Edmunds brings car-buying research to Amazon Alexa
Published
- Edmunds, the privately held provider of automotive information, created an Amazon Alexa skill to give voice-enabled access to its car-buying research. Tire kickers can ask the device for reviews of vehicles, including safety, driving and technical information, according to a press release.
- The feature provides the manufacturer’s suggested retail price for any vehicle and gives information on local inventory and current lease deals. Alexa users can also ask Edmunds about the car they own, including its current value, maintenance schedule or recall information.
- The fresh skill works with any Alexa-enabled device such as Amazon Echo, Echo Dot, Amazon Tap, Amazon Fire TV and Fire tablets.
Amazon’s Alexa resumes to rise in value with each company that develops a skill — the mini interfaces developers can create to engage with users — for the voice-enabled virtual assistant as there are more reasons for consumers use Alexa if they already have a device or consider purchasing a device if they don’t. Providing information about cars is a good way to expand Alexa’s capabilities while Amazon learns more about its customers behaviors and preferences. For most households, a car is a significant purchase that requires careful consideration and in-depth research. Two-thirds of that research time is spent online, making it the most popular way to find a car, according to a survey by Autotrader and Kelley Blue Book. Car buyers spend less time visiting actual car dealers.
While Amazon doesn’t sell cars, at least not yet, it can learn a lot about its customers from the kinds of questions they ask about vehicles, including the price range, make, model, size and features. That information can be used to market other products tailored specifically to each customer. As a explore by eMarketer estimated, the number of Americans who use a voice-activated assistant device like Amazon Echo or Google Home at least once a month will more than dual this year to 35.6 million. The market leader will be Amazon with 71% of users while Google will have 24%.
Also, Amazon is adding movie capabilities to its Echo devices with the pending release of the Echo Demonstrate. The fresh gadget supports movie capabilities on a 7-inch touchscreen that takes up more than half of the harshly square-shaped device, according to an article by Mobile Marketer’s sister site Retail Dive. The Echo Demonstrate will be released on June twenty eight for $229.99, but was available for pre-order kicking off on Tuesday.