Amazon Adds Shoppable Stickers To Its iOS App

Decorative stickers are a common part of a variety of social media apps — but as of now, stickers have a new and more commerce-centered focus, thanks to Amazon.

Following the latest upgrade, stickers have come to Amazon’s iOS mobile app via its camera feed.  Going forward, users are able to search for products on the Amazon site they saw in the real world by viewing them through their iPhone camera.

The sticker upgrade is one of a few recent moves Amazon has made to raise the level of its app’s game.  Earlier this year Amazon integrated Alexa support into the mobile app, giving consumers access to ask Alexa to play music, get questions answered, stay current on the news and even control their smart home appliances while they shop Amazon.

Outfit Compare is another new mobile feature that has made its debut this year which offers users fashion advice — this launch preceded the release of the Echo Look smart device, which has a “fashion advice” feature.

Stickers integration, however, makes less sense.

While meant as another means of encouraging product discovery, it’s not clear how Amazon intends this feature to be used.

For stickers, users will need to tap the camera icon next to the search box on the Amazon app’s home screen. Upon so doing, users will see a new “Amazon Stickers” button on the bottom left of the screen, next to the camera app’s other features.

The stickers themselves are organized into various categories, like “Top Picks,” “Fun,” “Home,” “Pets,” “Women’s,” “Gadgets,” “Legos” etc.

Users can browse through categories and tap to add stickers to the real world view in front of them. The stickers are cartoonish — hence not really designed to create the look of AR function (like Wayfair’s “View in Room” feature, for example.) But it does give consumers the ability to tap the stickers and learn more about the product quickly and easily.

So far, Amazon has no official comment on its new stickers.