> I don't really get the appeal of voice prompted ordering.

I think the goal from Amazon's point of view is to be the middle man in as many transactions as possible and to abstract away the payment from the acquisition of the product or service. The more you can abstract the payment, the more money people will spend. Like with credit cards versus cash:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/27/your-money/credit-cards-en...

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/ulterior-motives/201001...

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/retail-therapy/201306/w...

Amazon's point of view is pretty clear. The question was about why anybody else would want to play along.

Convenience. The 'only a couple of clicks/taps' of GGP assumes user wants to fire up their device and go to Amazon.

It's undeniably easier to ask Alexa to order it, for repeat orders at least e.g. the dish soap example.

This is one of the reason I have never turned on "One Click Ordering" in Amazon either.

I WANT the check out process, I WANT to verify my address, payment method, I want to confirm my order qty, shipping costs, and other items.

I am baffled by this trend to simply speak into the air and have a computer order anything with out limit based on what the computer thinks I said.

The Dash buttons are the same ting. I'm willing to stipulate that there could exist some item that I order regularly enough to want a dedicated button (but don't want a subscription, which would probably give me a discount) and that Amazon reliably has a good price on it. But I certainly don't have anything that falls in that category.

This may interest you. http://lifehacker.com/this-chart-shows-how-computer-literate...

Interesting how polarized Japan is.

It has the most users at level 3 proficiency, but almost twice the amount of people who aren't able to use computers at all, compared to, say, USA.

Japan have a larger percentage of older people over 30% are aged 60+ and over 12% are aged 75+ one of the major reasons

I wish you could do that with eBay, but sadly it seems to be, log out manually every time, or have absolutely no confirmation to order things. Which should be illegal.

My father is one of the last generation to be affected by the polio virus. As he is increasing in age, his body is failing, but his mind is sharp. We got him an Echo Dot for Christmas hoping that the ecosystem will build out a feature set on the device that will make his life better as he continues to lose his manual dexterity. My guess is there are a number of similarly situated people who could benefit if this platform delivers on potential. The addressable market may be small, but maybe the voice-recognition front-end is relatively trivial once you have the text API down. (Haven't had much experience with it yet, but optimistic based on his interest in the product.)

Apples and Oranges.

Have you ever seen someone talk to a PC from across the room? Is there any popular PC voice software that is "always on" and doesn't get itself into bad states? ("dragondictate.exe has stopped")

I personally have taken 100's of pictures of Windows dialog boxes on giant advertising/airport displays. If people who are paid big bucks to manage a display can't keep it running flawlessly, how will someone who has bad motor skills and bad eyesight?

I'm not saying Alexa is more useful than a PC. But I am saying that Alexa is zero maintenance, and a PC is not. It's the same reason Chromebooks outsell laptops -- it's not that they do more than laptops, but what they can do, chromebooks do "better".

I wish alexa was zero maintenance. It gets itself into a bad state about 1/4 of the time. Where bad state means having to guess some obscure word to get it to work properly (alexa stop, alexa cancel, alexa exit, alexa pause). You're right though, for poor motor skills and eyesight it is still probably better than a PC. I wouldn't depend on that MyBuddy app for anyone who actually needed it though. It is too unreliable. If you are counting on that, much better to get a wearable (monitor or self-activated).

There are 10 of thousands of people that interact with there PC's purely or 98% through voice due to heath issues. It's slower than a keyboard and far from perfect, but it's more useful than alexia right now. In 5 or 10 years who knows, but there is little reason to wait, IMO.

I do think Alexia is great for several things, but shopping for example benefits from more feedback.

Yes, but it seems like Amazon might be interested in removing one of those layers of abstraction and encouraging development of voice-only applications--which is a benefit to him. I'm excited about it.

There is a theory about "trivial inconvenience s". That every small obstacle you put in the way of something massively decreases user participation. Require a long sign up form on your website and only 10% of people will bother.

By removing all friction and letting people order something exactly when they think of it, I suspect they will make many more sales.

But there's also the inherent difficulties like deciding if something fits your budget, or if you have room for it, or which of a set of options you want.

I'd expect a tiny reduction in difficulty of ordering something (especially while making it harder to be sure what something you're ordering) wouldn't help much. What I would expect to matter, is how easy the entire process is compared to at other stores.

Unless they're just counting on preying on poorly-thought-out impulse buys?

If a refill of soap doesn't fit your budget, you probably need to fix your budget. (meaning: it's a predictable recurring expense, so you should be able to roughly factor it in to your budget. There are some for whom this may not be true, but they're probably not wasting money on an echo, either.). I think that's the attraction of focusing on repeat buys. Make it easier to order it from Amazon than to put in your shopping list. (which risks comparison shopping)

It would be cool if they could integrate it with a service like peapod (grocery shopping brought to your door). "Alexa, add to list x" and eventually "alexa order list x"

Other than that is pretty much novelty like you said.

Or, say, Amazon Fresh and Amazon Prime Pantry?

(Both deliver products similar to peapod)

Also, "Amazon Now" - Amazon has a few overlapping services for this sort of thing.

It's useful to catch things you need before you forget. Like if your grabbing some advil and take the last two you can just order more and not stop whatever you were doing. It's a total #firstworldstrugs but not entirely without use and value.

This. It's pretty common for me to say for days "oh, I should get more toothpaste today" and then completely forget by the time that I'm in a position to record that somewhere. At some point I say "crap, now I'm out of toothpaste".

If I could use voice to add to my list and/or order that wouldn't happen.

This is, by leaps and bounds, the thing I use Siri for most frequently.

"Hey Siri, add toothpaste to the shopping list" throws it onto a Reminders list that's shared with my wife, so whoever happens to be at the store next always has an up-to-date list. It's shockingly convenient.

Now, if only Siri were smart enough to let me add multiple items in one go...

My real problem is that i rarely have my phone on me when I'm in the house. That causes issues for an increasing number of things which are phone/tablet only, including the 2FA app for my company's VPN

Hey Siri thankfully works on Apple Watch and iPad as well, so I'm almost always within shouting distance of Siri in my place.

Agreed on the 2FA bit though; would love a good authenticator app with Watch support.

I use Alexa to put stuff on a shopping list all the time. It's probably one of its more useful features for me.

But most of this stuff is things I don't get from Amazon and, if I did, I'd want to check quantities, pricing, etc. For certain types of goods you might want to batch things up an use Amazon Pantry.

I've recently set up an Echo but haven't really explored this functionality yet. As you state most things I want I don't actually want to buy from Amazon. I've been looking into other shopping list skills to use. What I really want is something which synchs with a smartphone app I can use when I'm at the store.

pre-Echo I've been using Evernote for this. I haven't had a chance to try out any of the alexa enabled things but OurGroceries looks to be about what I want.

Echo syncs lists to the Alexa app on the smartphone. The voice recognition works quite well and I find it very handy when I'm cooking and notice I'm almost out of something to add it to my list without having to stop what I'm doing.

Huh, I hadn't noticed the todo list and I always assumed the shopping list was my amazon cart. Neat.

I've used it myself for dish soap and I know people for whom that's the entire reason they bought it.

key question for amazon:

how many doll houses is a person willing to return in order to make their soap purchase easier?

It'd only be a key question if one assumes the technology isn't going to radically improve over the next 5 or 10 years. It's going to. Deploying to consumers and dealing with such problems, learning from how millions of people use something, is a requirement of that process of improvement. It's similar to people questioning the GUI in the very early days of the PC, because working directly with text operating systems was still superior. It was extremely widely argued that GUIs were junk, were never going to catch on, were too slow, too glitchy, didn't add enough value etc - it's an obvious and common failure to look beyond the tip of one's own nose.

And what's the mark up on that compared to the grocery store? Considering shipping/prime subscription etc

There's Amazon Pantry, which has you adding items to a box, which is only sent when full. Thus the mark-up remains quite low.

I looked into it a while back. The conclusion I reached was that it might be worth it if driving to the grocery store/Walmart, shopping, and bringing your supplies home was a hassle for some reason. But Walmart tended to be cheaper than even Prime Pantry and you have to be somewhat selective in shopping in Amazon. (You'll find some items are randomly pricing.)

In my case, there's a Walmart I can drive to in about 5 minutes so stocking up on paper towels and dishwashing detergent every few months (and/or when I'm at the grocery store anyway) is pretty easy.

Why not Dash if that is the entire reason?

Dash seems limited by being tied to one item. I don't get the appeal of Dash either because items I know I need a reoccurring supply of, I get a subscription to.

The Dash is a microsphone/scanner wand thingy, distinct from the Dash Buttons

I think the implication is "wet/soapy hands"

Think about what you're doing, and what condition your hands are in, the moment you use the last of the dish soap.

As you get used to and comfortable talking to your alexa, you find that you actually start doing it for a lot of things.

It's also a great way to practice your speaking ability. Really trains your enunciation.

Amazon needs to develop a biz model for skills that makes sense though.

In a way, it's (probably unintentionally) training its human to use a narrower range of voice patterns (which is handy when collecting data to train a network with), similar to how we're more likely to write in sans-serif than cursive now that computers are ubiquitous.

There was an article on HN a while ago that claimed it was really ball point pens that killed cursive... the writing style and ink viscosity meant that the speed gains from writing cursive were no longer true, and instead it became slower.

Well, Alexa will only actually buy something if you've already purchased it (EDIT: Seems this isn't true anymore!). The use-case of this is something lie "Alexa, buy more toilet paper" or "Alexa, we're out of salt." Saying it from across the room while cooking is much easier than washing your hands, grabbing your phone, loading the app, searching for the product, and hitting "buy".

It's definitely meant more as a replacement for a shopping list than it is a way to, say, do your Christmas shopping.

> Saying it from across the room while cooking is much easier than washing your hands, grabbing your phone, loading the app, searching for the product, and hitting "buy".

Is that a realistic scenario for the majority though?

Aren't most people going to either make a mental note and add it to the shopping list later, or just wash/wipe hands and add a note to the list on the fridge blotter/whiteboard etc.

It'll be a sad reflection on the evolution of cognitive thinking if the people believe that they have to drop everything, clean up and reorder cornflour the instant they run out.

> grabbing your phone, loading the app, searching for the product, and hitting "buy".

Considering that, as well as the other option of having a magical listening tube in the house, living in a small English village, I have the 'luxury' of grabbing my coat and walking about 400M to the local store, and apart from the minor health benefit, I could also stretch the operation into a dog walking session, bump into and talk to some friends on the way and get some fresh air. There's also the local pub (http://the-quaffer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/murrell-arms-barnh...). Alexa, pull me a pint of London Pride...

Oh come on.

When used this way it's a minor extension of a shopping list that gets automatically fulfilled.

Are you really gonna argue that it's a "sad reflection on the evolution of cognitive thinking" to re-order something right when you realize you need it rather than making a mental note, possibly forgetting it next time you are at the store, the store maybe being out, and then having to lug this shit around yourself?

It's a convince. I personally use it for cat litter all the time. I get it from Amazon anyway cause they have the best price for it, and when I realize it's running low I tell the Alexa to order more of it. And that sure as hell beats the alternative of driving 20 minutes to the grocery store that has this cat litter at some point in the future before I run out (not everyone lives 400m away from a store that sells everything)

It's not the end of the world.

No, I agree, it is not the end of the world.

However, it is one of those small changes that shift society's rules of engagement very slightly. The teenagers I teach already order stuff from their phones, and discover music &c entirely through online media. I live near the centre of a large city in the UK and when I'm popping the 50m to the corner shop for more salt or haldi, I have to dodge the swarms Deliveroo bicyclists. Every takeway has the Just Eat sticker and all the radio cars have Uber on the side as well as the local taxi company.

There is a shift in the details of daily living.

I read this stuff, read there is a shift in the details of daily living... and for the life of me, I don't understand why this is a bad thing. It isn't like we've not had grand shifts before.

The automobile. Indoor plumbing. Electricity. Stoves and vacuum cleaners. Television, radio. The wheel - but more importantly, the axle. Heck, hand washing shifted some details of life.

It seems very natural for us to move forward and change this stuff. Is some of it necessary? No, but that's just what humans do to an extent.

> It isn't like we've not had grand shifts before.

This isn't anywhere near a grand shift - it's a clever commercial ploy to increase profits for a narrow range of businesses.

> The automobile. Indoor plumbing. Electricity. Stoves and vacuum cleaners. Television, radio. The wheel - but more importantly, the axle.

Sure, THEY were grand shifts that improved health, sanitation, freed up significant amounts of travel or labour time, brought education and entertainment to the masses etc.

How do we classify Alex's contribution to society: "I can speak some words and receive cat litter the next day".

OK, I jest - the AI behind Alexa will no doubt reap other benefits in time, some may even be societal rather than commercial.

Don't get me wrong; I love gadgets and innovation - I work for an Enterprise Class storage manufacturer and spend all day working with terabyte/petabyte-scale disk and flash array setups, and stuff I can't even tell you about - but let's have some perspective here!

I don't know if it is a bad thing or a good thing or something in the middle (some advantages but revealing new problems such as the one in the OA). But there is a shift.

Maths example: place notation and Arabic numerals made adding and subtracting very easy (you try adding numbers in roman numerals without translating) but we lost insight into ratio and proportionality concepts. That was around 1200 or so in Europe.

While I'm not arguing against the use case for Alexia, for something like cat litter, why not buy 1 bag every X weeks, surely your cat excrement production rate is fairly constant.

> ...surely your cat excrement production rate is fairly constant.

I see you aren't a cat owner. One of our cats is pretty consistent but the other varies wildly both in her eating and pooping habits. One day the litter box is barely in need of scooping, the next you have to scoop twice throughout the day. This has caused us to have to buy a bag of litter in the middle of the week on more than one occasion.

So the variance is high but the rate is fairly constant

I'm not perfect.

There are times I would remember to get more when I'm running low, there are times I'd forget and I'd have to run out at 1am to the 24/7 supermarket because I feel so bad for forgetting and I know how much the cat hates when her litter is low.

In the past I would have multiple boxes stacked up and would try to reorder when I was down to one, but even then I'd forget, and storing multiple boxes of cat litter is annoying in our small condo.

This is a great solution to me. And before this I had a DIY button made with a raspberry pi that would do it for me that I put near the cat litter. IMO this is a better UX.

I shoul dhave made the point that a more useful system would learn your re-order timing and you wouldn't have to do anything except bring it inside.

It does try, and for some things that does work.

But I've found it's just not that consistent for it to work in some of these cases.

I sometimes order 2 boxes of litter a month, and sometimes don't order any.

Now if you are talking about something which will measure how much I have left via a scale or some other method and reorder when I'm low, I'd love that! I'll need to see if I can grab another ESP8266 and some load sensors and set that up!

The majority needn't buy it for it to make billions for Amazon.

Really? For me it will order whatever I ask for (it'll report the first result of the search, tell me the price, and ask if I want it).

And this is the reason I'll never use that feature.

The quality of many top Amazon results is often not accurately portrayed with all the fake comments, swapped products, etc. plus, with the various seller and shipping options, I frankly don't trust Amazon to pick the best product and options for me.

For some things, sure. But if I just want batteries or something? It's fine, and saves me some time.

Funny you use that example. There's actually a lot of issues depending on what batteries you buy as some sellers swap in expired batteries, or off-brand replacements. It was so hard to find a certain battery I needed once that was legit, that I just ended up going to my hardware store and getting whatever namebrand they had.

How about a pony?

No, a pony will take a nice trot up to you and politely ask if you know what you're ordering.

Unless you've ordered a pony before in which case it'll be happy to have the company.

This combined with Amazon's Prime Now service makes it almost possible to start a meal, realize you're low on an ingredient, yell at your Echo, and get the ingredient in time to finish dinner.

Damn, we really are living in the future the 1950s imagined we would.

Christmas shopping would be possible if Amazon would allow for connecting amazon account with Facebook. You could then give commands like "Add to shopping cart , $50 items from my family members wish lists".

Does this really sound at all appealing? Buying things at random from automated lists?

How else could you possibly show you care? /s

Maybe you care, but can we please have this, as a "Christmas for the rest of us"-Solution?

Every year it's a stressful and unhappy affair for our small family since so many relatives expect something.

Good point, I realize I've come to somewhat dread Christmas as well. So many gifts for people that don't care because they have everything, yet you're socially obligated.

I've got a solution for this that I've practiced for the last couple of years: presents for children only. The annual pointless spendfest is the dark side of a consumerist economy. If you or your friends and family are offended because you haven't bought them a gift it's their problem, not yours.

We've switched to this in both my family and my wife's family, and I like it so much better. It's fun buying gifts for our kids (and nieces and nephews) and removes the sense of obligation that takes away from the giving and receiving beyond that.

I solve this with food. For years I've made christmas cookies. General mix for work and folks I don't know well. If I know someone's tastes and they are close, I customize.

It isn't always cookies, but generally food. The weirdest thing I found is that folks wound up looking forward to my gift, even though they know what I give them. The main downside is that it takes some work, a bit of freezer space, and some planning.

Craft them something? I mean, you don't have to gift expensive things just because.

If kids aren't involved, I think the Yankee Swap is the answer. Everybody brings one gift, you pick numbers out of a hat to see who gets to choose first, you can either pick a wrapped present or steal one that's already been opened. Everybody gets a present, and it tends to be something that you might actually want or make use of, since you usually can end up trading away anything that is a real bad fit.

> So many gifts for people that don't care because they have everything, yet you're socially obligated.

They have all the food they will ever eat for the rest of their lives ?

My unsolicited advice is buy the equipment for making chutney / jam / pickle/ candied fruit / dried fruit etc. and give everybody a container of that with a pretty label their name & your name on.

This is one of the best solutions I've heard, thank you.

It is very rewarding in and of itself and doesn't take lots time to make far too much :)

And don't forget pickling in vinegar - cabbage, chillies, garlic, carrots, beans the list is almost endless.

Like so many things, what used to be a peasant essential has become an artisan treat.

I know a few families that have all agreed to go the Secret Santa route - each person has one other to buy for, except for the kids in the family. This means everyone will get something, but it limits the cost aspect -- of course couples etc might do something for each other separately - but for the overall family giving aspect it greatly narrows the scope.

if you don't know what to give someone, give them something they'll use up. food, candles, nice pens, incense, olive oil, wine or liquor, a bouquet of dying plants, etc

In case you didn't know, you can already share your Amazon wish lists with people. You don't need Factbook integration.

Not true anymore

Amazon's end goal is to be the place where a large share of consumers , many who aren't so much cost concious , buy everything.

For repeat orders, for small orders, for ordering a taxi, for ordering a repair man, for ordering specific things("i want the same earphones as my friend"), a voice chat may be useful. People don't want to research everything.

Or what if Amazon build a voice personality that people really like, and by extention, really enjoy getting help from when buying stuff ?

Furthermore, it's a bet. It wasn't so clear, at the advent of mobile, that so much ecommerce will happen there, instead of the big screen. but it did. People changed their habits. It's also not clear with voice, but it's hard to tell.

I agree, but I think adding to my basket/list/saved-for-later would be good - I don't have to remember it, and I can check exactly which version I'm buying before I do.

The only time I used it was when my dog puked and I use the last of the carpet cleaner as I was cleaning. I didn't want to forget.

I'd probably use it for common household stuff if I didn't just buy that at the store. But I know a lot of people who buy cleaning supplies, cooking supplies etc on Amazon.

I think it appeals to Amazon. Precisely because of accidental orders and because they hope it will catch on.

Amazon has a friendly enough return policy (which they eat the costs for) that I don't think they're banking on accidental orders.

It's great for Amazon because you are not on the web comparing the prices. You will blindly trust Amazon to have the lowest prices and will order stuff.

for me the appeal hinges on the quality of being understood and the sophistication of the software. it's fairly binary - if it's natural and fluid, it's pretty cool; if it's too high friction, i completely lose interest.

I use it for protein powder and hair stuff. That's it.