Shopping and buying the simple stuff by speaker sounds like something I could get used to. But the eavesdropping capabilities of these speakers mean that there won’t be one in my house any time soon.

Smart speakers will definitely play a role in the path to purchase, especially as more and more people incorporate them into their homes. I see smart speakers being used to purchase household supplies, especially by consumers that are already using Amazon Prime to make these purchases. However, when it comes to items like apparel, gifts, and decor, shoppers still want to be able to see what they are purchasing.

This flies in the face of the survey I did with Oracle NetSuite earlier this year of 1,200 consumers and 400 retailers. We found that 95 percent of consumers don’t want to talk to a robot to buy things. Just 5 percent of consumers selected robots and chatbots as the technologies they most want to utilize – that fits well with Amazon but I doubt many others in a substantial way.

Humans start using voice on the day they are born — it’s innate. So not having a voice shopping option is what’s unnatural. Just like ATM, internet, and mobile adoption, it’s still early on the curve, but when the curve moves along, there is zero doubt voice shopping will be a significant platform — likely within five years. Smart speakers however, are not the best implementation.

For reordering staple products, voice is obvious and convenient and smart speakers can get the job done. When it comes to discovery they are not good and offer no visual product understanding (obviously). There will be a growth of both in-home devices with screens and speakers as well as better integration of voice assistants into mobile and desktop browsers.

So when the real convergence of intelligent assistant, contextual AI, personalization, and multimodal devices occurs, voice shopping will be a booming business.

Voice commerce is truly on the rise and is scaling up, however, we are in the age of the smartphone, which will be the dominant form of engagement, discovery, and interactions with brands. For the smart speaker loyalists, it appears as though repeatable purchases, items that need to be replenished, and other commoditized/convenience items are the sweet spot in this new arena.

The challenge for smart speakers is that while it’s extremely convenient, it essentially eliminates several steps of brand engagement, including discovery, comparison shopping, reading reviews and showrooming in the physical locations. Smart speakers will have their place, just not in high fashion, high touch, luxury, and electronics, where there are far more complex paths to purchase.

No wonder consumers are not fully embracing ordering via voice; Alexa has a hard time understanding what she’s being asked.

I have ordered movies on TV via voice, but I am not interested in buying anything else unless it’s something I know and have used/ordered before. And apparently I am not alone. People still want to see what they are ordering online, even if it’s just in the form of a photo.

I utilize Alexa for items I know. To “shop”? Nope. I want to see what I am shopping for, thereafter, I probably will be more than comfortable with just Alexa. But for quick information on products, Alexa is my choice of convenience.

Voice will be the next disruptor! No doubt about it. It will only be a question of time until voice commerce becomes normal in our daily life. The main argument is CONVENIENCE! But then questions about ownership will arise. The voice assistants are dominated by Google, Amazon and Apple. How will retailers cope with it? If retailers do not want to be bypassed by these tech giants, then an open voice network is desperately needed.

Voice commerce will take off when the Powers That Be understand that the human decision to purchase is not based on linear decision trees. Rather it is based on a cognitive process, human emotion driven by individual sensory preferences. Visual is only one aspect of the sensory profile of a product. Voice commerce will take off when technologies are implemented by Alexa et.al. eliciting individual human preference intelligence used as an agent to filter through millions and millions of individual sensory profiled product SKUs. No visuals needed. Retail product feeds are jam-packed with sensory data waiting to be translated into sensory intelligence. It is WAY past time for retailers to apply retail common sense to the digital world.

Conversational voice shopping just feels natural so yes, I expect it to gain adoption, however the real question is in what product categories. There are certain product categories where shoppers simply must see the item before committing to buy. For commodity household items – cleaning products, batteries, etc. – especially products you already know very well, yes, consumers will buy them via voice. Alexa devices are present in almost every room of our home and are mostly used for music, news, and weather, as well as telling the kids a bedtime story. When it comes to shopping, we’ve only used them to reorder items like batteries and the occasional cleaning product. Of course, we’ve also succumbed to asking Alexa about the latest deals, particularly during Prime Day – however, we didn’t buy any of them. Discovery of new, unfamiliar products is still a bit too unnatural without a screen to see the item so there are some definite hurdles to overcome to make this as mainstream as a smartphone!

It’s a matter of hitting critical mass. The numbers don’t lie. Shopping through a smart device is becoming more popular. Think about how the airlines taught most of us to book online and check-in online. The same thing will happen with voice shopping.

I’ve become more confident, if that’s even possible. While “omnichannel” — Lord, how I loathe that word — promoters keep arguing about designing antiquated platform-based solutions, they are missing a critical point, interfaces trump platforms every day. I’ve boiled this down to a handy, easy to remember acronym — ITIS — which stands for, “It’s The Interface Stupid.” Smart speakers are not limited, (at least in theory) by channel. There’s no reason Alexa couldn’t place an order to be picked up at an IGA instead of being delivered by Amazon. And nothing is easier than talking, especially if smart speakers REALLY become smart. Why type? It’s a less pragmatic interface, and humans are all about following the path of least resistance. I know all the arguments. What about Alexa, Siri, and the whole digital speaker sorority “eavesdropping” on your most intimate moments? What about demented grandparents ordering nukes off the Internet? And, how about those darn kids who order the strangest things? All easily worked around today with existing technology. A special note about privacy.… Read more »

Once upon a time did we ask “Have you become more or less confident that PCs will become a major driver of shopping activity?” Or later, “Have you become more or less confident that smart phones will become a major driver of shopping activity?”

In answering this question, consider not the limitations of the smart speakers that we have today, but the innovative progress from that first mobile phone to today’s smartphones. There is no reason to believe that the smart speaker won’t innovate in the same way.

Imagine as technology becomes more integrated, you walk into the room and say “let’s go shopping” to you smart voice device. Your TV screen lights up and you are on your way. In essence, all we are talking about is a voice device replacing a keyboard.

The ability for smart speakers to better interact with screens may likely be the acceleration that allows it to move beyond simply an entertainment device to an actual shopping enabler. It allows customers to overcome any uncertainties by being actually able to “see” products and pricing before giving the “order” command. Especially for basics and commodity goods that could be prompted by AI infused “auto-replenishment” nudges.

As digital assistants continue to become more mainstream and consumers become accustomed to new behaviors, researching and shopping by voice command will replace the “big browser experience” as the main form of search.

With more than 32% of U.S. consumers now owning a smart speaker (according to research by Adobe Analytics), and growing quickly, it is easy to see the possibilities. As consumers become more comfortable with digital assistants such as Google Home and Amazon Alexa, conversational commerce will evolve to become an expected mode of communication and commerce for consumers.

I believe what is hampering more widespread adoption is the “big brother” fear that someone is listening to whatever is being said in range of the speaker. Privacy is a big concern here and needs to be addressed before more widespread adoption, implicit in its capabilities, will be realized.

Voice is a natural interactive communication medium. Human-computer interfaces are evolving and will increase in adoption as long as they bring greater (and redefine) convenience, speed, and accuracy. Shopping is one of many existing applications for the voice interfaces and I expect it to catch on beyond simple purchases and to more categories. Also, and as disturbing as this may be to some, they can create a trusted, personalized connection, and even be considered a member of the family. Think of the voice interface as a 21st century consumer operating system. It’s highly personal, fast, increasingly loaded with the latest AI capabilities with real-time processing, and the full potential to be fully embedded in one’s daily life. Control the voice interface and you “own” the future. But there’s a huge caveat. Before that can be realized, we will have to make explicit — and solve — the very thorny issues of privacy, and data ownership and control. Without a clear, gobbledygook-free privacy policy and a new data paradigm shift that privileges consumers, the promise of… Read more »

Yes, I am confident that voice assistants and voice commerce will play a significant role in the shoppers path-to-purchase in the future. Voice commerce is frictionless and makes shopping faster and easier. Adaption by consumers is important and already taking place, as Jaimie Chung states … “New users are testing out the shopping-related features of their devices, and early adopters continue to utilize voice to search for products, ask for prices, and more.”

Today, brands and businesses need to create content for their products and services to be found through voice commerce. When 5G rolls out and all of our connected IoT devices are super fast and most smartphones are AR enabled, voice commerce will be a significant factor.

Wow it took some time for me to scroll and digest all the great interactions in this thread. If only my smart speaker could have just read it to me…. Kudos to Ryan for calling out “the whole digital speaker sorority” in his comments. My favorite phrase in the whole thread. I agree with others here that these devices are (so far) better suited for keeping shopping lists and item-replenishment ordering and not too useful for browsing higher-consideration goods. Yes, newer devices with screens may change the game somewhat — but aren’t those really just tablets on tables? I can do all that stuff on a refurbished 7-inch Fire that cost me 25 bucks on Woot. And I can carry it around the house. But … I don’t. At least not regularly. I don’t think I’m a Luddite. It’s just that the use cases are still in their infancy and it will take millions of consumer interactions for these platforms to refine their functionality. It will also take millions of interactions for consumers to refine… Read more »

Time is the ultimate currency. The winner will be the technology that saves time while fulfilling ones desires comfortably and seamlessly. Voice is fine for one-off purchases of regularly acquired products. I don’t see it as the long-term victor.