Latest news with #AmazonShopping
Tom's Guide
04-07-2025
- Business
- Tom's Guide
Never miss a Prime Day deal — how to set up notifications on your Alexa device
Prime Day 2025 runs from July 8-11, and missing out on flash deals can be frustrating when you're not constantly monitoring Amazon's website. Your Echo device can solve this problem by automatically alerting you when items from your wish lists go on sale. According to Amazon, over half of its customers already use Alexa for shopping assistance, making this feature a natural extension of your existing routine. Setting up deal notifications takes just a few minutes but ensures you'll never miss a discount on products you actually want. The light ring on your Echo speaker or popup notifications on Echo Show displays will alert you to deals up to 24 hours before they start, giving you time to prepare for lightning deals and limited-time offers. Here's how to set up Prime Day deal notifications on your Alexa. Start by creating wish lists for different categories or adding items directly to your Amazon shopping cart. Any product you want deal notifications for must be saved in one of three places: an Amazon Wish List, your Shopping Cart, or the Saved for Later section. Browse Amazon's website or app to find products you're interested in, then add them to the appropriate list without checking out. Organization helps during the busy Prime Day period, so consider creating themed wish lists lto keep track of different categories. Launch the Amazon Alexa app on your smartphone, not the regular Amazon shopping app. This distinction matters because you need to access Alexa's specific notification settings rather than general Amazon account preferences. The Alexa app controls all your Echo device settings and is where you'll set up the deal alert system that connects your saved items to your Echo speakers or displays. Tap the More menu at the bottom of the Alexa app screen, then select Settings from the available options. Within the Settings menu, scroll down until you find Notifications and tap on it. This section controls all the different types of alerts your Echo devices can provide, from reminders and timers to shopping notifications and smart home updates. Taking the #1 spot in our Best Budget smart speaker category, the newest Echo Dot provides room-filling sound and built-in sensors that can be used in your Alexa smart home routines. Look for Amazon Shopping in the notifications menu and select it to access shopping-specific alert options. This section allows you to customize exactly what types of shopping notifications you want to receive through your Echo devices. You'll see several toggles for different notification types, but the key setting for Prime Day preparation is the deal recommendations feature. Turn on the Deal Recommendations toggle within the Amazon Shopping notifications section. This setting tells Alexa to monitor your saved items and alert you when any of them go on sale. Once enabled, your Echo devices will automatically check for deals on items in your wish lists, shopping cart, and saved for later queue, then notify you up to 24 hours before Prime Day deals begin. Voted best overall in our smart display guide, Amazon's mid-range smart display blends speedy performance with premium features. It's just the right size to clearly see from across the room but doesn't take up a bunch of space on your desk or counters. When deals become available on your saved items, your Echo device will display a light ring or show a popup notification on Echo Show screens. Simply ask "Alexa, what are my notifications?" and the voice assistant will read out any current deals it has found. You can also ask specific questions like "What are the best deals on headphones right now?" even for items you haven't saved to your lists. And that's it! You've now learned how to set up Prime Day deal notifications on your Alexa. While you're here, take a look at some other useful guides like Prime Day 2025 is coming — these 5 steps guarantee better deals and Amazon is hiding the best Prime Day deals behind invitations — here's how to sign up.
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Business Standard
23-05-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
Amazon adds AI-powered audio summaries for enhanced shopping experience
Amazon has begun testing a new AI-powered feature aimed at making online shopping more convenient and engaging. The company is rolling out short-form audio product summaries on select product detail pages in the US. These summaries, according to Amazon, are generated by 'AI-powered shopping experts' that highlight key product features, analyse customer reviews, and incorporate information from across the web. While currently limited to select products, Amazon says the feature will expand to more product detail pages over time and is expected to roll out more widely in the coming months. 'Hear the highlights': How it works The new feature, titled 'Hear the highlights,' provides users with a brief audio overview of a product's standout features, notable customer feedback, and other helpful insights. The audio is delivered in a conversational tone by AI-generated voices, which Amazon describes as 'shopping experts' designed to help customers make quicker and more informed decisions. Amazon says that the new feature uses large language models (LLMs) to analyse relevant data from Amazon's platform, and also from the web. How to use the 'Hear the highlights' feature Open the Amazon Shopping app and navigate to a product detail page. Look for the 'Hear the highlights' button beneath the product image, available only if an audio summary exists for that product. Tap Play to hear a short audio summary covering the key features, reviews, and insights relevant to the product. AI features in Amazon The company noted that this new addition complements its existing line-up of AI-driven shopping tools, including: Rufus: A generative AI assistant for product discovery, offering conversational responses to help users explore items more efficiently. Shopping Guides: An AI-based research tool that delivers personalised recommendations and product comparisons. Review Highlights: Summarises common review themes to give users a quick understanding of product sentiment. Buy for Me: An experimental beta feature that allows AI to complete purchases from third-party retailers on behalf of the user when Amazon doesn't sell the item directly. Interests: An AI feature that continuously tracks and recommends products based on a user's shopping preferences.
CNET
22-05-2025
- Business
- CNET
Talk to Me, Amazon Shopping App: How AI Could Sort Through All the Products You're Looking At
Online shopping excursions can quickly get overwhelming as you plow through product pages to find what's really right for you. Now Amazon is trying out a new tool to help you figure out potential purchases. All you have to do is listen. With Memorial Day deals in full swing, the e-commerce giant is making a trial run with short audio summaries for Amazon Shopping app users, delivered by "AI-powered shopping experts" that will analyze product details, customer reviews and other information they find on the web. "The feature makes product research fun and convenient — it's like having helpful friends discuss potential purchases to make your shopping easier," Rajiv Mehta, Amazon's vice president of search and conversational shopping, wrote in a blog post Wednesday. Amazon is starting out the "hear the highlights" AI feature in the US for a "subset" of customers on a limited number products before rolling it out more broadly in the coming months. Those products include the Ninja Blender, OSEA Undaria Algae Body Oil, the Rain Showers Splash Pond Toddler Water Table, the SafeRest 100% Waterproof King Size Mattress Protector and the Shokz OpenRun Pro Open-Ear Bluetooth Bone Conduction Sport Headphones. The new Amazon feature is another iteration in what has become an AI flood tide in online shopping. Google earlier this week introduced AI Mode, which is designed to suggest, select and pay for items for you, and also showed off a new AI service called Try On that depicts how clothes you see online will look on you. Walmart is working on its own AI shopping agent to perform tasks such as placing reorders and filling online shopping baskets based on user suggestions. And Shopify has launched Bluecore, which can answer shopper questions and recommend products. Klarna has an AI shopping assistant for comparison shopping. CNET deals expert Adam Oram noted that Amazon's new audio summaries will have to prove their value for consumers. "This feature may be helpful for some shoppers, as there's a lot of information on an Amazon product page and it can be difficult to parse all of it to find out what you need to know," he said. "But it's worth noting that there is a risk with it incorporating customer reviews, especially as these have been known to be gamed in the past. There's also the inherent risk of LLMs hallucinating, which may lead to inaccuracies if this is applied at scale, which is the opposite of what people making buying decisions need." As always with generative AI tools, it's essential to not take results at face value and to do some double-checking. "Using tools to help you gain a sense of what you're looking at quickly is generally a good idea, so long as you follow up with your own research to vet that the information is accurate," said Adrian Marlow, another member of the CNET Deals team. Consumer skepticism could be at least a short-term hurdle for all AI e-commerce tools. A recent study commissioned by Akeneo, a product experience company, showed that only 45% of consumers have "some level of trust in AI-powered recommendations and chatbots to provide accurate product suggestions based on their interests and preferences." The research also found that only 38% of shoppers who've used AI chatbots reported being satisfied with the support they received. Amazon, with net sales of nearly $638 billion last year, is incorporating AI into more and more sectors of its business. Rufus is a generative AI shopping assistant, Alexa Plus has been revamped and Audible will start using AI to narrate audiobooks.
CNET
22-05-2025
- Business
- CNET
Amazon Shopping App Tries Out AI Audio Summaries to Ease Your Shopping Research
A shopping excursion online can get overwhelming quickly as you plow through product pages to find what's really right for you. Amazon is trying out a new tool to help you figure out potential purchases. All you have to do is listen. With Memorial Day deals in full swing, the e-commerce giant is making a trial run with short audio summaries for users of the Amazon Shopping app, delivered by "AI-powered shopping experts" that will analyze product details, customer reviews and other information they find on the web. "The feature makes product research fun and convenient — it's like having helpful friends discuss potential purchases to make your shopping easier," Rajiv Mehta, Amazon's vice president of search and conversational shopping, wrote in a blog post Wednesday. Amazon is starting out the "hear the highlights" AI feature in the US for a "subset" of customers on a limited number products before rolling it out more broadly in the coming months. Those products include the Ninja Blender, OSEA Undaria Algae Body Oil, the Rain Showers Splash Pond Toddler Water Table, the SafeRest 100% Waterproof King Size Mattress Protector and the Shokz OpenRun Pro - Open-Ear Bluetooth Bone Conduction Sport Headphones.
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Amazon rolls out short-form AI-powered audio product summaries for select items
Amazon is testing short-form AI-powered audio product summaries on select product pages, the company announced on Wednesday. The audio summaries are voiced by what Amazon calls "AI-powered shopping experts" that discuss key product features, customer reviews, and information from across the web. The new AI product summaries can be accessed by tapping the 'Hear the highlights' button in the Amazon Shopping app. Amazon will test the feature on products that typically require consideration before purchase, the company says. The idea behind the feature is to help Amazon customers save time while shopping and get important information through a conversational, discussion-style format. "The feature makes product research fun and convenient — it's like having helpful friends discuss potential purchases to make your shopping easier, even if you're multitasking or on the go," the company wrote in their blog post. The summaries are currently available on select products to some U.S. customers. Amazon plans to roll out the feature to more products and to additional U.S. customers in the coming months. The company explains that the feature uses large language models (LLMs) to generate scripts by pulling from customer reviews and information from the web, and then transforms this content into short-form audio clips. Amazon says the new feature joins its current suite of AI-powered shopping features, which includes Rufus, its generative AI shopping assistant, and Interests, an AI feature that monitors new products that match your interests. Amazon isn't the only tech giant that's leveraging short-form AI-powered audio to help users get informed in a quick, efficient way. Last year, Google's NotebookLM rolled out Audio Overviews, a feature that gives users the ability to generate a podcast with AI virtual hosts based on documents they have shared with the AI research assistant, such as course readings or legal briefs. This article originally appeared on TechCrunch at Sign in to access your portfolio
