April 03 2008

Mobiles R Gr8 Sez Amazon

Amazon.com has launched TextBuyIt a new facility to help users to shop and buy on Amazon using text messages.

“This is the year of mobile commerce ” said all the exhibitors at the mobile bun fight that is 3GSM earlier this year, and we thought “this time perhaps they're right,“ and the more cynical pointed out that they have said “this is the year” for the last six years and they've not got it right yet. However little did we know in the depths of the US Amazon a mobile texting giant was stirring.

Amazon's TextBuyIt is a new service that lets customers use text messages to find and buy products sold on Amazon.com and complements the already existing mobile offering, including its mobile site and mobile iPhone site. With this final addition Amazons customers can now shop, compare prices, and buy from Amazon.com virtually anywhere they are, with any mobile device, using either text messages or their mobile device's web browser. Well as long as they’re in the US as TextBuyIt and the mobile sites only work with the .com version of Amazon and those with US Zip codes.

Howard Gefen, Director of Amazon Mobile Payments said "With TextBuyIt, if you're walking out of a concert and want to buy a CD from the artist you just saw, or if you're at dinner and a friend tells you about a great book you should read, all you have to do is get out your mobile device, send a text message to Amazon, reply to the response, confirm your order, and your item will be on its way. It's incredibly simple and convenient."

According to Amazon shoppers can find and buy “in less than a minute and using only text messages, Amazon.com customers can find the product they are looking for and complete a purchase using TextBuyIt. Simply send a text message to "AMAZON" (262966) with the name of the product, search term or a UPC or ISBN code, and, within seconds, Amazon replies with the product or products that match the search, along with prices. To buy an item, customers simply reply to the text message by entering the unique single digit number next to the item they want. Customers will then receive a short phone call from Amazon with the final details of their order and asking them to confirm or cancel the purchase.

When customers choose to purchase something for the first time using TextBuyIt, they will be asked for their e-mail address and shipping ZIP code they use for their Amazon.com account. With this information, Amazon uses customers' default settings for payment method, shipping address and shipping speed, including 2-Day shipping for Amazon Prime members.

TextBuyIt is the latest in a series of mobile offerings for Amazon.com customers. For several months, Amazon.com has been adding more features and enhancing the functionality of its mobile website for customers who want to shop using the browser on their mobile phone, including shopping features like 1-Click, Prime, Customer Reviews, Wish Lists, Search and stored payment and shipping options.

In recent months, Amazon.com customers have used their mobile devices to purchase everything from books, to big screen HDTVs to $30,000 watches using Amazon's mobile website.

It seems strange that the barely mobile US Amazon market gets this service first, but we can only hope that it arrives soon.

by Marcus Austin (Web Editor)