Amazon Alexa, Google Home and Apple Homepod is changing the retail industry and the way we will market to customers
We’re all familiar with the inanimate device that sits on the counter whether it be in the kitchen, room, living room, or all the above with one in each room. It answers questions throughout your morning routine or in the evening when you get home and go out for dinner to order an uber, groceries from Amazon Fresh or Google Home from Walmart. Even plays your favorite tunes directly from your personal playlist. The device is fairly integrated in our lives, and we don’t even notice it because it really is just an extension to our mobile devices that we carry in our pockets or tethered to our hands around-the-clock answering emails, calls, and texts.
Today, we’re in a time of immediacy, on-demand, or even instant. Well it reinforces we can get anything through our figure tips by pressing a few buttons. This puts an additional component on just how competitive it is to be in retail today. For instance, browsing the internet, when all of a sudden you remember you need Easter decorations or a birthday gift for a family member. In that moment, voice assistant devices are readily available and able to suggest, recommend and even order the requested item. So with voice assistant devices, how does that affect brands and other companies in the retail and ecommerce space?
Each device syncs up to its partnering retail store integrated into the voice assistant device. Amazon Alexa is paired up with Amazon Prime. Google home to Walmart, and Apple’s Homepod is just a matter of time before it brings on a major big box retailer to integrate its ecommerce platform to the major tech giant.
How AI changes the way we shop in 2018
AI is at the forefront of how we shop, collecting data on what we buy, suggesting items we need or may not have thought of. The power of data is more prominent than ever before, connecting and controlling our homes to the way we shop. According to an article published by Adweek, it provides a further study on voice controlled devices using AI connect brands to customers. Amazon and Google have successfully sold 27 million devices that are inside our homes. The one underlying question is how will brands and generic brands succeed using AI and voice activated assistants? Right now, the most inexpensive products are most recommended but it is monopolized by the company it is integrated to. Minus if we refer to a specific brand or company to make a purchase. So without the ability to intercept the most recommended brands, where does that leave you — who sells a new product?
According to Footwearnews, “Today, around a quarter [24 percent] say they would use a voice assistant rather than a website. Three years from now, that rises to 40 percent,” the report said. “And close to a third [31 percent] would prefer to use a voice assistant instead of visiting a shop or a bank branch in the future, compared to 20 percent today.”
So, how will the expansion of the AI channel effect marketing initiatives? And, where do you see voice assistant devices partaking in your future, if not in the next few months?
An element of personalization in the way we shop
The more data collected on what items we buy this could help to increase the simplicity to what we need, an algorithm to learn about what we buy but only after the point of sale and learned through time. Think about Pandora and Spotify, the more we press thumbs up or thumbs down or skip a song, you’re prompted with why you want to skip a song and it learns to play less of what you don’t like. AI gradually learns about the way you feel towards something, like a song or artist. Just like shopping on Amazon Prime, Walmart, or any integrated major brand or company. We still have a long way to go, in order to fully immerse ourselves to seamlessly use voice activated assistant devices.
The best method in the meantime to beat out competition is to connect to as many channels as possible to capture your audience where they are already buying, collect data on current and prospective customers for marketing purposes, and increase the exposure of your brand and products to get more reviews.
Find out what Sellbery is doing to help its customers push forward utilizing a connected, streamlined, and automated approach here. Sellbery is offering a free 30-day trial for a limited time with support. Contact support@sellbery.com for any additional questions you may have about its services and features to benefit your company or brand.
