Amazon introduces Consult-a-Friend, a new mobile shopping experience

Update: As of January 30, 2024, Consult-a-Friend is now available to all customers in the U.S., Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sweden, Turkey, UAE, and the UK.

Sometimes, it helps to get a little advice from your friends or family. But when it comes to online shopping, it can be hard to keep track of feedback from multiple people across messaging apps. Enter Amazon’s latest collaborative shopping feature—Consult-a-Friend, a new mobile shopping experience we are currently testing that lets you quickly and easily request, view, and manage your friends’ feedback on products within the Amazon Shopping app.

Customers look to a variety of sources when making purchasing decisions, and recommendations from friends and family are often among the most trusted sources. Our own data supports that customers are frequently sharing products with others. In fact, so far this year, customers used the “Share” button in the Amazon Shopping app billions of times to share products via messaging services, social media apps, and email.

Image of a potted plant and the Share icon on the Amazon app.

Our early testing has shown that customers are particularly interested in getting feedback on apparel, shoes, electronics, and furniture, and with the holidays approaching, Consult-a-Friend can streamline buying group gifts by keeping everyone’s responses in one convenient location for the purchaser. Not sure what to get your notoriously hard-to-buy-for dad? Survey your siblings on the newest model smart TV and see their responses in one spot.

Image of iPhone with Consult-a-Friend feature being used on Amazon.com

Consult-a-Friend makes shopping on Amazon more social and collaborative.

How to use Consult-a-Friend

1. Just select a product you’d like to Consult-a-Friend on and tap the “Share” button. First-time users will need to toggle the “Ask for your friends’ votes” button from the default off position to on. Select your preferred messaging app and designated recipients.

2. Your friends will receive a message directing them to tap the Consult-a-Friend link to enter the Amazon Shopping app, where they can view product details and select a quick emoji reaction (😍, ☹️, or 🤔). They also have the option to add commentary.

3. Once they reply, you can easily view their collective sentiment and scroll to see all text commentary in the Amazon Shopping app. All you need is your mobile device and your trusted community of shopping advisors to make confident purchasing decisions at home and on the go.

We’re in the initial stages of testing this new experience, and are excited for customers to try it. Consult-a-Friend is currently being tested with select customers in the U.S., Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sweden, Turkey, UAE, and the UK.

Consult-a-Friend isn’t the only new feature Amazon is rolling out to help make shopping more collaborative. Earlier this year, we launched Inspire, an in-app shopping experience that gives you a new way to discover ideas, explore products, and seamlessly shop content created by influencers and brands you love, and explore products based on customer reviews. Now, you can share your favorite products with other shoppers on Inspire with the new “Create” feature.

Image of iPhone with Inspire feature being used on Amazon.com.

Share your favorite products on Inspire

The “Create” feature makes it easy for you to connect with—and learn from—other shoppers with shoppable content. You can quickly take a photo or video of your favorite products in-app, or upload content from your phone, tag the product, and share your experience, helping to inspire and educate other customers on their shopping journeys. With the ability to create your own shoppable videos and photos on Amazon, you now have a visual way to share your unique perspective, ideas, and experiences, fostering a sense of community and sparking inspiration.

How to create content for Inspire

1. Open Inspire: Open the Inspire tab, located on the bottom of the Amazon app, to the right of the Home tab.

2. Create content: Tap “Create” in the upper-right-hand corner, indicated by a plus sign surrounded by a square. Take a video or photo in-app or upload content from your phone.

3. Tag featured products: Tag products quickly using either your recent purchase history or by finding the item via search.

4. Add a caption: Share details in the caption to help other shoppers learn more about the product.

5. Submit the post: After content is reviewed and approved, you can see all the content you’ve posted and the number of hearts each post has received on your public profile page in the Posts tab.

Inspire is available to U.S. customers on the Amazon shopping app on iOS and Android. Get all the details.

Every day, customers turn to their communities to gather shopping inspiration and advice, so we are making it easy to connect with and learn from each other—whether it be from friends and family, or a broader community of influencers and customers that share the same interests. We’ll continue to test and learn as we introduce new ways for customers to turn product ideas and inspiration into packages on their doorsteps.