News

Amazon expands retail sales landscape for Echo device

Amazon pushes Alexa and Echo onto brick-and-mortar retail shelves.

November 12, 2015

The Amazon Echo isn’t just available at Amazon.com any longer as Amazon is putting its smart product in a wide variety of brick-and-mortar retailers.

The reseller list includes Home Depot, Staples, Sears, RadioShack, Brookstone, Fred Meyer, and P.C. Richard & Sons.

"Amazon Echo is a must-have gift this holiday season, and we're excited to work with retailers across the country to make Echo available to their customers," Greg Hart, vice president, Amazon Echo and Alexa Voice Services, said in an announcement. "Using only your voice to play music, control your lights, and ask questions is magical, so it’s great that people will be able to visit local stores and try it for themselves."

Amazon’s Echo is a voice-activated personal assistant device.

"Staples.com launched Amazon Echo several months ago and the product has been well received by our customers," said Eric Cayton, VP technology at Staples. "We are excited to continue to work with Amazon to offer Echo in select Staples retail stores and on Staples.com during the holiday season."

Alexa — the brain behind Echo — is built in the cloud, so it's always getting smarter. Echo offers hands-free voice control for information from Wikipedia and the web, weather, timers and alarms, news, shopping/to-do lists, and much more. Additional capabilities include:

Music:Access Amazon Music, Prime Music, iHeartRadio, Pandora, and TuneIn using only your voice, from across the room. Simply ask Alexa for an artist, song, genre, playlist, or station, and once music is playing you can pause and skip tracks using voice commands. Plus, Echo is Bluetooth-enabled so you can stream other popular music services like Spotify and iTunes from your phone or tablet.
Connected home: With integration of Philips Hue, Samsung SmartThings, WeMo, Insteon, and Wink products, use Echo to switch on the lamp before getting out of bed, turn on the fan or heater while reading in your favorite chair, or dim the lights from the couch to watch a movie — all without lifting a finger.
Local Search with Yelp: Use Echo to get info on local businesses and restaurants — straight from Yelp. Craving cashew chicken? Just ask: "Alexa, find me a nearby Chinese restaurant." Or wondering when the pharmacy closes? Just ask: "Alexa, what are the hours for a nearby pharmacy?"
Audible: Listen to audiobooks from Audible with Echo. Simply say: "Alexa, read my book." Echo also supports Whispersync for Voice, which allows you to seamlessly switch between reading and listening without losing your spot. Start reading on Kindle, and pick up on Echo right where you left off.
Google Calendars: Access Google calendars with Echo — just use your voice. Hear what’s on the calendar for the day or check if you’re free for dinner with friends.
If This Then That (IFTTT):Create IFTTT recipes to make your life simpler and more manageable. IFTTT is a service that connects your devices, apps, and websites with simple rules called "recipes." With IFTTT recipes, you can use Echo to add shopping items to Evernote, automatically email your to-do list to your spouse, add your Echo to-do list to your iPhone, and more.
Re-order Prime-eligible products: If you’re low on kitchen supplies, want to restock on snacks, or need more rolls of duct tape for the garage, simply ask Echo to place an order for you. Echo uses your order history and can order the Prime-eligible item for you using your default payment and shipping settings. If Echo can't find the requested item in your order history, it may suggest an item for your approval using Amazon’s Choice, which picks highly-rated, well-priced, Prime-eligible products.
Sports scores and schedules: Alexa will tell you the results of your favorite team’s last game, the current score of a game they are playing, and the time and date of the next game.
Traffic: Just save your work address and Alexa will tell you the quickest route and travel time to work each morning so you know exactly what to expect before leaving the house. You can also add a stop to your commute in case you need to drop off a child at school or stop by a coffee shop on your way to work — just add the stop to your settings, and Alexa will give you the route and travel time.