Amazon Text Pilot Adds Ads; Alexa for Shopping Users Spend 50% More

Alexa for Shopping users spend 50% more than non-users, according to CEO Andy Jassy.

Amazon is testing a text entry point for its AI shopping assistant. A small group of U.S. customers receives access. Amazon will expand the option to more shoppers in the coming weeks.

Amazon is testing ads inside the text-shopping experience. The company does not initially charge for the placements. The pilot tests a buying channel and an advertising setting together.

How the text pilot works

Invited customers can send requests to the Alexa for Shopping agent by text. Amazon said the agent can:

• find products;
• build shopping carts;
• make purchases; and
• provide delivery updates.

The functions cover product discovery and transaction completion. According to Amazon, a text request can lead to an item search, then a cart, then a purchase, with delivery updates continuing the same interaction after checkout.

Access starts with a small group of U.S. customers. Those customers will receive a text invitation to try the service. Amazon will expand the option to more shoppers in coming weeks.

“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, vice president of conversational shopping at Amazon, in a statement.

Mehta framed the pilot around a simple behavior: people record needs as soon as they think of them. Texting gives Amazon a way to receive the request in that moment and turn it into a shopping action. The pilot tests whether that convenience can carry a customer through the full transaction.

What does texting change for shoppers?

For invited U.S. shoppers, the practical change is that one text can start a sequence covering product discovery, cart creation, purchase completion and ongoing delivery updates. That turns the assistant into a transaction service, not only a product-finding tool.

Amazon did not specify ad formats, ad pricing, targeting controls, measurement or a charging timetable in the material provided. Its stated rollout stops at the invitation-only start and the promised expansion in coming weeks. The gaps leave buyers and advertisers without enough detail to judge how the pilot will work.

For brand and retail teams, the setting is the main change. Amazon is testing ad placements inside an assistant that it says can move from search to checkout. The pilot tests their operation without charging for the placements.

Two tests inside one pilot

Jassy said Alexa for Shopping users spend 50% more than non-users, a comparison that gives the pilot a commercial benchmark without proving that texting causes the difference. That figure describes an existing difference between two shopper groups. The pilot must produce its own evidence on customer use and completed orders.

Amazon’s next checkpoint is broader access after the invitation-only U.S. stage, which the company has promised in the coming weeks. Jassy’s 50% spending comparison gives that expansion a commercial benchmark. The ad pilot adds a second test: can advertising work inside a shopping flow that already reaches checkout?