Amazon Will Let You Buy Products on Twitter with a Hashtag: But There's a Catch...

Yeah, so this convergence thing is seems to be gaining on us. As if Amazon weren't pervasive enough, they are now 'offering' the opportunity to make purchases through Twitter. Inquiring minds may want to know at what point this will become mandatory, assuming the numbers demonstrate a significant advantage to Amazon, but we shouldn't let our paranoia get too far ahead of our wallets.

There is a kind of, well, potentially embarrassing catch, however: since all Twitter messages are public, ordering something that you would prefer your followers not know about is going to be harder to do and could prove embarrassing. Not that you are trafficking in Nazi memorabilia, have certain fetishes related to oversized lingerie or are planning a rebellion requiring substantial quantities of hazardous materials or anything like that, but you just cant be too careful these days, even if you're saving a bunch on shipping. JL

Kif Leswing reports in GigaOm:

All tweets are public unless your Twitter account is protected so perhaps you shouldnt purchase things that you don ’t want all your followers to know about.

Amazon has launched a new service that lets customers add products to their shopping carts through a Twitter hashtag, the company announced Monday. Called #amazoncart, the hashtag will add most Amazon products into your shopping cart when you reply to a tweet that contains an Amazon product URL. While the program seems like fun, there are a variety of reasons it is unlikely to become a major way to shop online.
You’ll need to connect your Amazon account to your Twitter account, which can be done in the social settings menu. You might find your accounts are already tied; if you’ve ever shared a passage from a Kindle, for instance, your accounts are connected. All tweets are public unless your Twitter account is protected, so perhaps you shouldn’t purchase things that you don’t want all your followers to know about.
The account @myamazon will reply to your tweet fairly quickly to tell you whether the system was able to add the product to your cart. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.