Amazon is about to launch a new feature that’s somewhat minor in the scheme of things — but it’s one which users have wanted for a long time and will, let’s face it, be one more thing that keeps consumers consumer-ing inside Amazon’s empire of retail.
The e-commerce giant has confirmed to The Verge that collaborative wish lists are coming. The ability to build wish lists with friends and family hasn’t arrived for everyone yet and is apparently rolling out piecemeal for now. But it will be a welcome addition for people who until now have only been able to share lists and now have several new possibilities opened up — from using the new collaborative lists for birthdays to party planning and more.
Per TechCrunch, some people using Amazon.com and the mobile app have already spotted the option to “invite others” to their wish lists. “This offers a URL that can be shared via text messages, email, social apps and more. Once clicked, the invitees can then both add and remove wish list items, alongside the wish list’s original owner.”
The ability to create wish lists gives users, of course, the ability to save anything from an Amazon listing and come back to it later. You can track pricing and share the list with friends who now have a convenient tally of not only potential gifts you’d love to get but links that take the buyer straight to them.
As part of the new collaborative aspect to the lists, MacRumors spotted related features that are also apparently coming. Things like the ability to have conversations with other people about items on the list. Some people have icons on the their list page that let people who’ve been invited in discuss items on the list, as well as let the creator manage who’s all part of the list.
It’s this kind of thing — Amazon optimizing every single aspect of its empire to make it easier for users to keep spending money — that led the company to absolutely crush analysts’ profit expectations on Thursday as part of its latest quarterly results. The company isn’t just paying attention to the obvious levers available for it to pull, in other words. It’s continually scouring its empire and removing friction as well as investing in side bets that are only tangential to the main business.
Amazon’s profit hit a record $2.5 billion Thursday, the third straight quarter of the company hitting more than $1 billion in profit.
