Alexa can already quickly order just about anything in Amazon’s catalog. Now she can also get you signed up for the company’s premium subscription service in a jiffy.
Amazon is making it even easier for people to join its Prime program, enabling all of its Echo devices to sign up customers using the voice command, “Alexa, sign me up for Prime.” To give the new ability an extra kick, the company is offering a $20 discount on subscriptions made via the digital assistant.
The new functionality comes as Amazon gears up for Prime Day, its mid-year deal-a-palooza event (which, while criticized in the past, has been quite successful on the whole for several years now). Shoppers who use Alexa in one of Amazon’s many hardware offerings, including Amazon Echo, Echo Dot, Echo Show, Amazon Tap, Fire TV, or compatible Fire tablets, will have exclusive access to over 100 deals—and a two hour head start on the general public for other offers.
Prime, which offers free two-day shipping as well as access to a variety of services like free streaming video, is one of the keys to Amazon’s success. Prime members spend an average of $1,300 annually on Amazon, versus roughly $700 for non-members
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The company carefully guards the number of Prime subscribers. Consumer Intelligence Research Partners estimates 80 million people are now members, up from 58 million at the same time in 2016.