Voice-activated devices are invading everyday life of consumers. The market for virtual digital assistants/smart speakers is growing much faster than expected and as a result voice-activated shopping presents new opportunities for retailers and brands, says leading data and analytics company GlobalData.
According to a new report ‘ForeSights: Voice-Activated Shopping’, voice-activated shopping, which is multi-tasking friendly, can make the shopping process faster and easier than conventional online shopping.
The report by data and analytics company GlobalData reveals that the market for virtual digital assistants/smart speakers is growing much faster than expected and, as a result, voice-activated shopping presents new opportunities for retailers and brands
Voice-activated shopping is powered by virtual personal assistant devices or smart speakers with voice-recognition software, like the Google Home Device. Apple’s iPhone popularized the virtual intelligent personal assistant concept with its Siri app in October 2011. Amazon took that concept and extended it with its Echo device in 2014.
Tom Vierhile, Innovation Insights Director at GlobalData, saID: “Mobile commerce is growing rapidly and currently accounts for roughly one-third of total e-commerce sales in markets like the US. However, several issues including small screen size, slow data connection, and lack of security are stopping consumers from doing more online shopping on smartphones. Voice-activated shopping may be able to avoid some of these issues.”
Compared to most of the retail world, supermarket shopping has been remarkably resistant to the online shopping revolution. According to GlobalData’s Q3 2016 consumer survey, just 2% of consumers say they do most of their food shopping online. Voice-activated shopping may be able to chip away at the dominance of brick-and-mortar grocery stores and shift these numbers to online.
