Story by
Martin SFP Bryant
FounderMartin Bryant is founder of Big Revolution, where he helps tech companies refine their proposition and positioning, and develops high-qualit Martin Bryant is founder of Big Revolution, where he helps tech companies refine their proposition and positioning, and develops high-quality, compelling content for them. He previously served in several roles at TNW, including Editor-in-Chief. He left the company in April 2016 for pastures new.
Amazon has today announced a new feature that keeps track of birthdays and other special occasions to ensure that you never miss the chance to buy gifts for loved ones… and to make sure you buy them from Amazon.
Friends & Family Gifting allows you to add contacts manually or via your Facebook account. Once you’ve added a few people, you can view gift suggestions generated from their Amazon Wishlists and Facebook likes. There’s also the option to manually add data about the people you add, such as their gender, age and interests, in order to improve the suggestions you receive.
You can opt to receive emailed reminders ahead of birthdays. These pull you back to the feature in order to buy from the suggestions offered.
The feature is sponsored by Mastercard and has social sharing built in if you connect your Facebook account, allowing you to share which people you add to your lists. Surely that defeats the point, so you’ll probably want to uncheck that particular box.
While it’s a simple enough tool, it’s useful both for customers and for Amazon itself which gets to enrich its valuable store of data while encouraging you to Buy. More. Stuff.
➤ Amazon Friends & Family Gifting
Image credit: Creatas Images / Thinkstock
Get the TNW newsletter
Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week.
