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Amazon has long had to deal with the reality that owners<\/a> of its Echo smart speakers weren\u2019t using<\/a> its voice-controlled assistant, Alexa, to buy things, as it had hoped. The tech giant hasn\u2019t given up on that dream yet: its AI assistant, Alexa+, is getting new shopping-enabled features in the U.S. and Canada from today, including a shopping hub, tools to add items to recent orders, and personalized recommendations.<\/p>\n The company has already been working on features that make Alexa+ more of a shopping assistant with abilities like automated deal tracking and automatic purchases. The former feature lets you set Alexa to alert you when items in your cart or list drop below a certain price point. If you also have automatic purchases set up, Alexa can immediately order an item when it reaches that target price.<\/p>\n Now, Amazon says it\u2019s turning its Echo devices with a screen \u2014 the Echo Show 15 and 21 \u2014 into a shopping hub with an interface that it\u2019s calling the \u201cShopping Essentials\u201d experience. From this dashboard, Amazon shoppers can track deliveries in real time, see information about recent orders, get reminders about household essentials they need to reorder, and view their shopping list and saved items.<\/p>\n The screen would also let shoppers tap to see more products and add items directly to their cart and then check out.<\/p>\n To access the new experience, Amazon users can say \u201cAlexa, where\u2019s my stuff?\u201d or \u201cOpen Shopping Essentials.\u201d Soon, a shopping widget will be available to add to the Echo device\u2019s home screen, too. <\/p>\n Another new feature rolling out now will allow Alexa device owners to add items to an upcoming delivery at any time until the item leaves the warehouse. This builds on a similar feature recently added to Amazon\u2019s retail website and app, so it isn\u2019t necessarily an Alexa+ exclusive, but the feature wasn\u2019t live on Alexa devices so far.<\/p>\n Alexa+ is also gaining the ability to recommend gifts. You\u2019ll be able to describe who you\u2019re shopping for, or the occasion, and Alexa+ will display product suggestions on the screen, organized into categories.<\/p>\n Amazon says Alexa+ is now available to \u201ctens of millions\u201d of customers, and these new features are live for users in the U.S. and Canada. While<\/a> not<\/a> everyone<\/a> has<\/a> been<\/a> happy<\/a> with Alexa+, the company says the percentage of users who downgraded<\/a> back to the AI-free interface remains in the \u201cvery low single digits.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n