Amazon’s Alexa for Shopping agent will now take your orders by text

Amazon is letting shoppers text its AI shopping agent, Alexa for Shopping, which can search for products, compare them and place orders for them, the company said on Friday . The feature is starting with a small group of invited US customers, with millions more to get access in the coming weeks.

Customers who opt in get a contact called “ Alexa Shopping. ” They can text a request, such as needing more dog food, or send a photo of a recipe or an outfit, and the agent texts back with options. It buys with the customer’s approval, or automatically when a price hits a target they set.

It can also track price drops, reorder past purchases and check on packages. Amazon says a conversation started by text will carry over to its app, website and Alexa devices.

“ Now with Alexa for Shopping, your personal shopping agent is just a text away, ” said Rajiv Mehta, Amazon’s vice president of conversational shopping.

Amazon launched Alexa for Shopping in May and says more than 400 million customers used it in the past year. In September, it blocked Meta’s Muse agent from shopping its site. Last week, chief executive Andy Jassy said he expects Alexa for Shopping to become the main agent people use to buy from Amazon.

Rivals are moving into messaging too. OpenAI added texting to Dot, its personal agent , last month, and DoorDash began taking orders by text in September, GeekWire reported .