In an odd turn for retail cooperation, Best Buy is now available on Alexa, Amazon’s voice-powered digital assistant. Starting today, you can learn about and order Best Buy’s Deal of the Day sales just by saying, “Alexa, talk to Best Buy.” Sure, it seems odd to have a competing service on Amazon’s own devices, but as the blog post from Best Buy points out, the big box store has been selling Amazon Alexa devices in a special section in about 700 of its stores earlier this year.
Best Buy is only the latest retailer to jump on the voice-shopping trend, too. Walmart and Target both offer home shopping via Google Assistant. This isn’t the first time Amazon has allowed a competitor into its garden, either. Spotify and Pandora live easily next to Amazon’s own music service on its connected smart speakers, as do competing on-demand video services.
Once you add the Best Buy skill to your Alexa-powered device and say “talk to Best Buy,” Amazon’s voice assistant will offer to link your Best Buy account to your Alexa app, and will also request that you enable your location. You can ask about the Deal of the Day, too, and Alexa will list the current deals and ask if you want to purchase them.