To provide another way to inspire purchasing, Amazon has developed an AI-powered ‘Interests’ feature to automatically find new products that suit consumer hobbies and interests.
According to a blog post by Daniel Lloyd, Amazon’s vice president of personalization, consumers from photography enthusiasts on the lookout for new gear to football fans seeking fresh gameday paraphernalia can use the function to stay on top of arriving products related to their passions. And, without having to conduct multiple personal searches. As Lloyd noted, pursuing their passions can feel like a part-time job for many consumers.
In tapping Interests, consumers create personalized shopping prompts tailored not only to their interests but also price limits and preferences from mainstream to niche, and they can do so using everyday language such as “brewing tools and gadgets for coffee lovers.” Longer prompts can address more specific needs, such as “looking for wall art to decorate my home. I want something abstract or modern made of black metal, not canvas. Maybe a geometric design, minimalist piece. I’m into industrial-style decor that makes a statement, nothing too traditional or painted.”
With a prompt applied, Interests continually scans the Amazon store and proactively notifies consumers about newly available and relevant products, restocks and deals.
Right now, AI-powered Interests is available to a small subset of Amazon customers in the United States via the company’s U.S. app and mobile website. Amazon plans to roll Interests out to the rest of the U.S. in the coming months. It will appear in the Amazon apps Me tab, Lloyd indicated, then consumers just have to open Interests, hit the Get Started button and provide a detailed description of what’s wanted such as “innovative kitchen tools and cookbooks to level up my cooking.”
Consumers can create multiple prompts for different Interests and needs. Once consumers set an Interest prompt, it will auto-save and provide updates when new items matching designated items become available via the Interests button and widget in the Me tab, in a homepage feed. Consumers can tap a pencil icon to update prompts.
