Amazon now lets you text Alexa to fill your cart and place the order

Amazon’s shopping assistant no longer needs an app or a smart speaker. Select customers in the US can now send Alexa for Shopping an ordinary text message and let it find products, fill the cart and place the order. Amazon is starting with a small invite-only group and promises the option to more US customers over the coming weeks.

The messages can be as messy as a real to-do list. In Amazon’s own example, a single text asks for dog food, a birthday present for a sister and more paper towels, and the agent answers with suggestions for each as it finds them. A photo of a recipe is enough to put the ingredients in the cart, and a line like “deliver eggs, bacon, pancake mix, and maple syrup in 30 minutes” becomes a grocery order.

Buying is only part of it. The agent can watch a product and text when it hits a target price, show up to a year of price history, compare items using reviews and prices, say where a parcel is, flag new releases on Amazon and elsewhere on the web, and surface products from other online stores through Amazon’s Shop Direct program. It also keeps standing instructions, such as showing only organic groceries or adding items to the cart without asking, while reorders still wait for the customer’s approval.

The timing says a lot. As TechCrunch points out, Amazon blocked Meta’s Muse agent from searching its site in September, and texting has become the favourite way to talk to such agents (Meta’s own app gained a real-time voice mode this week). Instead of letting outside bots shop its store, Amazon is putting its own agent in the same chat window, right before the holiday rush.

Customers who miss the first wave can join a waitlist, TechCrunch reports. Amazon has not named a date for the wider US rollout beyond “the coming weeks”.

Reported by Amazon, TechCrunch. Compiled with AI tools.