Amazon finally enables product orders through Echo

An obvious feature has finally come to the Amazon Echo. Prime members now can talk to the device to order any Prime-eligible product that Amazon sells. Before this weekend, shopping via Echo was limited to reordering items from past Amazon purchases.

Shoppers will need to have a 1-Click payment method already set up in their Amazon account, and they’ll need to have voice purchasing turned on in the Alexa mobile app. Setting up a four-digit confirmation code is optional.

When shoppers use Echo to make a purchase, Amazon will first look for Prime-eligible products in their order history and offer those for purchase. If a matching item isn’t found there, Alexa will look for “Amazon’s Choice” items next and then search through all Prime-eligible products.

In my brief testing, it worked pretty well. Beyond the expected voice recognition issues, Echo found items in my order history even if I didn’t use the full/official product name. In response to a purchase request, Echo will tell you the total price (including any taxes) and offer different sizes if available.

In its weekly email to Echo owners, Amazon says “tens of millions” of products are available for voice purchase. The company’s help page explains that several product categories aren’t eligible, such as Apparel, Jewelry, Shoes and others.