Two years ago, We bought an Amazon Echo Dot. We were awestruck by its ability to hear us across the room.
“Hey Alexa, what’s the weather like outside?”
“Alexa, play Eagles Hotel California”
“Alexa, remind me to call Mahesh after 15 minutes.”
We don’t even have to touch it. Voice-activated technology is here, and it’s influencing every facet of our lives. It’s a very interesting product and we wanted to dig deeper and analyze its value and explore how it could transform our daily lives.
The Amazon Echo Dot is the first consumer electronics product since the smartphone that’s poised to become a daily habit for millions.
From Shelves to Online to Voice
Life is getting more convenient while reducing the time we need to spend on screens. Ever thought about how much time we spend online browsing through the product list, fiddling with the product filters to populate our shopping carts?
We have come a long way from pushing carts in supermarkets to filling online shopping carts in websites with a bunch of clicks. And now Amazon asks you to place orders via the Echo Dot. These Voice Assistants like Amazon Echo Dot, Google Home, … is a new consumer channel.
Merely 2% of consumers who own the 50 million Alexa-enabled devices have used the voice option to make a purchase so far this year, The Information reported. Voice commerce sales last year totaled $2.1 billion, according to eMarketer, which is going to reach $40 billion in just a few years.
Voice assistants are primarily used as an informational tool. To benefit from the growing usage of voice technology in general, retailers need smart speakers and the technology that powers them to be future ready.
You can develop a voice assistant skill for Amazon Echo Dot or an action for Google Home to let your users place orders via voice, browse through their past orders or give a status of customer’s ongoing orders. You can also give the users a rundown of the day’s best deals over Alexa. Or, let users pay via their wearables while they are easing in their couch after a hectic day.
The Problem
Conversational commerce is still in its infancy across all industries. The first drawback is product visualisation and filtering. But food retailers do have an advantage. Unlike other verticals like clothing stores where all products need to be seen before purchasing, much of grocery shopping is replenishment of items like cereal, vegetables, lentils, batteries, spices or paper towels, which doesn’t need a visual affirmation. Secondly, with voice shopping, consumers don’t always know about the ongoing offers and a lot of times it’s the promotional offers that drive them to buy a specific brand.
What Do We suggest?
In order to communicate discounts and offers to shoppers, there needs to be a two-way conversation between the consumer and the retailer using voice technology without the cloud disrupting the process. Be it a restaurant or a grocery store, users also need to be able to filter through the product specifications or menu customisation options in order to place an order.
Ready to get in on the ground floor of e-commerce ordering functionality in Alexa skills or Google Home Actions? The smallest of user experience details matter, and retailers and restaurant managers need to utilize this consumer channel effectively. To know more, Reach us!
