Amazon Expands Alexa’s Shopping Lists, Registries And Delivery Tools
Amazon’s shopping assistant can now manage lists, registries and recurring deliveries, while answering more questions about orders, billing and subscriptions.
Amazon is expanding its AI shopping assistant so customers can use it to manage shopping lists and gift registries, change recurring deliveries, update delivery instructions and ask about billing. The Verge reports that the new features are rolling out to customers in the US. TechCrunch says the broader update adds more than 100 shopping-related capabilities ahead of the holiday season.
Table of Contents
Lists and registries get more hands-on controls
According to The Verge, Alexa for Shopping can now create and edit shopping lists and gift registries, including moving items between them. A customer could ask it to start a list or check which items remain on a wedding registry. TechCrunch also reports that users can ask the assistant to show what is on a list and add or change items.
The changes take the assistant beyond helping customers find products. The Verge says Alexa for Shopping appears beside the search bar on Amazon’s app and website. It already offers product comparisons and price alerts, and can automatically buy an item when its price falls below a threshold set by the customer.
More help with deliveries, charges and subscriptions
Customers can also use the assistant to revise delivery instructions, according to both reports. TechCrunch says requests can include changing an address or adding drop-off details. For recurring deliveries, customers can pause or change an order, The Verge reports. TechCrunch gives the example of switching an item’s delivery schedule from monthly to every three months.
The update also broadens the questions customers can bring to the assistant. The Verge says it can answer questions about refunds and charges a customer does not recognize. TechCrunch says users can ask about billing and payment problems, as well as their Prime or Audible subscriptions. The reports describe these capabilities as ways to handle shopping and account tasks through Alexa, though they emphasize different parts of the update.
Amazon’s push for AI-assisted shopping
The Verge says Amazon has continued to expand Alexa for Shopping since its official launch in May, while resisting third-party AI shopping agents from companies including Meta and Perplexity. TechCrunch reports that Amazon has also introduced other AI-focused shopping features this year, including notifications about new products and offers.
TechCrunch cites Amazon as saying that the number of people using its agentic features has grown eightfold since the start of the year. The company also says more than 400 million consumers have used Alexa for shopping over the past 12 months. Those figures are Amazon’s own measures of usage; neither report provides a separate assessment of how customers are using the newly announced tools.
Sources
This story was compiled by AI from the reports below. Read the originals for the full details.