5 Amazon Features For Finding Last-Minute Gift Ideas

On any given day, Amazon is usually a reliable online shopping platform that offers a well-rounded catalog of products that cover a wide variety of categories. Pricing for most items are generally competitive and may even be cheaper compared to other retail websites. If you happen to have an Amazon Prime subscription, you can enjoy a slew of perks, including free two-day shipping, which could be crucial in a last-minute gift-shopping situation.

Amazon's search function is usually all you'll need to find whatever item you may be looking for — just type in a few keywords, and you'll immediately be fed relevant results. If you prefer, you can also browse through the platform's many built-in lists and categories in case you're purchasing something specific. However, if you're on a mission to shop for a specific occasion or someone in particular and are having trouble coming up with potential prospects for presents, you can explore the app's many features designed to give you the best shopping suggestions and deals. Below are a few of Amazon's product recommendation features that you should try using ASAP, especially now that the end-of-the-year holiday season is fast approaching.

When you visit Amazon's Gift Finder while logged into your account, you should see recommendations on this page that are primarily based on previous browsing activity, giving priority to items that are currently discounted or available as a limited time deal. If you're a Prime member, you can fine-tune suggestions even further by choosing your preferred delivery option, which may include same-day or overnight. You can also enable the Deals filter to only show you items that are on sale, or pick one of the price range filters to isolate things that are within your specific budget.

The Gift Finder page — which may also appear as Gift Shop — also lets you shop according to occasion, gift recipient, or interest. So whether you're shopping for a baby shower or wedding present, are buying something for a teen or a significant other, or are purchasing a gift for a book or plant-loving acquaintance, Amazon's Gift page should provide you with enough options to choose from.

Similar to Amazon's general gift finder, Amazon's The Holiday Shop features suggestions and deals based on what Amazon customers usually shop for during the holiday season. It typically covers huge shopping events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday all the way up to Christmas. You can explore Amazon's top 100+ holiday gifts, see what influencers are raving over, or filter items by price. Apart from Christmas, you can also shop presents for Diwali, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, or Kwanzaa.

What is perhaps Amazon's most important — and arguably most popular, considering that the company sends out a physical booklet of this portion of the platform via mail— holiday-related section is its Toy List. Recommendations are conveniently organized according to interest, age, and other categories. You can check out items that are exclusively available on Amazon, or check out Amazon's own list of toy favorites. Much like the platform's main shopping page, you can fine-tune results using the available recipient, category, Prime, and price filters.

A somewhat reliable rule of thumb when it comes to online shopping for gifts is to go for items that other users have recently bought as well. To find these products more easily, you can check out Amazon's various automatically curated lists, which are updated frequently, some even on a daily basis. Best Sellers, like the name implies, features popular products based on sales. Similarly, New Releases showcases just-launched items that are quickly gaining traction on the platform, while Movers & Shakers keeps track of items that have jumped in sales rank in the past 24 hours.

Wondering what items are making the social media rounds? Products that have recently achieved viral status online will likely show up in Amazon's Influencer Picks section. It's a great portal to get gift inspiration from, at the very least and at best, find a random item your gift receiver may enjoy that you otherwise may not discover on your own. There are a couple of product carousels right on the page you can browse through. Alternatively, internet famous finds are also arranged by department.

If the person you're buying a gift for has an Amazon wishlist, you can simply choose an item from it. Alternatively, you can also check out products that are Most Wished For and added to wishlists and registries by Amazon's general user base, or buy what's Most Gifted if you aren't getting too many options from their list.

Finally, if you want a quick and easy way to check out what's currently on sale on Amazon, check out the Today's Deals section. Use the filters to fine-tune your results, or click Lightning Deals to snag an item on limited sale before it goes back to its regular price.

You can easily access the previously mentioned Amazon features through your mobile device. For instance, simply typing "gift finder" in the Amazon app search bar and tapping the corresponding banner at the top of the page will get you to the useful tool. You can also get to it by tapping the hamburger icon in the bottom navigation bar and hitting Gift Finder under Your Shortcuts. This is where you should also be able to access Today's Deals. You can also search for "the holiday shop" and get there by tapping the banner as well. The Toys tile in the top navigation carousel on the page should bring you to the holiday toy list.

We've previously covered other fun ways to shop on the Amazon app. Some examples include hitting the second icon in the bottom edge of the screen — it used to be a lightbulb but is now a square with a play button inside it — this brings you to the Inspire section where influencers can share videos and photos of items they like and provide links to make them easy to add to your cart. You can also Shop By Interest by hitting the hamburger icon and tapping Inspiration under the Shop By Category section. This is where you should also be able to see the Best Sellers, New Releases, and Movers & Shakers lists previously mentioned.

Much like many platforms trying to keep up with technological advances these days, Amazon has Rufus AI, a built-in virtual assistant that is useful for many things. Apart from asking it product-specific questions that'll help you decide whether something will work for you given your preferences or requirements, you can request it to give you gift recommendations.

To use Rufus AI, just go to the Amazon website or launch the Amazon app, log in, and hit the Rufus AI icon, signified by orange and blue-green chat bubbles, either in the top-left or bottom-right corner of the page. Once the chat box opens, type your gift query. For example, you can ask it for something basic to start with, such as "gift suggestions for an eight year-old boy who loves Minecraft" or "Christmas gift ideas for husband." You may be prompted to provide more context or information about the gift recipient so you can get more relevant results, such as their interests, hobbies, and preferences, among other things.

When it has enough data to glean from, Rufus AI will link you to different search queries it thinks would produce a good gift. Once you're on the results page, you can fine-tune the list of products by enabling your preferred shipping filter so that you only see ones that you can receive as soon as possible.