Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant will soon be telling users when items they’ve been looking at will be on sale, CNBC reported Thursday (March 31).
The eCommerce titan said Alexa will notify Prime customers 24 hours in advance of upcoming sales on items in their Amazon wish list and shopping carts, in addition to items they marked “save for later.”
The report notes that if a customer is looking at a new TV, for example, Alexa will give them a heads-up that it will be on sale — the Amazon Echo ring will turn yellow when that happens, letting a user know to ask Alexa about it.
Customers will also be able to ask Alexa to remind them about deals when they’re live, or ask the device to order items for them. According to CNBC, this feature will help customers save time and prepare for big sales like Prime Day, and will benefit Amazon as more users buy more products on the site.
The feature will work with fourth-generation Echo smart speakers and newer.
PYMNTS wrote that Amazon has also renewed its contract with J.P. Morgan Chase as the main issuer of its Prime credit card, despite considering a switch to American Express.
See also: Amazon Renews Prime Credit Card Contract With JPMorgan Chase
That bank, as well as Synchrony, were contenders to fill the gap if J.P. Morgan was ditched while Mastercard was looking at displacing Visa as Amazon’s payment network.
The report said Amazon’s decision, which was the result of months of negotiations, would let J.P. Morgan Chase issue the company’s rewards credit card.
Amazon has a reputation of driving hard bargains with partners, and it has succeeded in convincing potential card issuers to go along with its terms, which include a provision to contribute a portion of the bank’s revenue when making loans and provide some of the interchange fees a bank might normally keep.
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