Future of E-Commerce is Voice Apps

Gone are the days when one had to stand in long queues to make purchases, the internet boom took the world by storm and e-commerce became the new favourite way of people for shopping, and with the advancement in technology, the entire digital world is shrinking to the mobile phones, and with advent of iphones and its kinds, people can conveniently give voice commands and get things done easily.

If we talk about chatbots and digital voice applications like Siri, Alexa and Google Now, these would be soon playing a major role in a new shift towards conversations based eCommerce. Within a short span of time, people would discover the immense convenience, speed and ease of voice-based commerce. Given the consumer’s rising comfort level with virtual assistants and chatbots, widespread adoption of voice commerce is inevitable and for online stores who need a head start, this a great opportunity to bank upon.

Current Scenario Of Voice APPs

According to a research, more than half of iPhone users use ‘Siri’ and almost a third of Android users use ‘OK Google’. This number is high mainly in the age group of 18-24 with over 48% of people using voice recognition applications. This is an increasing large number we are looking at. These days voice recognition is being used at home, on the move and across devices. Voice search for the home has also likely hit its ‘Cambrian’ moment in 2017, with CES awash with Alexa-connected devices.

Also in the release phase is the Alexa Voice Services in UK, which allows any device to get connected to its system that includes in-car infosystems. Google is teaming up with car manufacturers to ensure that Google Assist does not lag behind. With more and more people using navigations in private cars and an increasing number of population owning private cars, this makes a huge number to reach for voice enabled search systems.

In a jist, the voice search provides for a huge potential market that enables you to reach your customer, prospects, at home, at work and practically anywhere. Also, the juxtaposition of the voice based search makes for the fact of fulfillment of the customer’s needs immediately and while in the moment.

Shopping Using Voice Search

Shopping becomes easy and convenient using voice search. This is time saving, energy saving and much more simpler. Here are a few way in which you can expect your customer to use voice search while shopping online.

1. Shopping Lists : Consumers can put together shopping lists and classify them based on priority. They can even add items using voice and even delete them. They can also purchase the entire list in one go or individual items.
2. Ordering : The items can be ordered and purchased using voice command. The customer can specify the item and then give the order over voice.
3. Track Orders : Apps like Google Home allows a customer to track their orders using voice. This happens via the shipping company.

Optimise Your Online Store For Voice Search

In order to use voice search for your benefits, below are some tips to optimise your eCommerce store in tune with voice commerce.

1. On-Site Search : Generally this function is used when prospects struggle to find a particular product, brand or a service. Your data tool needs to capture this information provided and this would enable you to create content, add new services to the site or modify your store as per customers’ demands to give them a better eCommerce experience. By using the data from this type of information, you can ensure that your website appears effectively to voice commands.

2. User Demographics : The core aspect of voice search for online stores is giving your customers what they want and providing them a closely matched result. If your target demographic, is a specific country based millennials with an tilt towards technology and good education, then the content on your website to cater to their needs and respond to their voice commands. From imagery and video to audio and text, the effective pitching of content will make the difference between people discovering your site through voice commands and buying, or going somewhere else.

3. Delivery Speed : People use voice commands because they want everything to be fast. You must be able to cater to this need for speed. The customers are always in a hurry & need immediate delivery. Now, with the increase in mobile based orders, the speed of content delivery is directly proportional to the eCommerce success. The quicker your site responds to search needs, the greater the value derived from them.

4. Mobile Friendly : This is the most important aspect of any eCommerce site’s success in 2018. Everybody wants everything on their mobile. And moreover, voice searches are used almost always on mobiles. So, you need to create a friendly mobile eCommerce experience for your customer. This includes the size of the product catalogs, content placement and size, prioritization, size of the buttons and much more. When someone lands on your website after completing voice search commands, they expect easy access to the information they were looking for, and a responsive experience to complete the end result ASAP.

Of Course voice search is going to increase in the coming time. And in order to maintain a successful eCommerce website, the retailers would have to cater to these needs of the customer. LIke mobile search before this, voice search will soon become a norm too. This would be fueled by the ever increasing demands for instant access to information and hassle free, fast shopping experience.

Guest article written by: Shivi Rao. A Delhi based girl with a creative and artistic mind and one international publication in the field of nuclear energy, started off with a passion of writing blogs. She hit it off completely with the world of eCommerce and a knack for writing helped her on the way. She is currently working as a content writer in Infibeam and BuildaBazaar.