What you need to know
- Alexa has gained a new capability that alerts you to upcoming deals on Amazon up to a day in advance.
- The feature notifies you when an eligible item in your cart or wish list is about to get discounted.
- Only Amazon Prime customers in the U.S. who own the newer generation of Echo smart speakers can access the advanced deal notification.
Amazon's digital assistant has picked up a new smart feature for shoppers. Alexa now notifies you when products you've added to your cart or wishlist, or even items you've marked as "saved for later," are about to get a price cut.
The new feature will alert customers to upcoming Amazon deals up to 24 hours before they go live. However, it's not available to everyone: the advanced deal notification is only accessible to Amazon Prime customers in the United States.
In addition, customers must own some of the best Alexa speakers, including the Amazon Echo (4th Gen) and other new-generation Echo speakers. Alexa only sends you notifications for eligible products, though it's not clear which particular types of items are covered.
"Our vision is to make every aspect of your shopping journey simpler and more convenient, and to help you discover savings and save time along the way," Amazon said in a blog post. "That’s why we’re excited to introduce a new feature for Amazon Prime customers that gets us one step closer to this vision."
When an item is about to go on sale, Alexa's yellow ring light or a pop-up notification will appear on your Echo device. You can also instruct Alexa to notify you when the deal becomes available.
To save time clicking the checkout button, you can even remind Alexa to grab the offer on your behalf when it goes live. In this case, it will make the purchase using the default payment and delivery address in your Amazon account.
The new feature complements Alexa's existing functionalities that make shopping a lot easier on Amazon. For example, it already alerts you when you are about to run out of essentials that you frequently purchase from Amazon. Alexa also allows you to share shopping lists with friends and family.
