Amazon tracks everything you buy. Here’s how to make that work for you.

Amazon Shopping History: How to use data to enhance shopping experience

Amazon's shopping records contain a lot of information about your lifestyle: hobbies, electronics, book tastes, children's toys, gardening tools, and even DIY projects. Amazon uses this data to provide more accurate product recommendations and advertising.

But sometimes Amazon's recommendations may not be accurate. If you want to adjust the recommendation results or ad content, you can optimize the relevant settings to make them more accurate and practical. This article will guide you through the full Amazon shopping history and make the most of this data.

View order history

Forgot to order a new tablet? Want to recall the date when you bought the Rolling Stones vinyl record? Just check the complete order history.

Login to Amazon website (non-app), hover over the account with list section, and click your order . The next page will display all your Amazon purchase records in reverse order in time, including order dates, delivery dates and delivery addresses, so that you can find lost items.

The button on the right side of the page provides more operational options: request a refund for a recent order, write a review or ask the seller for product questions. You can also remove purchase records that you do not want to be public by clicking Hide order . If you want to find a specific item, you can use the to search for all orders box at the top of the page.

Amazon also allows you to download all data from the Order History Report web page, in the format CSV (comma-separated values), making it easier for you to import spreadsheet applications. First, you need to set some parameters such as the specific time period covered by the report, and select which types of purchase records are included (such as return and refund items). After the settings are complete, click to request the report and name it for future identification.

After the report is ready, Amazon will send an email notification. At that time, you can download the CSV file from the same page that requests the report. Use Excel, Numbers, or other spreadsheet applications to open a file and analyze your order history—for example, to chart your spending on a book or DVD over time.

Recommended product recommendations

This data not only allows you to analyze your order history, but also helps Amazon determine your personal preferences. In addition to order history, Amazon will also analyze your behavior, such as the length of time you browse a product to improve recommendation results on the website. But even advanced algorithms don't always understand your needs. In this case, there are some steps you can take to optimize the recommendation results.

The easiest way is to write a review of the purchase. Your star rating will tell Amazon exactly which products you like or not. You can click the Write a Product Review button on the "Your Order" page, or visit the product page and scroll down to the Write a Customer Review button.

You can also directly adjust the recommended settings. Click the Accounts and Lists button at the top of the website, hover over it, and select your recommendations . This page contains multiple theme sections, including books and movies. Click any section, then click to view all and manage . Then, switch the Editor's Recommendation in the upper right corner of the page to on . Now you can edit your preference list: select Remove Products that you are not interested in, and select Similar Products Products you like.

Go one step further, view the top of the page, above your recommendations, and select Your browsing history . This page shows items you have viewed for a long time and Amazon thinks you may be interested. If you don't want these items to affect your recommendation results, you can remove them one by one. For example, you can remove the LEGO blocks you browse when picking gifts for your kids, preventing toys from dominating your recommendation results.

Finally, go back to the top navigation bar and click to improve your recommendations . Here you will see all purchase records arranged in reverse order in time. Use the options on the right side of the page to rate individual items, mark them as gifts (so Amazon knows you are not necessarily interested in them), and remove specific items from the recommendation algorithm.

Adjust sponsored ads

When browsing on Amazon, not all products are the result of recommendation engines. Some of the ads come from manufacturers and sellers who want to expand their product reach. You can also influence the types of these sponsored ads.

Collection of sponsored ads, you will see the Ad Feedback link below. Clicking on it will bring up a new dialog box where you can mark the relevance of your ads to your interests and Amazon as a whole. You can also leave comments – but don’t expect a reply, as the Amazon team will batch summarize and review these comments. Provide feedback on some ads and they should gradually become more in line with your interests.

Enhanced privacy protection

What if you want to stop Amazon from using your browsing history to generate recommendations and ads? For example, you might be researching items you have no intention of buying, or picking gifts for others.

Browser extensions such as Adblock Plus for all modern browsers and Privacy Badger for Chrome, Opera, and Firefox can prevent many websites, including Amazon, from tracking your activity. With these add-ons, you're unlikely to see ads for similar items you've browsed. Of course, if you want to receive customized recommendations based on your browsing history, you need to disable these plugins.

Here is another convenient shortcut for invisible browsing: start your browser in invisible or private mode and search for Amazon without logging into your account. While the website will still record your data, this is only temporary and will clear this information when you close a private window. In future searches, this private browsing will not leave any traces in your recommendations or sponsored ads.

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