Amazon Collaborative Shopping Lists Put The Kibosh On Duplicate Purchases

Amazon has announced the launch of collaborative shopping lists for online shoppers. This feature allows you to create shopping or wish lists and then share them with other users. The idea is that if you are creating a list of items for Christmas, birthdays, or another event you can share the list with all the folks who are helping. Once something is purchased it drops off the list, so no one buys duplicates.

Amazon's new feature also allows all who are invited to the collaborative list to comment on items added, remove items, and purchase the items directly from the list. Amazon notes that the collaborative feature means that you don't have to wonder when shopping as a group if all the items you need are purchased. Collaborative lists sound like the perfect way to create an online registry for a baby shower or wedding. To create a collaborative list, you need an Amazon account, and then you can create a list by following these steps:

1. Go to the list you want to collaborate on.
2. Click on “+ Invite” button.
3. Invite people: Copy the link and send it to others through your preferred channel or click on “Invite by email” and your default email client will open with a pre-populated message you can send. On the Amazon App, simply tap on invite and select the channel of your choice to send the invitation.

Steps for joining a list someone invites you to collaborate on starts with clicking on the list link shared with you. You will be invited to authenticate if you aren’t signed in or if you don't have an Amazon account you will need to sign up. Users need an Amazon public profile; anyone without one will be prompted to create one. After creating that public profile, you can click on the link shared to join the collaborative list.

All list collaborators can:

1. View the list
2. Add items to the list
3. Remove items from the list
4. Receive notifications on list updates
5. Have a conversation on the list
6. See the history of the list (i.e.: who joined, what’s been added/removed.)

Amazon has been busy lately making changes, and not all of them have been well-received. One of the changes that gamers certainly don’t appreciate is the end of 20% discounts for Amazon Prime members who pre-order video games. However, Amazon and Microsoft have received kudos for Alexa-Cortana integration, which is now available in beta form.