Today’s consumers demand faster, easier, and more enjoyable online shopping experiences that align with their busy lifestyles—and that’s why voice commerce is about to take off.
“Omnichannel” is the latest buzzword, and mobile shopping experiences are a must-have for online stores. But the most recent trends in voice technology—and home devices like Alexa—are showing that voice commerce is the next big thing.
Though some consumers have been slow to adopt voice tech, virtual assistants like Alexa are finding their place in a steadily growing number of homes. Once shoppers discover the convenience of being able to simply ask Alexa to make a purchase or stock up on necessities, they’re getting hooked on this easier approach to shopping.
What is Voice Commerce
Voice commerce refers to purchasing items online via voice commands—usually through the channel of a virtual assistant device such as Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and so on.
It’s part of the omnichannel experience for online customers, providing a faster shopping experience, while offering merchants another sales channel.
Voice commerce isn’t exactly new, but there is an urgency for brands to adapt and evolve sooner than later. As you may know, staying ahead of the “next big thing” adds value, relevance, and trust to your brand.
As an eCommerce store, you’ll want to implement new tech ahead of your competitors, so that you’ll already be able to offer the service before your customer even begins looking for it.
Who Uses Voice Commerce
As of this writing, the demographic trends younger—but that will change over time as more people become familiar with the tech and more merchants begin offering voice as an option.
Customers want an optimal experience, and once they discover the ease of voice purchasing, they’ll be more likely to use it.
Does that apply to your customer base? Well, imagine yourself in your customer’s shoes—here’s a scenario: You’re having a friend over for coffee, and they comment on how delicious the roast is; they’ve never tried that brand before. Being the generous host you are, you offer to pick up an extra bag for your friend the next time you buy your own, and search for a pen to make a note of it.
Or, instead, you just shout over to Alexa to add an extra bag of beans onto your next order, without having to worry about reminders.
Here’s another situation.
You walk in the door after getting groceries, only to find that your mischievous pet knocked over a flower vase. As you reach for the last paper towel on the roll, you realize you forgot to buy more towels. Instead of making a trip back out to the supermarket, you simply ask Alexa to order your paper towels—the mega-pack, this time.
No matter what products you offer, customer experience needs to be at the forefront of your business strategy. Voice commerce can enhance that experience.
If this seems like too much or you simply don’t have the time, you can contact our eCommerce agency to consult about a personalized Voice Commerce integration for your online store.
Voice Commerce Stats
Marketing research brand Juniper Research refers to this as Conversational Commerce. They suggest that the voice commerce market will land around $80 billion in 2023.
Already, 34% of shoppers between ages 18-29 have reported making a purchase through a voice-activated device at least once.
Plus, Adobe surveyed 400 business decision makers in 2018 about their plans for voice technology. The study found that 91% are already making significant investments in voice. Plus, 94% plan to increase their investment in the coming year.
Pros and Cons of Voice Commerce
Benefits of Voice Commerce include:
- Providing an omnichannel customer experience
- Building customer trust by proving to be a leader in eCommerce, adopting the latest trends.
- Getting a leg up over your competition. Offer the service before customers look for it, so that you’ll be an expert by the time they do
- Expand your audience to reach younger, tech savvy shoppers
- Increase conversions and, possibly, recurring revenue
Challenges of Voice Commerce
- Voice recognition is an imperfect technology
- Slow adoption by shoppers as they continue to discover the option
- Extra steps may be a turn off for customers. For instance, Alexa users can only use voice shopping if they are members of Amazon Prime
- Merchants might not have the time to build their own commerce tools like Alexa Skills, which we’ll cover in the next section.
What are Alexa Skills?
An Alexa Skill is comparable to an app, but for Alexa devices. By using voice command, users can listen to music, play games, check the weather, and make purchases.
Skills can be downloaded from the Alexa Skill Store, which is also where businesses can publish their own Skills.
How to Create an Alexa Skill
There are three ways to create your own Skill:
Code your own Alexa Skill
Tech-savvy users can create a Skill using coding, but that’s recommended for intermediate-level coders.
Use the Alexa Skills Kit
For less-techie builders, Amazon offers the user-friendly Alexa Skills Kit which includes APIs and other tools that you can use to create voice-based experiences in more than 20 categories, and integrate interactive models that combine voice with visuals and touch.
Hire an agency to build an Alexa Skill
If this is still too technical for you, you can hire an experienced agency, who can assist from the planning phase through development.
How to Integrate Voice Commerce with Adobe Commerce Stores
“There’s no future that doesn’t have ambient computing or voice activation”
— Mark Cuban
Voice commerce and Alexa Skills integration work well with any eCommerce platform that has an API, like Adobe Commerce, for instance
Once the Skill is created, whether you do it yourself or enlist and agency’s help, the rest is up to the customer.
They’ll just need to download the Alexa app on mobile, connect to voice, browse Skills, find the merchant, and click install.
For promotional purposes, merchants can also hyperlink directly to the Skills page.
By now you should have the understanding of how voice commerce is going to be a key player in omnichannel sales.
Do you already incorporate this service? How is it working for you? Leave a comment to let us know!
Gentian, CSO and co-founder of Shero Commerce, guides the company and client digital strategies. He's an expert in technical SEO, Inbound Marketing, and eCommerce strategy.
