The platform actually allows more than five interests, which range from generic, broad categories like "Music" or "Books" to more narrowed-down options like "TV Bingewatching."

Spark is also using its own version of a "Like" called "Smile" to indicate approval of a post.

The Advantages of Spark

While it shares a lot of similarities to older platforms, Amazon Spark has several advantages over its competitors. Unlike other social media platforms where people log on to see what's the latest buzz on virtually everything, there is only one reason why Spark users would log on to the platform and that is to see what is worth buying.

Essentially, Spark is a social media network for consumers—people looking for the best products to buy. As such, you can expect the conversion from traffic to actual sale to be higher on this social media platform than most others. Before logging into the platform, users are already eager to buy something. They're just looking for the right product to justify a purchase.

The higher conversion rate will offset Amazon Spark's smaller user base compared to other platforms. At the moment, there are around 80 million Amazon Prime members who are allowed to post and comment on Spark. However, there's a hidden number in there somewhere that brands should not ignore. Apparently, Prime members spend around $600 more per year than non-Prime members. Multiply that by 80 million and you'll get a rough estimate of its gargantuan potential for brands.

Aside from tapping the purchasing power of the horde of Amazon shoppers, there is one thing that sets Amazon Spark apart from other platforms. Since Spark is inside the Amazon application, buyers can buy the item tagged in a particular post seamlessly and without the need to log into another app to make the purchase. Since the eCommerce component is already integrated into the platform, there is simply no time for consumers to hesitate and, in a way, Spark has made impulse buying even faster.

Current Limitations for Brands

At the moment, Amazon Spark does not allow brands to make posts to the platform. However, brands can work around this problem by reaching out to "enthusiasts," which is Amazon's term for influencers, to make posts for their products in the meantime.

Another limitation is that Spark is only available for iOS devices at the moment although Amazon previously promised that an Android version is on the way. In addition, there is no word yet if the company plans to expand Spark's access via desktop.