Word came this week that Amazon is shelving its Inspire Feed. The feature – itself inspired by TikTok’s shoppability – launched in 2022 to blend Amazon-style shopping with social commerce. The thought was to marry product discovery with transaction-enabled shopping – a compressed funnel.
But it seems now that it didn’t land with consumers… or at least that’s our theory. Little was revealed by Amazon to explain the feature’s shutdown, as it often goes. To further contextualize the dynamics – and possible reason for killing the Inspire feed – here’s a passage from our analysis when it launched.
Amazon has an advantage here as eCommerce is its native strength. Others that integrate shoppability have to build those tools, or partner with Amazon to link off to its product listings. Amazon already has that core functionality… though it’s admittedly not natively primed for social products.
The latter is where Amazon’s success with the Inspire feature will fly or die. Can it emulate the vibes of TikTok without seeming too contrived or commercial? That could be a challenge given that users are good at detecting such intent. Then again, they’re very accepting of Shoppabilty efforts on Instagram.
We’ll be watching for exactly that.
Now it’s time to make good on that last part. Though the reasons for Inspire’s demise are, again, unknown, we’ll speculate a bit. The top reason is likely that it was trying too hard to be something that it’s not. It was Amazon dressing up as TikTok instead of just being the best Amazon it can be.
This ended up with a sort of hybrid dynamic where neither end of the spectrum – Amazon vibes and TikTok vibes – was captured effectively. This theory assumes that at least one reason for the shutdown was user distaste. There also could have been challenges in attracting creators to fill the feed.
Other reasons could include organizational focus, resources, and opportunity cost. The feature may have been successful or resonant on some levels… but not enough to justify its existence for a company like Amazon. As we’ve examined, tech giants have to justify any investment with a certain scale.
Transparently Transactional
For further context and learnings, what was Amazon Inspire? It lived in the Amazon shopping app where an Inspire icon was placed prominently. To get started, users signaled their interests by personalizing their feeds from 20 category options that included things like design, travel, fitness, pets, and skincare.
After that initial setup, the feed customized itself using shoppers’ behavior, likes, and purchases. Amazon also got the ball rolling by seeding the experience with a handful of brands and influencers such as Mae Badiyan, Practically Pursia, and others. This was meant to avoid a cold start problem.
As for the feed itself, it contained video and images, making it a sort of hybrid between TikTok and Instagram. Speaking of the latter, users could double-tap an item to like it. The broader feed was all TikTok however, including swiping up to see the next video and engagement buttons on the right.
Those engagement buttons were the most important part because they led users where Amazon wanted them to go – product listings. After tapping, users see pop-up overlays on a given video or image, which makes the UX a bit more elegant. A “see all details” option let them jump to the Amazon product page.
This made shoppability (albeit dressed in social content) the endgame. Aligned with the broader shoppability trend, it’s all about integrating transactional calls to action in social media. The goal is to reduce the friction often seen in social commerce, including going elsewhere to search for a product.
Altogether, there are some things to like, and transferrable takeaways from the UX. But ultimately, it’s a lesson in being something you’re not. Amazon couldn’t capture the culture of TikTok without making it seem transparently transactional. Or at least that’s our quick take on what may have went wrong.
Meanwhile, Amazon’s broader social commerce endeavors live on, including collaborations with Instagram, Snap, and others.
Header image credit: Jason Abdilla on Unsplash
