It’s taken a few years, but virtual assistants have made their way into most people’s lives in one form or another. From the early days of Cortana to Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri, these apps have become smart enough to actually help us get more done. And as this study by Coupon Follow shows, they’ve also become effective e-commerce channels. (See the full infographic below.)
The study queried over 1,000 respondents on whether they shopped using a virtual assistant, how often, why, and for what. A surprising 35.1% said they interact with their digital partners on a daily basis—and of that number, 39.1% said they were very likely to shop with them, too.
What’s fueling this trend is the surging popularity of smart speakers. Market research firm Statista forecasts that smart speaker revenue will grow to $152.5 million in 2021, up from $134.5 million in 2020. Statista further predicts worldwide revenue for these devices to hit or exceed $35.5 billion by 2025. And Juniper Research predicts the use of smart speakers to triple by 2023, up to more than 8 billion. That growth, it says, will be driven by smart home devices.
If you’re thinking the chief blocker to this activity would be an awkward shopping experience, you’d be wrong. Coupon Follow’s research showed that the primary worries of those who didn’t yet use a virtual assistant were data safety and a creepiness factor caused by their data being tracked. Regular users primarily complained that their AI friends weren’t learning their routines quickly enough or had too much trouble understanding their speech.
The shopping experience was never mentioned as a downside, probably because it’s designed to be frictionless by mimicking the service you’d get in a brick-and-mortar shop. Assistants not only show vendors’ wares but also answer questions about pricing and features. You can even ask follow-up questions and get the same personalized purchasing suggestions you’d get from a website. That’s borne out by Coupon Follow’s survey respondents, 61% of whom said they were happy with their voice-powered shopping experience.
For e-commerce vendors, this represents a whole new way to reach customers across a widening variety of products. Coupon Follow’s survey indicated that currently, the most common voice shopping category is groceries, with 34.1% of respondents saying that was what they shopped for most often. After that comes electronics (28%), personal health and beauty (27%), then clothing (24.8%). Less popular but growing categories are household essentials, pet supplies, gifts, and even furniture.
You’d think Amazon’s e-tail muscle and its Alexa market share would make the site an excellent starting point. And you’ll likely be right in the future. But right now, Coupon Follow says that while the Amazon Echo is the most popular device purchased by its respondents, its owners are least likely to shop with one—and that’s only slightly trailed by Google Home and Nest customers. The assistant topping the would-you-shop chart was the Apple HomePod, so even though shopping on Alexa will undoubtedly increase over time, especially during events such as Amazon Prime Day, your best bet short-term is Apple.
If you’re an e-commerce vendor looking to capitalize on this trend, your first step is to make your products available on the big-four shopping engines: Apple, Amazon. Google, and Microsoft. Once that’s done, talk to your web developer to make sure your site is both voice-searchable and mobile-friendly, since it’s this combination that will likely dominate the voice-shopping experience in the short term. Long-term trends will definitely add virtual and augmented reality as well.
