Amazon Spark is a social feed of user-posted images in the manner of a ‘story’ on Instagram or Snapchat but there are some crucial differences – Spark is not open for posting pictures and commenting for everybody because this right belongs exclusively with Amazon Prime customers who pay an annual fee of $ 99.
However, just about everyone can read and see the content on Spark. So, what’s Amazon up to with this secluded platform? Like most other things that the retail giant does, there’s a definite strategy and method involved in this latest venture. Unlike most other social networks that depend on mass adoption and targeted ads, Spark will have content created and posted only by Amazon Prime members who are active shoppers spending $ 600 more on average than non-Prime members.
Amazon Spark may not even be looking at the kind of scale that other social sites like Instagram, Snapchat or Pinterest boast but it is by no means unlikely that Spark might hit some significant scale if all or most of Amazon’s plans attain a reasonable degree of success. After all, Amazon Prime has 80 million members which is a huge number boasting the highest spending power. That’s a marketer’s dream target market. Spark users are allowed to run comparison polls between two Amazon products which enables their network to provide feedback on their likely purchase. Additionally, they also get to post pictures of products with relevant links.
A new user can get to Amazon Spark through the “Programs & Features” menu option in the app’s navigation. The platform will ask them to select at least five interests that they might be interested to follow and once they provide this information, Spark will create a precise feed of products, pictures and proposals that are relevant to the kind of things the user prefers to buy, or know more about. The scope is endless with what Amazon can do with Spark but at some point the retail giant will have to consider some kind incentives for expert users who post high value content on the platform.