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Will Voice Commerce Continue To Gain Traction?
When it comes to shopping, the role of voice commerce has been slowly gaining traction. While the full potential of conversational AI in-home voice assistants remains to be unlocked, their utility in enhancing the retail customer experience is evident. The convenience of ordering products through voice commands, with or without a visual interface, presents a myriad of possibilities.
Voice commerce allows users to make purchases using spoken instructions, bypassing the need for traditional and manual browsing. A straightforward command like “Hey Google, find me a wireless vacuum cleaner” can kick-start the shopping journey. Once the user is given options, they can confirm a purchase and their order will be processed.
Convenience is key in online shopping, and voice commerce, if done properly, will perpetuate this claim. Embracing voice commerce can help retailers differentiate themselves, attracting organic traffic from mobile users and smart speaker shoppers.
This seemingly simple interaction is backed by a sophisticated system with two key elements: the hardware and the software.
The hardware, commonly a smartphone or intelligent speaker, serves as the platform for voice interactions, featuring virtual helpers such as Alexa, Siri, or Google Assistant. Meanwhile, specifically designed software, linked with online shopping platforms, deciphers these instructions and manages the buying process for the consumer.
A prime illustration of this burgeoning technology is Walmart’s Voice ordering system. Through smart speakers, customers can add products to their virtual carts, completing their purchases via voice. Walmart’s workforce then ensures these items are ready for convenient pickup.
The system utilizes prior purchase data for accuracy, and when unavailable, it recommends other items based on local price and availability. In 2021, Walmart implemented deep learning AI, and it increased accepted substitutions by over 95%, using real-time shopper data and customer feedback to refine future recommendations.
Walmart then expanded this into “Conversational Commerce,” a term coined by Chris Messina in 2016, which involves e-commerce conducted through conversations between people, brands, services, and bots. This includes live chat support, chatbots, and voice assistants, powered by technologies like speech recognition, natural language processing, and AI.
Additionally, Walmart employs AI-driven conversational agents for personalized customer care across various platforms. Another tool, Ask Sam, introduced in 2019, aids associates in store operations, including product search and price checks.
Another area where voice commerce is showing promise is within consumers’ vehicles. In an interview with PYMNTS, Drew Edwards, CEO of Ingo Money, pointed out that platforms like Apple CarPlay and Google Android Auto have integrated voice commands into cars’ digital interfaces. These voice-activated systems enable consumers to engage in dialogues, making it easier to consider and transact across various interactions and experiences while driving.
“It could get so much better if it was tied into my car and [saying] hey Drew, you’re down to an eighth of a tank of gas and there’s a QuikTrip up here on the right which already has your payment credentials,” Edwards said. “It’s where the connected car comes in because you can’t use your hands, and you’re interacting with this artificial intelligence. All the way through to paying for that experience, it just happens without you ever touching a keyboard or putting your credentials in.”
Voice Commerce: A Promising Future in Retail or Just a Hype?
Voice commerce might seem like a promising new frontier for retail, but despite its potential, the technology is still finding its footing.
According to PYMNTS Intelligence’s study titled “Tracking the Digital Payments Takeover: Catching the Coming eCommerce Wave,” based on a survey of nearly 2,700 U.S. consumers, the channels consumers use to buy retail items vary significantly, and only 2% use voice-activated devices or other channels for their shopping needs.
Why is voice commerce lagging behind other channels? Several factors may be contributing to its slow adoption:
- Limited functionality and compatibility: Voice-activated devices may not be fully compatible with all e-commerce platforms, making it inconvenient for consumers to use them for shopping.
- Lack of awareness and familiarity: Some consumers may not be aware of the option to make purchases via voice-activated devices or may find them unfamiliar and challenging to use.
- User experience: The current voice-activated purchasing experiences may not be as seamless or user-friendly as other methods, leading consumers to prefer more established channels.
Voice commerce presents numerous challenges for businesses despite its advantages. One major hurdle is the lack of trust among users concerned about data privacy and unauthorized purchases, especially when children are involved. To address this, companies should ensure GDPR compliance and educate customers about their data handling practices. Additionally, integrating voice biometrics can help verify user identity, reducing the risk of unwanted purchases.
Another challenge lies in accurately recognizing and interpreting human speech, which can lead to user dissatisfaction. Implementing advanced natural language processing technologies, such as self-learning NLP models and reinforcement learning, can enhance voice commerce accuracy. Voice-to-text is still far from perfect, and English is currently the dominant language in the voice recognition realm. Lastly, the limited support from financial institutions for voice-driven transactions restricts payment options, potentially limiting the appeal of voice commerce to potential users.
With both pros and cons, voice commerce has the ability to add another digital layer to the ever-evolving retail landscape.
Discussion Questions
What strategies can retailers employ to increase awareness, educate consumers, and drive adoption of voice commerce as a mainstream retail channel?
How can retailers integrate voice commerce into omnichannel strategies to create a cohesive shopping experience that seamlessly bridges online and offline interactions for consumers?
In what ways can voice commerce serve as a catalyst for innovation in the retail industry, inspiring new business models and reshaping traditional approaches to customer engagement and sales?
Poll
Loading …BrainTrust
Mark Ryski
Founder, CEO & Author, HeadCount Corporation
Anil Patel
Founder & CEO, HotWax Commerce
The problem with voice commerce is that shopping is, primarily, a visual activity and not an auditory one. Even simple tasks like buying a packet of batteries or ordering some vitamins benefit from being able to see products on a screen or in a store: we can quickly glance the options and determine what we want. Voice commerce removes that ease and actually makes shopping more complex. So, beyond some very simple tasks like reordering regularly bought items, voice commerce has really not gained ground: and I don’t buy some of the optimism in this article. That said, it does play a more indirect role when it comes to things like checking on delivery status or creating shopping lists.
Retailers should avoid placing big bets on voice commerce. We’ve been told it was “the next big thing” for over a decade and it hasn’t turned out that way. Even Amazon — where people buy without much shopping — has failed to sort out a way for voice commerce.
And there are good reasons for this. Voice in an essentially unreliable way to be highly specific except for clearly known lists (e.g a contact in our phone contacts). Turned loose for “anything”, consumers simply aren’t finding it useful. Without enhancing shopping it mostly just makes it unreliable.
This is technology where we need to proceed with caution,
Voice commerce isn’t just hype. In fact, in the evolving digital landscape, brands must adapt their strategies to capitalize on the burgeoning trend of voice commerce.
For enhanced discoverability and relevance, it is important for businesses and brands to optimize product listings and descriptions using natural language keywords and conversational phrases.
When people use voice assistants such as Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, or Apple Siri, product listings, descriptions, and other information should align with how they naturally speak.
I recommend searching for relevant keywords that your target audience might use when seeking products or services like yours. To rank higher in search engines, incorporate these keywords naturally into your product descriptions. If you sell chocolate cookies, use phrases like, “nutty dark chocolate.”
With voice-enabled platforms, businesses and brands can provide tailored product recommendations and promotional offers based on customer data and predictive analytics. Brands can cultivate deeper relationships with consumers and drive repeat purchases by understanding their preferences and purchase history.
By embracing voice innovation, agility, and customer focus, businesses and brands can embrace the future of shopping as voice commerce gains traction and evolves along with AI and natural language processing. Count on it. That’s going to happen.
A seamless, personalized shopping experience powered by voice technology can position brands at the forefront and foster meaningful connections with consumers in an increasingly interconnected world.
Voice commerce represents a transformative period in retail history, a time of innovation, opportunity, and endless possibilities. Db
Traditional voice assistants aren’t all that fun or conversational. If it stayed status quo in terms of the tech, I wouldn’t be too excited about growth. However, as Gen AI is infused into these assistants, they will become far more conversational and smart, which will increase usage and usability.
For now, voice commerce is limited by the performance level of voice assistant tech as a whole and going forward will likely be useful for only a limited number of product categories (low need for visuals) and refills for products originally order on a website/marketplace.
First question relating to the first discussion question is: If this technology is so needed, why do retailers have to increase its awareness among consumers? Does the consuming public crave or even need this technology? Would retailers save or gain anything from implementing voice commerce?
The second discussion assumes that consumers and/or retailers want this technology implemented.
As to the third discussion question, I am happy enough that I can speak to Siri to call a friend or a colleague, or find directions when I am navigating. Keep life simple.
Voice commerce has it’s place, but it’s not for everyone nor is it best suited to every kind purchase. While it’s ideal for recurring purchases like pre-packaged grocery items, it’s not the way people shop for most other products, like apparel and furniture. Notwithstanding Amazon’s success at selling Alexa-enabled devices with over 500M+ devices sold since its launch in 2014, I believe it will remain niche. Additionally, concerns about privacy and reports of voice devices listening in to all conversations is problematic.
Wasn’t this the same discussion we were having around kiosk integration a decade ago? Now kiosks are replacing hourly labor in many settings. Expect the same technology leap for voice commerce. Ultimately, we’re a convenience society, and this bolsters our natural tendencies.
Jenn, I like your choice of words. Technology does not evolve; it “leaps,” as does acceptance and use.
Voice has moved appreciably in the last 15 years from “call mom” to dictation and document editing. The challenge is the underlying AI programming. Unfortunately, too often, the companies that seem to opt for voice response in their interactions with customers do not understand that it must be sculpted to meet the company’s unique needs. It is not a technology to buy off the shelf.
Neil makes an excellent point regarding the visual preferences of shopping versus pure audio. Let’s take a step forward. How long will it be before our phones and computers are entirely operated by voice and no longer require a keyboard? How far away is voice operation from the current touch operation? Will we be sitting on our couch and directing our TV to scroll through items by style, color, and size?
Voice shopping and voice everything is not going to be that far off. Just measure the progress of technology in the last five years, accelerate it, and imagine what it will be like in the next five years. It will move faster than any of us can imagine.
While promising, “voice commerce” has its own set of challenges. Despite its convenience, the tangible aspect of traditional shopping experiences remains irreplaceable. The inability to physically interact with products and lack of visual cues will deter those who value hands-on shopping. Moreover, concerns about data privacy and security, especially regarding unauthorized purchases could contribute to hesitancy. Moreover, accurately recognizing and interpreting human speech remains a challenge. So, it’s crucial to acknowledge the limitations and work towards mitigating them, if retailers want voice commerce to gain any significant traction.
The dominant form factors in commerce are our five senses and the smartphone, which is the “remote control” of the digital world. Voice commerce was predicted to take off several years ago. However, for many reasons, voice commerce capabilities never gained significant momentum to become a viable shopping channel.
Voice commerce is rapidly evolving with the integration of AI assistants and chatbots, which offer some elements of personalization. While there may be some applications for voice commerce, such as commodity buys and everyday needs, retail is about experiences and the art of discovery.
Conversational commerce is on the horizon. However, it will require an advanced integration of the entire assortment catalog, e-commerce capabilities, the entire supply chain, and fulfillment capabilities, which will become an intuitive part of the shopping experience. It by no means will be a replacement for the five senses.
It’s got to have a benefit for consumers – or at least a perceived benefit…. so if you are aiming to boost voice commerce may be able to consider:
“Hi, I know you’re driving and couldn’t be bothered to see your gas gauge OR the brilliantly bright gas station signs OR your digital map display with all the gas icons in all their pretty colors but YOU’RE ABOUT TO RUN OUT OF GAS so please open your eyes and pull into the gas station and get some gas.”
Voice commerce, car commerce, refrigeration commerce (my fridge orders milk when I’m running low) — technology is absolutely amazing and it has to start somewhere but traditional ecommerce (let’s call it “non-human” commerce) still accounts for less than 20% of global retail sales and technology that fails to address the “why” of that equation is awesome and definitely has valid use cases but has a long way to go. I agree with Mark that shopping is largely visual and I’d add “human” (except for things like repeat or minor purchases).
I still believe that the key to truly phygital commerce will be the convergence of physical and digital (human or extremely human like and computing power). We’re not there yet but man is it fun (and sometimes scary) watching our progress. Like Jenn said, think about where we were a decade ago. Where’s Rosie or Robot? (Dating myself)
I use Alexa to add known items to my cart and to place orders. On my phone I frequently utilize the voice to text option to find products, but after that my shopping is purely visual. I need to see – and read about – whatever I am putting in my cart.
I might give voice commerce a shot once the AI can pronounce my name. If it can butcher “Georganne” 27 ways, imagine what it could do to my order?
Great thoughts by the panelists. I agree with Brandon in that voice commerce, once “Alexa” is a powerful as ChatGPT or Perplexity, will be great to commodity purchases. The AI knows your preferred brands, maybe runs quick surveys to determine if it should keep reordering the same items. As it evolves, it will be integrated into other facets of shopping with are more complex. Humans are wired to move to the most efficient use of our brain and talking it way easier than typing in my experience. The rest will get sorted out by the tech wizards.
Voice recognition/commerce will continue to find new use cases, and retailers will mostly wait while the technology is more rapidly adapted and used in everyday activities. Retailers will need to continue to improve their search capabilities linked to inventory in order to integrate voice in a way that is useful. How many times have I found something not by searching the retailers site but by searching on google, which THEN points me to what I am looking for? Clue: many many times. Get the basics right, then integrate voice!
As search gets smarter and more adaptable to natural language, I think the interest in this capability will pick up. Seeing how specific consumers have gotten when communicating what they’re shopping for gives me hope that this will take off sooner now rather than later.
This is crawl phase of the technology. As better resources and experts come on board, this will become a normal and probably preferred tool to use in business 20 years from now.
Maybe 10 years from now?
Why even 10 years? Shopping is a visual experience. Why is technology trying to buck basic human biology and psychology? It just strikes me as tech firms trying to reinvent without understanding the basics of shopping and human nature.
Voice commerce looks like a reach beyond the already easy customer experience of ordering online with smartphones. Customers would need to believe it saves time or makes life easier beyond how ordering online works now.
But if there is any meaningful traction ahead for voice commerce ahead, the newly launched AirChat platform is one of the few places where it naturally fits in usage and functionality.
Yes! Ordering via a screen is actually pretty easy. I don’t see voice as reducing friction; it actually adds a whole bunch of friction into the process.
For voice commerce to be accepted, it has to be accurate. Some programs work better than others, but for the average consumer to start being comfortable with the technology, there has to be a level of consistency. The worst version of voice commerce technology needs to work. While not directly related to commerce, Siri still misspells my name when I dictate it into my phone. If “she” can’t spell my name right, how will she do when I place an order for groceries? Voice commerce is still young, but it is growing fast. I’ve said this before: The future is NOW (or at least very soon)!
Voice commerce is considered by many as a potential game-changer for retailers mainly because it can enhance convenience, which is a central value proposition in today’s environment. A customer can shop and manage transactions through simple voice commands when the need arises is a plus to the shopping process, saving time and effort required to browse and purchase products.
The real benefit here lies in the ability to integrate shopping into everyday activities seamlessly. Let’s say that you are cooking and realize you need to replenish spices or kitchen tools without searching through a website. Voice commerce can also drive personalized shopping experiences. The ability to leverage data from your past interactions, will be able to offer recommendations tailored to individual preferences, enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Siri, Hey Google and Alexa are clever toys, but they are generic – little better than parlor tricks so far. The tipping point for voice technology – I believe – will come after each of us is granted the ability to customize and configure our own personal digital agents (PDAs) with integrated secure personal data vaults.
Reordering baby diapers or batteries from an online retailer with a voice command is pretty basic stuff, and the incremental convenience isn’t very compelling. I’ll be impressed when I can ask my PDA to find me a pullover top that matches my (known) favorite sport coat, in my size, fiber, color preference and price range and deliver it to me at the hotel I’ll be staying at in two days. (It should also remind me that I already have a very similar item in my wardrobe so I can confirm before it initiates the transaction.)
In the scenario, the seller doesn’t need to know anything about me beyond the particulars of the order, mode of payment, and my loyalty ID should I choose to share it. The retailer certainly will not need to stand up a redundant voice agent of its own.
This voice-enabled version of our digital future will be tightly linked with the loyalty/privacy-scape, and we will rightly expect to receive micro-payments (via the blockchain) every time we agree, via PDA, to expose our personal data to folks who aspire to sell us something.