Amazon is making its case for conversational commerce by detailing how its Alexa for Shopping service is designed to help consumers navigate the retailer’s large product selection through increasingly personalized interactions.
In a blog post following up on a podcast by Doug Herrington, Amazon’s CEO of Worldwide Stores, the company said its growing product selection has increased the need for technology that can help consumers find products suited to their needs.
“I do feel like we had found that, at some point, you have so much selection, and we needed some kind of new technology to make it possible for customers to find the best products for them inside of an ever-increasing selection of product,” he said.
Amazon is addressing that challenge with conversational AI through Alexa for Shopping. For example, consumers can ask the shopping assistant, “Where are my AA batteries?” Rather than returning a page of battery listings, Alexa for Shopping can provide information about an existing order, including its expected arrival time.
For more complex questions, such as the differences between a regular coffee machine and a cold brew machine, Alexa for Shopping can provide an answer along with personalized product recommendations. The recommendations can incorporate information about the shopper, such as suggesting a compact appliance for someone living in a small apartment.
The technology also works with images. Given a photo of a refrigerator, Alexa for Shopping can suggest a weekly grocery order based on factors such as household size and food preferences, then build a list of proteins, fruits, vegetables and other items. Visual search can also be used for product discovery. A shopper could provide an image of an empty bookshelf and ask for a book recommendation, with Alexa for Shopping incorporating preferences and seasonality into its response.
Amazon also sees conversational shopping extending beyond its website, allowing consumers to interact with Alexa while engaged in activities like cooking or driving.
Rajiv Mehta, vice president of conversational shopping at Amazon, said Alexa for Shopping is changing the way customers navigate the platform by allowing them to make specific product requests or ask broader questions and receive personalized answers. Consumers can also shop directly from those responses, with Amazon planning to expand the functionality.
“Customers on Amazon specifically, they know how to navigate our stores,” Mehta said, “so they know what to type, and they know what not to type. And I think we’re about to open the aperture here as quickly as we can on what they can type. And I think that’ll unlock a lot of goodness for them.”
Herrington added, “We’re going to look back five years from now and, let’s say, the house is reordering its regular supplies for itself, and we’re going to think that’s totally normal. Right now, it seems like science fiction. I don’t know exactly how it’s all going to play out, but I’m holding it all lightly for how the future could unfold.”
