The Next Big Thing in Online Shopping Is Coming from Amazon

User-generated reviews are crucial when it comes to consumers choosing the products to buy online. Perhaps no platform understands this better than Amazon—which is why they’re innovating in this important space. Business research firm L2 recently reported Amazon will soon offer reviewers the option of expressing themselves in video form.
Right now, two million Amazon merchant partners are taking part in a test program; videos will be posted to the site in mid-December. The step makes sense as video becomes a bigger and bigger part of the social media landscape. Younger users may be hesitant to write out a paragraph to review a product, but they won’t hold back if they can submit their thoughts onscreen. And the innovation doesn’t stop there. In addition to the integration of video reviews on its site, Amazon has also patented a new way to incentivize users to watch ads: by rewarding them with product discounts to do so. This allows sellers to offer discounts to customers based on their time investment.[1]
The future of online retail is here—will your eyeballs ever look away?