Amazon lets invited U.S. shoppers text Alexa to find products and place orders

Some U.S. shoppers can now ask Alexa to find products and place Amazon orders through text messages, rather than opening the shopping app. Amazon began an invite-only rollout on November 6, bringing its shopping assistant into messaging. The company says broader access will follow in the coming weeks; customers without an invitation can join a waitlist.

An invitation starts the conversation

Amazon will send selected customers a text inviting them to enable the feature. Getting started involves linking a phone number. Digital Trends reports that, after setup, the assistant is saved in the phone’s contacts as Alexa Shopping, giving customers a contact they can return to for shopping requests.

The initial audience is a small group in the United States. Amazon says it intends to extend access to millions more users in the coming weeks. That is a planned expansion, not general availability today. For customers outside the invited group, the waitlist is the announced route to request access.

From a request or photo to a cart

Customers can describe what they need in everyday language, then use the conversation to search for items, add products to a cart and purchase them. Amazon’s example, described by Digital Trends, is telling Alexa that cat litter is running low. The assistant is meant to check the shopper’s preferences and turn that request into an order.

A product name is not the only starting point. Shoppers can send a picture of an item, or of someone wearing an outfit, to find similar listings on Amazon. The described function is a search for comparable products, rather than a promise to identify and buy the exact item in every image.

The text service also carries shopping tools beyond placing a new order. It builds on Alexa’s existing shopping-focused upgrades, bringing several tasks into the conversation:

• Before buying: search for items across the web, compare products and track prices.
• For ongoing shopping: maintain shopping lists and set up a weekly grocery order.
• After ordering: check delivery status and modify existing orders, including adding an item to an order already placed.

Preferences shape the recommendations

Amazon says Alexa will learn shoppers’ preferences over time and use them to suggest products. The company also describes a more direct way to guide those suggestions: tell the assistant what matters. Its example is a customer saying they follow a keto diet, which Alexa would then use to tailor subsequent grocery selections.

That gives the assistant two roles in the same exchange: responding to a request and recommending which products could satisfy it. Amazon says Alexa can send suggestions and comparable items for the shopper to consider. These personalization examples describe the company’s intended behavior, not an independently measured account of how accurately the service follows preferences.