Commentary

4 ways brands can gain advantage via voice commerce

Tabatha Patterson, strategy and insights analyst, VML, explains why virtual assistants are proving increasingly helpful for shoppers and that by optimizing the technology for voice commerce brands can capture a growing segment of the retail landscape.

Photo by iStock.com

October 10, 2018

By Tabatha Patterson, strategy and insights analyst, VML

“Alexa, will most homes have a smart speaker by 2020?”

“Hey Google, are more consumers using voice-automated devices to shop?”

No matter who responds, the answer to these questions would be "yes." Seventy-five percent of U.S. homes will have at least one smart speaker by the end of 2020, and while voice commerce currently accounts for 3 percent of consumer shopping budgets, that total is projected to increase to 18 percent in just three years.

The rapid adoption rate reflects the ease with which consumers have taken to devices like Amazon Alexa or Google Home. Along with being a capable calendar keeper and an informative authority on a wide range of topics, virtual assistants are proving to be increasingly helpful for shoppers. By optimizing for voice commerce, brands can capture a growing segment of the retail landscape and position themselves for long-term success as more and more smart consumers turn their attention to smart devices.

4 Things to Do Today for Voice-Assisted Sales Tomorrow

To capitalize on this opportunity, retailers should focus on making their voice offering as user-friendly as possible. From creating customizable, deal-driven interactions to putting more emphasis on proactive behaviors, here are four strategies to create a better consumer experience for your voice shoppers:

1. Build out a simple system for reorders

Retailers are already teaming up with virtual assistants to make reordering easy. Google Home can scan a user's Walmart purchase history to ask proactive questions that prompt users to reorder. Starbucks has an Alexa skill that helps users order their "usual" from one of the past 10 stores in their order history.

Amazon and Google, as the dominant forces in the voice landscape, naturally give a boost to products they have relationships with, so brands should do everything they can to build those — easy reordering platforms are a great place to start. And with rumors swirling about a new paid placement feature for brands looking to reach voice shoppers through Alexa, it might be worth it to consider a bigger ad spend for voice commerce in future marketing budgets.

2. Make comparison shopping and in-the-moment deals simple

It's becoming commonplace for shoppers to ask their voice assistants to compare prices on electronics (56 percent), clothing (46 percent), and shoes (42 percent). Google and Alexa can respond instantaneously, pulling information from the vast shopping data at their respective digital fingertips. Users are looking for even more — 44 percent say they want artificial intelligence to help them find the cheapest product options.

Serving up instant deals to voice shoppers, rather than sending a coupon via email or text, is a natural way to capture comparison shoppers. In April, Google and Target teamed up to offer the first voice-activated coupon. It's a fairly new concept, but the ability to offer deals during the voice experience will further engage consumers and drive immediate conversion.

3. Stay focused on cutting-edge customer service capabilities

Real-time customer service has become a fundamental part of online shopping; integrating answers to FAQs into a brand's voice shopping experience can mimic that quality for shoppers using smart assistants. With natural language processing and artificial intelligence capabilities, voice assistants can provide smart, helpful answers and even ask follow-up questions to clarify a customer's request.

Offering instructional support works well in this medium, especially for consumer-packaged goods. Developing a dedicated Alexa skill or Google action enables brands to help customers meet a recurrent need for their products. For example, Tide's Alexa skill offers step-by-step voice instruction on how to remove more than 200 different types of stains — all the instructions, naturally, feature various Tide products.

4. Deliver an experience that's visible and personal

The biggest hurdle for voice commerce is compensating for the lack of the visual shopping experience that consumers are used to. Someone might be comfortable reordering a known product without seeing or touching it, but what about consumers who are looking for a new product?

This is where the integration between voice and mobile becomes vital. Building in the ability to send expanded information and images to the user's phone is critical for driving purchase decisions. Moving forward, devices like Echo Show and Google's Smart Displays will also ease visibility issues as their popularity increases.

The adoption of voice shopping is underway, and it will only bring in more new users as the technology becomes more sophisticated. Amazon is already building out Alexa's emotional capabilities to create a more personalized approach. Google Duplex, while not yet available, will take voice automation to new levels with its uncanny resemblance to human vocal behaviors. With 40 percent of consumers expected to shop using voice by 2021, savvy retail brands should be sorting out their voice strategies so they're ready to greet customers and take full advantage of this disruptive mode of shopping.