Table of Contents
What is Amazon Alexa?
With the world of consumer technology evolving, more and more products have a virtual assistant built-in. Amazon has not been left behind with their launching of the Amazon Echo that is powered by Alexa.
Not long after the development of the Echo, other manufacturers began to develop products that work with Alexa. This has led to numerous devices in the market that work with Alexa including phones, alarm clocks, speakers, and many more.
However, Amazon Alexa is a virtual assistant that was developed by Amazon which is capable of providing real-time information like weather forecast, news, streaming podcasts, and voice interaction. What’s more, users are able to extend the capabilities of Alexa by installing Alexa Skills which are developed by third-party vendors.
What are the Benefits of Alexa
One of the benefits of Alexa is that it has a lot of skills and can be used to control a plethora of smart home hubs and devices. Marketed products for Alexa come with a “works with Alexa” badge that gives them a competitive edge over other products in the Amazon listing.
For sellers, having the “Works with Alexa” certification allows your products to be added in the Amazon Smart Home Store. This program features smart home products and devices that work with Alexa. Apart from that, it can increase the discoverability of your products to potential customers.
Also, customers benefit from this program since they can get access to quality smart home products that are available on the Amazon website. They are assured of the legitimacy and quality of the products.
How to Include the “Works with Alexa” Certification to you Amazon Product
The ‘Works with Alexa’ program is beneficial to sellers because it works products list in the Amazon Smart Home Store. Getting certified means that you have set up the Alexa certify code on your website. However, before submitting products for Alexa certification, there are steps that you need to follow;
Step 1: Evaluate the ‘Works with Alexa’ Program Guidelines
The first step is to review the program guidelines of Works with Alexa in order to find out whether your Amazon product has met the certification requirements. The Amazon Alexa trademark program guidelines comprise of both the product quality guidelines and general guidelines.
Step 2: Determine Your Alexa Integration
In order to add the Works with Alexa certification to your product, you need to ensure that it meets can integrate with Alexa via the following:
- An Echo Plus integration
- Through a smart home skill
- Through a hub with smart home skill linked to it
If your product doesn’t adhere to the Alexa integration requirements, you can build a smart home skill through the Smart Home Skill API. However, your product will not receive the Works with Alexa certification until the Smart Home Skill is successfully completed.
Step 3: Submit Your Application
Once you have the Alexa integration, the next step is to submit your application for the Work with Alexa certification. For this process, these steps are involved:
1. Request the Submission Form
The first step is to request the WWA submission form where you will fill in your basic information such as your name and that of the company, ASINS, smart home skill, and many more. After completing the form, your eligibility will then be established.
2. Submit your Products for Testing
If you qualify, you will be contacted within a period of 48 hours. It is at this point that you will be given instructions on how to submit your products for testing at a certification facility.
3. Completion of Testing process
The certification facility will work to get your products certified for the Works with Alexa certification. For this process, you will need to pay a certification fee for every product you submit for testing. The lab will determine how much you will be charged based on the effort needed to certify your product. They will then send you the quote before the certification process begins.
Once the testing process begins, you are likely to get a detailed report of the testing results within 10 business days. If the certification is successful, a certification confirmation ID will be sent to you.
However, you will be notified should an issue that prevents your product certification arise. If your products don’t qualify, you can fix the issues and submit them again for certification. Resubmitting your products for certification will, however, cost you an additional charge.
Works with Alexa Badge
Basically, the whole process of works with Alexa certification takes at least one month to complete. Upon a successful certification of your product, it will be added to the Alexa Smart Home Store, and the Works with Alexa badge will be displayed on the products Amazon detail page.
Additionally, you will receive a comprehensive guideline that shows you how to make use of the Works with Alexa badge for your product listing. It will also guide you on how to use the badge for your offline marketing.
Conclusion
Along with integrating Alexa into products, Amazon has also made it possible for third-party manufacturers to integrate Alexa into their own devices.
If you are a seller on Amazon, having the Works with Alexa badge will help your product listing stand out. Just be sure to follow the Amazon Alexa trademark usage guidelines as well as the guideline for using the Works with Alexa badge.
