DISCUSSION
Okay Google, how can you help grow Walmart’s online grocery business?
Written by George Anderson
Source: Walmart
Walmart is going all-in on its online grocery business with store pickup options (inside and out) as well as delivery. Yesterday, Walmart announced that it was looking to make ordering groceries online even easier by enabling its customers to place their orders by voice on any device that uses Google Assistant.
To get started placing orders, Walmart customers just need to say, “Hey Google, talk to Walmart.” Customers who use Walmart Voice Order should find the process made easier due to their past purchasing history.
“For example, if a customer says, ‘add milk to my cart,’ we’ll make sure to add the specific milk the customer buys regularly. Instead of saying ‘1 gallon of 1% Great Value organic milk,’ they’ll simply say one word: ‘milk,’” wrote Tom Ward, senior vice president, digital operations, Walmart U.S., in a post on the retailer’s blog.
Beginning later this month, Walmart Voice Order will be available at 2,100 of the chain’s stores for store pickup and at 800 others for home delivery. Walmart plans to continue expanding the scope of the program to other voice platforms and store locations over time.
[embed]https://www.facebook.com/walmart/videos/582840295552686/[/embed]
By teaming with Google, Walmart gives itself a sizeable starting platform to begin competing with Amazon’s Echo devices. Today, voice orders remain a small part of retail purchases overall, but many experts believe that consumer adoption of the technology for shopping purposes will continue to expand.
“The Voice Assistant Adoption Report” from Voicebot, PullString and RAIN shows that 19.7 percent of adults in the U.S. owned a voice-enabled smart speaker system last year. That percentage is expected to rise to around 30 percent by the end of 2019.
Amazon currently holds a nearly 65 percent share of the speaker market with Echo, but Google has been making inroads with Home and now accounts for nearly 20 percent of installed devices.