Amazon's Alexa for Shopping Can Watch Prices and, for Prime Members, Buy the Item
Amazon's Alexa for Shopping can track a product's price and alert US shoppers when it hits a chosen level, and eligible Prime members can have the assistant place the order automatically. Engadget's guide walks through the settings and the limits of Auto Buy.
Engadget's guide starts with Amazon's built-in Price History tool, a small blue button beside an item's price on the desktop version of the site. In the app, the same control appears either as a white button with a blue outline or as a text link. The feature uses AI to show how a product's price has moved over the past 30, 90 or 365 days. Shoppers who prefer to ask questions can turn to Alexa for Shopping, the assistant formerly known as Rufus, which answers queries about a product and its pricing history. Third-party services such as CamelCamelCamel and Keepa also track Amazon pricing and let users set price watches, but they only monitor and report and cannot place orders.
Engadget advises using that history to set a realistic target. An item that repeatedly falls to $75 but currently sells for $100 is a reasonable candidate for a $75 alert, whereas a $40 alert would mostly produce silence.
Shoppers with Echo devices in the home already hear periodic price announcements, which are typically tied to items in their purchase history. A more specific watch can be set by opening an Amazon listing and asking Alexa for Shopping to monitor the item at a chosen price; Amazon then checks the listing regularly and notifies the shopper when the threshold is reached.
To have Amazon order the item, the request has to be explicit, for example: "Buy these headphones when they are $75 or less." Auto Buy then uses the shopper's default payment method when the price reaches the target. Coupons and promotional discounts do not work with Auto Buy, so those have to be tracked separately, and Engadget notes that sales tax and delivery charges should be factored in by anyone fixed on a particular price.
Alerts depend on notifications being switched on. On an iPhone the path is Settings, then Apps, then Amazon, then Notifications, then Allow Notifications. On most Android phones it is Settings, then Apps, then Amazon, then Enable Notifications.
Engadget says shoppers who are unsure about a specific product can still monitor a whole category, such as espresso machines or noise-canceling headphones, by giving Alexa for Shopping a set of constraints including budget, color or particular features. Category alerts of this kind generally deliver daily updates whenever a matching offer appears.
Alexa for Shopping is offered to US customers in the Amazon app, on Amazon.com and on Echo devices. A Prime membership is not required to browse the site or to set up price alerts, but it is required for Auto Buy purchases.
Editor's Summary
Amazon's Alexa for Shopping lets US customers track a product's price history through the site's Price History tool or by asking the assistant, and set alerts when a listing reaches a chosen price. Eligible Prime members can go further and have the assistant buy the item automatically through Auto Buy, which uses the default payment method but does not apply coupons or promotional discounts. Third-party trackers such as CamelCamelCamel and Keepa can monitor prices but cannot place orders.