During my travels around the Internet, there have been a couple occasions where I have been asked if I wanted to use Facebook Connect with a website:

Facebook Connect is a way to “take your online identity with you all over the Web.” It’s an example of websites sharing data with each other to enhance the user experience with each Web property.

Could this concept work in an online shopping context? Particularly for personalization?

Last summer, Amazon introduced Checkout by Amazon. Using IP-recognition, Checkout by Amazon allows retailers to provide Amazon’s over-81 Million customers the option to checkout with 1-Click using their Amazon account information. Like PayPal and Google Checkout, Checkout by Amazon is a way for customers to retain their privacy and checkout faster. But with Checkout by Amazon, retailers can also show Amazon cross-sells and up-sells to earn affiliate commissions.

But what if Amazon started sharing what it knows about a customer’s browsing habits and purchase history with other retailers to better personalize the shopping experience? When an Amazon customer lands on your site, your personalization tool would connect with Amazon to show cross-sells based on past history. Example: customer bought Sony Playstation, you’d serve up Playstation accessories and games, rather than other console brands on the home page.

• Customer wins: better personalized shopping experiences on external sites
• Retailer wins: better merchandizing ability to new shoppers
• Amazon wins: Amazon could offer subscriptions to its service for retailers (you don’t think Amazon would do this for free, do you?)

Of course privacy is a concern, so it would be opt in like Facebook Connect:

“Would you like to connect [Online Retailer] with your Amazon Account for a more personalized shopping experience?”

(Buttons) YES, Connect Me / NO, Thank You / Tell Me More

By proceeding, you are agreeing to Amazon Connect Terms of Use. By using [Online Retailer], you also agree to the [Online Retailer] Terms of Service.

Logged in as Linda Bustos (Not you?)

The idea is not “here’s something that Amazon could/should do.” Rather, I ask the question - what are the opportunities now and in the future for personalization — will there be sharing of information between businesses? Will web users embrace such sharing?

What do you think?

It never ceases to amaze me how much Amazon packs onto its product pages. In addition to the products it sells, Amazon product pages include banner ads, links to the product from other sellers (Marketplace), forum links, Listmania, more banner ads, Sponsored Links, Customers Who Bought Also Bought, Better Together, reviews, customer tags, Amapedia…

Add “Related Items from External Websites” to this list, which shows “related” product thumbnails and links to other sites participating in Amazon’s Product Ads program. Product Ads is a pay-per-click program that allows any merchant to advertise products (with thumbnail images - depending on which browser the customer is using) right on Amazon product pages. Details here.

According to Amazon’s Product Ads description, PPC placements may appear close to the cart button:

As you know, Amazon is continually testing - so I wouldn’t be surprised if I’m seeing different placements than others. Rather than the above, this is what I see when I’m on Amazon.com:

My concerns about this program:

1. Is this what customers want? “Product Ads is an advertising program designed to provide Amazon.com customers seamless access to products available on external Web sites.” Many customers choose Amazon for free shipping/Prime, the A to Z guarantee, they already have an account and the trust they have with this established retailer. When you roll over the related offer links, you can’t preview the destination URL, it’s an Amazon redirect which may confuse customers - they don’t know where they will end up, or they’re surprised when a new site opens up (yes, even if you mention “external websites.”

2. Right now, the recommendations are not very relevant. The above related items (candles and faucet) were suggested for this dog toy:

Irrelevant offers means lower click through rates for advertisers (yes, Amazon uses a combination of bid and click through rate to determine placement and final cost-per-click). It also means more confusion and clutter for customers. But I’m sure this will all improve over time.

3. These ads potentially take sales away from Amazon and Amazon Sellers in the marketplace. As a seller, I don’t appreciate Amazon pointing potential customers elsewhere.

Nevertheless, this is another traffic channel if you’re looking for a way to tap into Amazon’s gazillions of shoppers. I’d be interested to hear from any advertisers who’ve played with these ads. What’s the traffic quality? How does it convert compared to other PPC programs?

Get Elastic reader and ecommerce blogger Scott Wilson (aka That Software Guy, The Cart Blog and @thatsoftwareguy) informed me today of a new merchandising tactic on Amazon. It appears Amazon has replaced its “Better Together” cross-sells with bundling. Of course, this could be a split test, but Scott and I both can see this technique in action when we visit Amazon.

Before - Better Together

Screenshot credit: Register Hardware

After - Frequently Bought Together

The customer now has the option to add all 3 to the cart, or pick of the 3. Giving the customer some choice but not too much choice is key here. I imagine the uptake would be far lower if the customer was presented 5 or more choices, simply because it requires too much thinking and could cause a “paradox of choice.”

Word choice: Frequently Bought Together vs. Better Together

Though Better Together sounds more smooth, it could be that there is a higher degree of social trust with “Frequently Bought Together” — it’s more clear on why the cross-sell is presented (rather than head scratchers like marmite and .Mac software. Of course, this could be a short-term test.

I also spotted some product pages pitching “Best Value” cross-sells rather than “Better Together” which may be more appropriate in this economy:

Personally I think this is a great idea, and it’s another reason I’d love to be a fly on the wall in the Amazon web analytics war room.

If you’ve added an item to Amazon’s cart without purchasing in the same session, Amazon remembers. For a long time.

On my last trip to the Amazon, I added a couple new items to buy. Not realizing I had left some products in my cart, I was greeted with this notice on the cart review page:

Important Message
Please note that the price of TomTom GO 720 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator (Factory Refurbished) has increased from $159.99 to $166.10 since you placed it in your Shopping Cart. Items in your cart will always reflect the most recent price displayed on their product detail pages.

Please note that the price of Casio EX-Z808BE 8 MP, 3x Optical Zoom Digital Camera - Blue has decreased from $139.89 to $125.00 since you placed it in your Shopping Cart. Items in your cart will always reflect the most recent price displayed on their product detail pages.

I triple-checked my email account and I was never notified by email about the price change. I prefer this on-demand approach, as email notification is territory to tread lightly, especially with a cart full of products. However, I would appreciate an email notification if an item in my cart was low stock or sold out (with an option to get on a pre-order list).

Showing the change-of-price notice in the cart clearly re-inforces trust with the retailer. A customer may or may not remember an item’s price from 5 months ago (as is the case with the Casio camera above), but if the customer does remember a price (or mistakenly “remember” a price), he or she may balk at a different price upon checkout.

“Items in your cart will always reflect the most recent price displayed on their product detail pages.” This is a best practice.

In addition to the Ghoulgle, we also got our caricaturist Elton Hubner to bring to life some online retailer themed Halloween costumes from the Internet Retailer Top 500 list. These were posted last year, but 90% of you probably missed them:

Aberzombie and Fitch

Amazon Woman

Freddy’s of Hollywood

J. Crow

LL Cool Bean

NASCARface

Skullastic

Tiger Woods Direct

Vanilla Ice.com

Frank Zappos

Artwork by Elton Hübner

Available at “Underworld Armour!”

Bones and Noble - First Runner Up
Northern Ghoul - Second Runner Up
Lizard Claiborne - Miss Congeniality