Amazon puts its shopping agent in your text messages
An invitation-only US rollout lets customers text Alexa to find products, build carts and buy.
Your next shopping trip could start in a text thread.
What happened
Amazon began an invitation-only US rollout of Alexa for Shopping by text on 6 November. Customers with access can ask it to find products, build carts, make purchases and provide delivery updates. Wider availability is planned over the coming weeks.
Why it matters
Messaging gives a shopping agent a familiar place to operate. Instead of opening a retail app for each step, a customer can describe a request and continue the task in the same conversation.
The bigger picture
Amazon can connect product discovery with its existing checkout and fulfilment systems. That makes this a distribution and execution story as much as an interface update. The initial rollout is limited, however: it does not establish broad availability, customer adoption or how reliably the agent handles every shopping request.