Design the Product Recommendation

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Now that you understand the shopping flow and have fulfilled the prerequisites, you're ready to design the product recommendation. Choose products that add value to the customer and are relevant to your skill. You can recommend physical products to a customer to purchase or add to their Amazon Shopping Cart or Wish List.

Follow these guidelines to design the product recommendation and handoff to Alexa.

For best practices to follow when you design voice-first interactions, see the Alexa Design Guide.

Product recommendation guidelines

When you recommend products, you must adhere to the following guidelines:

• Choose products that are available on the Amazon retail website.
• Choose products that are relevant to the skill and keep customers engaged.
• Offer products that are specific to your area of expertise.
• Offer products that you love or that you've researched thoroughly.
• Place the recommendations in a place that doesn't add friction to the skill experience.
• Complete the customer request before you make a product recommendation. For example, in a yoga skill, complete the requested yoga session before you suggest a yoga mat.
• Use a soft sell approach, such as "By the way, we offer product recommendations if you're interested?"
• If you offer multiple product recommendations, match the customers to the right products. For example, in a make-up skill, you might say, "Answer these three questions to help me find the products that are just right for you."
• If a customer says, "No" to a product recommendation, use a strategy to wait before you recommend a different product. For example, after the customer says, "No" the first time, wait one day before the next recommendation. If the customer says, "No" again, wait longer than one day before you make the next recommendation.
• If your skill is registered with the Amazon Associates on Alexa program, you must disclose that your skill earns commission from product recommendations. Clearly and prominently state the following or a substantially similar statement in your Alexa skill: "[Name of Alexa skill] earns from qualifying purchases that you make while using this skill."
  
  The disclosure must be made in the medium in which the recommendation was provided. If you recommend a product in an Alexa skill with voice, then the disclosure must be in voice. If the recommendation is in text, then the disclosure must be in text. And, if you recommend the product with both voice and text, then the disclosure must be in both mediums. In addition, for Alexa skills, this disclosure must be made each time a customer re-engages with your Alexa skill that contains an Alexa Shopping Action that has been tagged with your Associate ID. And, the disclosure, should be made as close as possible in time to when your Alexa skill prompts customers to engage with an Alexa Shopping Action that has been tagged with your Associate ID. It is not sufficient to merely add this disclosure to the details page of your Alexa skill.

Design the product suggestion

Include the following items in your product suggestion:

1. A brief description of the product and its availability to customers.
2. If your skill is part of the Amazon Associates on Alexa program, a disclaimer stating that you earn a commission by recommending products.
3. An explicit prompt for customer confirmation ("Yes" or "No") to confirm interest in the product, such as, "Want to learn more?" or "Would you like to learn how to add the {product} to your Cart on Amazon?"

The following example shows the product recommendation for a board game.

The example fits the product recommendation definition as follows:

1. Product recommendation: "You might like our new board game, Quick Trivia, The Board Game."
2. Amazon Associates disclaimer: "Quick Trivia earns from qualifying purchases that you make while using this skill."
3. Explicit confirmation: "Would you like to learn how to buy the game on Amazon?"

Design the post-shopping flow

When your customer buys the product or adds it to their Cart or Wish List, you create a graceful handoff from the Amazon shopping flow back to your skill. Design a follow-up action for a successful action and design a flow to handle customer errors.

The following example shows a successful handoff back to the skill.

Design the refund flow

Customers can ask Alexa to cancel an order during a skill session. Remind the customer to visit their Amazon account on the Amazon retail page to alter the order, and then continue with the skill. For an example voice response, see the Refund the product purchase example.

Alexa shopping examples

Review the following voice shopping flow examples of product recommendations, handover to Alexa, and follow-up after a successful action.

Buy recommended product

The following table shows the steps in an example voice shopping flow, where the customer agrees to buy the recommended product on Amazon.

• English (UK)
• English (US)
• Japanese (JP)

Decline the purchase suggestion

The following table shows the steps in an example voice shopping flow, where the customer first accepts the purchase suggestion, then declines the purchase action.

Step	State	Actor	Speaker	BuyShoppingProducts shopping action
1	Product recommendation and confirmation	Skill	Alexa	"You've strayed far from your bonfire. You can unlock more of the story with the companion comic. Want to learn how to buy the book on Amazon?"
2	Customer response	Skill	Customer	"Yes"
3	Follow-up action	Skill	N/A	<Passes control to Alexa Shopping>
4	Offer presentation	Alexa Shopping	Alexa	"Here are the product details from Amazon. Your purchase includes an interactive narrative comic, the print version. The total, including tax and shipping, is twelve dollars and four cents."
5	Confirmation	Alexa Shopping	Alexa	"Would you like to buy it?"
6	Customer response	Alexa Shopping	Customer	"No"
7	Relay control	Alexa Shopping	Alexa	<Passes control to the skill with the action status>
8	Follow-up action	Skill	Alexa	"OK. Would you like to play again?"

Decline to learn more

The following table shows the steps in an example voice shopping flow, where the customer declines to learn more about a recommended product.

Step	State	Actor	Speaker	BuyShoppingProducts shopping action
1	Product recommendation and confirmation	Skill	Alexa	"You've strayed far from your bonfire. You can unlock more of the story with the companion comic. Want to learn how to buy the book on Amazon?"
2	Customer response	Skill	Customer	"No"
3	Follow-up action	Skill	Alexa	"OK. Would you like to play again?"

Add to shopping cart

The following table shows the steps in an example voice shopping flow, where the customer adds a physical product to their Cart. The experience is consistent with the experience of a customer who tries to purchase something with Alexa Shopping by using a search term.

• English (UK)
• English (US)
• Japanese (JP)

Add to list

The following table shows the steps in an example voice shopping flow, where the customer adds a physical product to their Amazon Wish List.

• English (UK)
• English (US)
• Japanese (JP)

Recommend products

The following table shows the steps in an example voice shopping flow, where the skill recommends two Quick Trivia products and the customer buys one of them. On an Alexa-enabled device with a screen, Alexa displays the product details and buttons that call the customer to action, such as BUY THIS, ADD TO CART, or MORE DETAILS. The customer can tap the button or ask Alexa with voice.

• English (UK)
• English (US)
• Japanese (JP)

Decline the product recommendation

The following table shows the steps in an example voice shopping flow, where, the customer declines the offer to add the board game to their Wish List.

Step	State	Actor	Speaker	AddToList shopping action
1	Product recommendation and confirmation	Skill	Alexa	"You're one level away from completing the game. Would you like to try the new board game, Quick Trivia, The Board Game? Do you want to learn how you can add the board game to your Wish List on Amazon?"
2	Customer response	Skill	Customer	"No"
3	Follow-up action	Skill	Alexa	"OK. Let's start the final level of the game."

Refund the product purchase

The following table shows the steps in an example voice shopping flow, where, during a skill session the customer asks for a refund for the purchased product.

Step	State	Actor	Speaker	RecommendShoppingProducts shopping action
1	Product recommendation and confirmation	Skill	Alexa	"By the way, we offer product recommendations if you're interested?"
2	Customer response	Skill	Customer	"Refund my previous order."
3	Acknowledgment	Skill	Alexa	"To review or cancel your order, please go to orders section on the Amazon retail site."
4	Follow-up action	Skill	Alexa	"Would you like to continue the game?"

• Previous – About Alexa Shopping Kit
• Next – Enable Alexa Shopping

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Last updated: Mar 26, 2024