Shownotes
Amazon says more than 350 million shoppers have used Alexa for shopping over the past year, with active users nearly doubling and customer interactions increasing fivefold.
Chris Walton and Jenn Hahn discuss whether Amazon is best positioned to move AI shopping beyond discovery and recommendations into actual purchasing and transactions.
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Transcripts
Amazon customers are rapidly embracing Alexa for shopping, its agentic AI assistant that replaced Rufus in May with active users nearly doubling year over year and customer interactions up five times, according to CEO Andy Jassy.
Speaker A:According to Retail Dive, more than 350 million shoppers have used Alexa for shopping over the past 12 months.
Speaker A:And US customers who use it spend 40% more per order on average than shoppers who don't.
Speaker A:Jassy also said shoppers who try Alexa joined prime nearly at 25% higher rates and Amazon prime membership grew double digits year over year.
Speaker A:Jen, this is also the A and M put you on the spot question of the week.
Speaker A:And here it is.
Speaker A:As many have reported and our own consumer sentiment survey from A and M's consumer and retail group has revealed, most agentic AI shopping is oriented around discovery, recommendations and research.
Speaker A:Since it's Amazon, do you think Alexa shopping will tip the scales over to execution and buying using agentic AI where consumers have primarily stopped short?
Speaker A:So far better you than me, Jed.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:I love how they put you on the spot questions.
Speaker B:They're always so long.
Speaker B:I'm like, okay, so, so, okay, they make you think, yes, they're really putting us on the spot, you see.
Speaker B:All right, so two phases just to recap and understand the question.
Speaker B:So there are two ph phrases in AI shopping.
Speaker B:One is discovery and research.
Speaker B:That's the like, find me noise canceling headphones under $100 or what should I buy my 12 year old.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:Like the research phase.
Speaker B:The second phase being the execution slash into the transaction.
Speaker B:So that would be something like, okay, great, buy that one for me and have it delivered.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Or like maybe it's Alexa, we're out of bananas.
Speaker B:Have those shipped to me tomorrow.
Speaker B:It's actually having the transaction move forward.
Speaker B:Am I hearing you right, Chris?
Speaker B:Yep, yep.
Speaker B:Okay, so, so the question then is do I think Alexa and Amazon will be the one that can tip the scales for more people moving to that phase two.
Speaker B:And I would say, if anyone's going to do it, why not Amazon?
Speaker B:Of course they will.
Speaker B:That's my answer, I guess.
Speaker B:I mean, Alexa was first to the party and smart speakers and consumers are already talking to her all day long.
Speaker B:The Alexa turn on my lights alone.
Speaker B:Alexa, what's the weather going to be?
Speaker B:Oh no, she's probably going to respond around here.
Speaker A:Oh God, no.
Speaker A:Yeah, right, yeah, there's.
Speaker A:I'm on an Apple computer.
Speaker A:There's one word I can't say.
Speaker A:Jed.
Speaker A:Yes, 100%.
Speaker B:All right, so, so yes, I think they certainly could be the one to tip the scales, the numbers you just read off support that.
Speaker B:It, it could be incredibly powerful.
Speaker B:The other thing I think is funny, I'm in go back to school mode, right?
Speaker B:So I've been at 75 parent orientations and parent meetings between sports and school.
Speaker B:Was at my daughter's cheer meeting recently where they were telling us all the things we need to purchase for these, these girls to participate in middle school cheer.
Speaker B:And the coaches are literally using the word Amazon instead of go online and shop, right?
Speaker B:So she's like, why don't you.
Speaker B:You can always just Amazon some black shorts, right?
Speaker B:You can Amazon this.
Speaker B:They're not.
Speaker B:And I.
Speaker B:That's not new news.
Speaker B:But I think it's so interesting if we're saying, like, who would tip the scales, it would be Amazon.
Speaker B:Like, it's.
Speaker B:It's synonymous with shopping online in some cases.
Speaker B:And I think, pun intended, they're primed to move us to phase two of the AI journey.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So you think Amazon's got as good a shot of it as anybody?
Speaker A:I think I agree.
Speaker B:I think so.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:I mean, there's a.
Speaker A:There's a couple things I point out from reading this headline.
Speaker A:I think, you know, 350 million is a huge number and those 350 million people are reportedly spending 40% more per order.
Speaker A:If that's true, that's just down, downright insane.
Speaker A:It's nuts.
Speaker A:But of course, you have to caveat that too.
Speaker A:And this is partly why, why I created Omni Talk to do what we do every week is because you don't know if.
Speaker A:You don't know if that statistic is actually an honesty being synonymous with true situation.
Speaker A:That's my favorite quote, that honesty is not always synonymous with truth.
Speaker A:Because what we don't know in that statistic that's quoted is we don't know the spend of those customers prior to Alexa for shopping.
Speaker A:So, like, you know, is that.
Speaker A:Did they change?
Speaker A:Like, were they always spending more of those shoppers?
Speaker A:We don't know that.
Speaker A:But the point that you're making, Jen, I think, is 100%.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:But at the end of the day, it doesn't matter.
Speaker A:It's still coming.
Speaker A:And Amazon feels so much more ahead of this than the competition is in terms of thinking this way.
Speaker A:And the other point I'd make, which, Jen, you.
Speaker A:You touched on it, but I'm going to put a, you know, kind of more emphasis on it too, is like, we don't really know what this interaction looks like.
Speaker A:We don't know what the physical interface of all these different types of experiences are going to be and how they're going to evolve over the next 10 years.
Speaker A:Like, are we talking to an Alexa device?
Speaker A:Are we talking to our phone?
Speaker A:Are we talking to our computer?
Speaker A:But Amazon feels very, again, primed to be the one that's going to help us figure that all out.
Speaker A:And they are doing it, you know, big and boldly with Alexa and branding her in that manner to help us all figure it out.
Speaker B:Anyone can do it.
Speaker B:Alexa can.
Speaker A:Alexa can.
Speaker A:Alexa.
Speaker B:That's what I'm taking from this.
Speaker B:Okay.