New Discoveries: Amazon Kitchen Shorts

As part of Amazon’s Video Shorts.

And please, don’t get it twisted – this isn’t about cooking lingerie and the like :).

Yes, it’s nine months since Amazon, my favourite online store launched it’s Video Shorts program – think of it as YouTube for Amazon. Yes, that’s the same amount of time it takes to conceive and deliver babies – if they’re single births and full term PS: Twins typically don’t stay the full nine months).

And no, I’m not a doctor yet. Or ever.

I stumbled on the video shorts late one night in March.

I wanted to get a spiralizer and voila it came up, showing me how to use the spiralizer, and listing the product so I could put it in my cart with one click. 

Unfortunately, you can’t embed videos from the video shorts so here is a snapshot to illustrate.

With categories such as Food & Drink, Beauty How To, Technology, etc…Amazon is linking content to products in its online store.

Take the Food & Drink section which currently has 788 entries under Baking, Beverages, Cooking and Grocery Shopping. No where near YouTube levels but a very good beginning I say. 

Even for me, an experienced home cook, there are so many short videos that illustrate yet-to-learn techniques and give inspiration. 

So yes, I see where they’re headed with this – world domination by consumer comfort. The beauty is the power to handhold a customer from product familiarisation to purchase – a serious value proposition that makes ‘closing’ the sale much easier.

For example, when we went to the pets section and clicked on a video titled “the Pros & Cons of the Pug Breed,” underneath the video were books about pugs, stuffed toy pugs and even a pug board game for sale. In the health section, accompanying a video detailing how to properly execute a yoga pose, the page also included yoga books, balance balls and yoga chairs for sale; Mashable

I enjoyed it, of course not thinking of the technical aspects.

Each video includes the video’s runtime, its genre, a brief description and offers the viewer the ability to rate the video and write a review. Unlike YouTube, most of the videos appear to be from companies with their own channels rather than individual uploaders; Mashable

Yes, the jury’s still out according to the tech’xperts if this is competition for YouTube, but me, I? I just want to learn and maybe buy a new kitchen utensil or two.

It isn’t perfect though – I spotted a lawn-mulching video in the heart of the Food & Drink section. Good thing though? Opportunity to provide feedback exists when you click on each video and so I’ve done just that – alerted Amazon to the ‘dud’. Will update when I hear back from them.

Overall? I love it. I like the focus on win-win and integration so I’m going to start learning, sharing and enjoying the Kitchen Shorts while we’re at it.

Way to go Amazon, way to go.[wpurp-searchable-recipe]New Discoveries: Amazon Kitchen Shorts – – – [/wpurp-searchable-recipe]