Dive Brief:
- Amazon introduced the option to text its AI shopping agent, Alexa for Shopping, to select U.S. customers on Friday, according to a company press release. It will roll out to millions more Amazon customers within the upcoming weeks.
- The functionality, which lets users shop via text, will add items to a customer’s cart and complete purchases on their behalf. Shoppers can, for example, text a photo of a recipe to add all the ingredients to a cart, reorder products and track prices and deals.
- The Alexa for Shopping text option also lets customers see products from across the web through Amazon’s Shop Direct feature.
Dive Insight:
As far as text-to-shop functionality, Amazon isn’t necessarily the first to try it out.
Walmart in 2022 launched a Text to Shop feature that also allowed customers to check out carts via messaging. That feature was announced by an executive of No. 8, Walmart’s retail startup incubator that started in 2017.
However, Amazon’s new feature relies on its AI agent’s technology, which has been built out and rebranded within the past year. The e-commerce giant has been bullish on getting customers to use its on-site AI agent instead of external options.
“Though we anticipate working with horizontal agents, we believe Alexa for Shopping is going to be the primary shopping agent customers use to shop Amazon,” CEO Andy Jassy said on an earnings call in October.
Amazon in September asked to be removed from Meta’s new Muse AI agent experience, noting that it did not get advance notice that Muse users would be able to use Amazon’s e-commerce site and did not authorize such access.
The company also sued AI company Perplexity in 2025 after its Comet AI agent was accessing Amazon’s e-commerce site to make purchases for users.
For its new texting feature with Alexa for Shopping, Amazon says it will eventually also include shoppers, Amazon order updates and deals in the same space.
Consumers have increasingly used AI tools for their shopping journeys, but usage has been more focused on product inspiration and price comparisons. However, industry experts say that many shoppers are still reluctant to use AI to finalize purchases on their behalf, perhaps partly due to security and trust concerns.
