Ocado launches Alexa app for grocery shopping by voice

Even as Amazon steps up a groceries war in the USA following its $13.7BN acquisition of Whole Foods - cutting prices at the chain this weekend to amp up the pressure on rival Walmart - other supermarket players are figuring out their own strategic responses to Jeff Bezos' big food fight.

The online supermarket announces it will be the first supermarket in the United Kingdom to launch an app for the voice-controlled Amazon Alexa.

As long as you have an existing Ocado account, you just have to ask Alexa to add a product to your basket and it'll be waiting in there for when you want to checkout.

Ocado says it's the first United Kingdom supermarket to launch an app for Alexa.

New orders also can not now be created via the Alexa app - Ocado says it's intended for updating existing orders only.

You can also add items to an existing order, find out which products are in season and even get inspiration for the best ways to include them in recipes, and you can check your basket to see if a product has already been ordered.

As well as helping with current purchases, the new app will be able to prompt user by suggesting previously bought items and also make appropriate recommendations for the customer based on what they normally buy. The launch gives consumers the ultimate convenience and flexibility to shop however they prefer - whether that's online, via the app or simply using your voice.

Commenting in a statement, Lawrence Hene, Ocado's marketing and commercial director, said: "Consumer demand for increasingly convenient ways to shop is growing rapidly and we're excited to be the first supermarket in the United Kingdom to offer this technology, making customers' lives ever easier".

Ocado claims to deliver groceries to more than 70 per cent of the United Kingdom population, with an inventory of more than 50,000 products.