Amazon has expanded its AI shopping assistant, Alexa for Shopping, to handle price monitoring and automatic purchases. The tool, formerly known as Rufus, is available to US customers in the Amazon app, on Amazon.com, and through Echo devices. Users can ask Alexa to watch a specific item at a chosen price, and Amazon will notify them when the price drops.
For Prime members, the assistant can go further: with an explicit request such as "Buy these headphones when they are $75 or less," Amazon will automatically place the order using the default payment method once the price target is reached. However, Auto Buy does not apply coupons or promotional discounts, and users must account for sales tax and delivery charges when setting their target.
Amazon also provides a Price History feature that shows price changes over 30, 90, or 365 days, helping shoppers set realistic targets. Third-party services like CamelCamelCamel and Keepa offer similar price tracking and alerts, but they cannot execute purchases. Notifications must be enabled on the user's phone for alerts to work, and users can also set broader category alerts for product types rather than specific items.