What is Voice Commerce?

Voice commerce is an umbrella term utilized to refer to a number of innovative new voice-based technologies. These technologies all allow consumers to use voice commands in order to perform commerce-based tasks they'd normally rely on a computer and keyboard (or a mobile phone) for. Some of these tasks may include:

• Making traditional online retail purchases

• Ordering food or rideshare service via voice

• Researching purchase options

How Does Voice Commerce Work in the Real World?

While it sounds a little foreign, the concept of using voice commerce throughout the course of our day-to-day lives is much more common than you might suspect. One company, Capgemini, conducted a study concerning voice commerce use featuring over 5,000 respondents from a number of countries. The results?

• 51% of respondents utilized voice assistants like Amazon's Alexa and Apple's Siri

• 34% of respondents have utilized voice commerce technology to order meals

• 35% of respondents have purchased other products by way of voice commerce technology

How Does Voice Improve the Customer Experience?

Happier, more satisfied customers spend more money. That means that any opportunity a business has to improve the customer service experience for consumers has the potential to make an enormous impact on their brand's bottom line.

Voice commerce is one straightforward, innovative piece of that puzzle. Companies who leap to create their own special mobile apps and voice assistants with customized features and abilities are able to separate themselves from the crowd and stand out amongst competitors. This means a frenzy to achieve change for brands and an improved shopping experience for customers.

Targeted Advertising is becoming easier 

Anybody who knows anything about marketing is aware that targeted content and advertisements are a lucrative investment regardless of what you're selling. As voice commerce technology becomes more advanced, voice assistants are able to field a growing variety of questions and concerns-- and that means they'll have more customer feedback and input to base advertising decisions on.

Within three years, it's anticipated that as many as 40% of consumers will be relying on voice assistants to complete tasks they otherwise would have on apps or websites. That translates to a wealth of learning opportunities for the Al software that's powering voice commerce capabilities.

Making purchases is simpler than ever before 

Perhaps one of the most impactful features of voice commerce technology lies in the fact that it makes buying things easier. Consumers are much more likely to make last-minute or impulse purchases if they don't even need to lift a finger to do it.

Consider a single mother who just arrived home from work. She's likely on the couch for a moment, exhausted, with a toddler running circles around her and no idea what to do for dinner. You can hardly blame her for avoiding a run to the store to grab food; but thanks to voice commerce technology, she can order grocery delivery through a service like Amazon Prime Now and add additional items to her cart she never would've purchased otherwise.

The value to be found here becomes clear immediately. Thanks to voice commerce, consumers don't even need to leave their home or head to the computer to make purchases. That translates to larger purchases with greater frequency, which means big bucks for eCommerce retailers.