The News, Explained
On October 29, Amazon announced over 100 additional actions to Alexa for Shopping, its conversational shopping assistant. They are available to all US Amazon customers through the Alexa icon in the Shopping app or at the top of the desktop screen. Source
Examples include organizing lists, checking refunds and adjusting Subscribe & Save, a recurring-delivery service. Amazon describes requests to skip the next delivery or change its frequency. Source
The accompanying existing guide distinguishes two checkout flows. Scheduled Actions can research products, send a notification or prepare a cart for the customer to review and check out. Target-price auto-buy can complete a purchase with the default payment method when the specified price is reached. Source
OYOPICK’s Take
Moving account tasks from menus into conversation is a promising change. For US customers to benefit, the interface needs to make requested changes and completed results easy to understand. We would also like it to clearly distinguish preparing a cart from authorizing payment. The announcement provides too little evidence to judge actual accuracy or time savings.