Amazon Lets Shoppers Text Alexa for Shopping — and Serves Ads

Shoppers who use Amazon's Alexa for Shopping assistant spend 50% more than non-users, according to CEO Andy Jassy — and Amazon now wants them doing it over text message, with ads in the conversation.

The company is piloting text-based shopping through Alexa for Shopping, its AI shopping agent (software that finds products and completes purchases on a customer's behalf). Invited customers can text requests to the assistant, which finds products, builds shopping carts, makes purchases, and provides delivery updates.

Who gets access — and when?

The texting feature is live for a small group of U.S. customers on an invitation-only basis. Those selected receive a text message inviting them to try it. Amazon said it will expand the option to more shoppers in the coming weeks, though it did not specify how many customers are in the initial group or what criteria determine selection.

The company frames the feature around an existing behavior: list-making in messaging apps. "Customers often jot down what they need the moment they think of it in their notes, in their messages, in their group chats," said Rajiv Mehta, vp of conversational shopping at Amazon, in a statement.

In short, Amazon is positioning texting as a natural extension of how people already plan purchases, rather than a new habit it must create.

Where do the ads come in?

Amazon is testing ads within the texting experience, but it is not initially charging for the placements, according to Adweek's report. That detail matters for marketers watching the pilot: free placements suggest Amazon is still measuring how ads affect the agent's performance and shopper trust before it builds a commercial product around them.

What Amazon has not said is equally notable. The company did not disclose how many advertisers are involved, which product categories appear in the placements, or how the assistant decides when an ad is relevant to a texted request.

Why the 50% figure carries the story

The spending claim from Jassy is the strongest signal in the announcement. If Alexa for Shopping users already outspend other customers by half, extending the assistant into texting gives Amazon a direct channel to its highest-value behavior — and a new surface, eventually, for paid placements.

The caveat: Amazon did not publish the underlying data, the comparison period, or the size of the user base behind the 50% figure, so the number rests on the CEO's assertion alone.

For now, the pilot's real test is whether shoppers trust a conversational agent to buy on their behalf from a text thread — and whether the ad placements stay welcome once Amazon starts charging for them.

By Amara Osei