Party shopping with your Amazon Echo? You are a pioneer

One of the few times James Helisek used his Echo Dot to buy something, it was an accident.

He spoke to Alexa about dog treats, and the voice assistant added those treats to his Amazon basket. Not realizing what Alexa had done, he added even more treats to his Amazon shopping cart while shopping online, as well as a few pantry items, which led to the purchase of two big ones. boxes of snacks.

With the exception of any other sweets for stowaway, Helisek said that he was not interested in shopping via his smart speakers this Black Friday and beyond. He is more comfortable buying things on his laptop and his phone.

"I'm a bit of a habit," said 31 year old sign language interpreter from Philadelphia Public Schools.

Most customers share the point of view of Helisek, with only 25% of US smart home owners using these devices to buy products, according to Adobe. In comparison, 70% play music and 64% ask for weather forecasts.

But several researchers predict that a breakthrough will come for the voicemail service, despite its many shortcomings, such as difficulty in explaining complicated elements. They say that technology seems to follow the same path as mobile shopping, which started slowly and is now a major channel for the purchase of goods.

"What people had never wanted to buy on a mobile device, they buy it on a mobile device," said Taylor Schreiner, who heads Adobe's Digital Insights research division. "A [similar] decisive moment is likely to occur in voice purchases. "

If this happens, such a change would be a great justification for Amazon and Google, who have so far failed to make their voices heard, even with their enormous resources, years of development and partnerships. with retailers such as Best buy, Walmart and Target. If the voice becomes the next major business of retail, it would help Amazon to strengthen its leadership in online shopping and allow Google to become a stronger competitor of e-commerce. The situation can also weaken any retailer needing to ask these companies for permission to join the party.

As the market grows, tech giants less focused on the voice-buying service can be more and more involved, helping Apple's Siri, Microsoft's Cortana and Samsung's Bixby as well to take part in all these new expenses.

For customers, the voice purchase service could eventually offer a simpler and faster way to purchase, or even one day an artificial intelligence intelligent enough and useful to deal with a complex purchase. But we are not there yet and this future may never happen. It is always possible that the voice buying service remains a niche, with its limitations that maintain it.

Amazon said millions of people are already shopping at Alexa.

"Alexa Shopping allows busy customers and their families to save time, making shopping easier," said a spokeswoman for Amazon. "Alexa simplifies and speeds up the order of a favorite product, answers her questions, adds items to a shopping list or shopping cart, checks prices, shop in a store, arranges delivery of the Grocery at Whole Foods Market or Amazon Fresh, track package deliveries and more. "

Google has not responded to a request for comment for this story.

talkative

While few smart speaker owners have said ordering orders with the devices, but Adobe's Schreiner explained that if you dig a little further, there was enough to be optimistic about the service. 39, voice purchase. In all, half of the people Adobe interviewed He used his smart speakers for a "buying behavior", product research and research being the most popular activity, followed by the creation of shopping lists and price comparison .

This type of activity reflects the beginnings of mobile shopping, when most people were looking for or comparing prices on their phones, but few of them actually ended the purchase. Most people still use laptops and desktops to make their purchases, but Thanksgiving mobile purchases at Cyber ​​Monday – the busiest shopping season of the year – have gone from 22% online sales in the United States in 2014 to 36% last year, said Adobe.

Thanksgiving and Black Friday buying data this year show that this trend is continuing, with sales skyrocketing for mobile sales, but desktops remain the primary means of purchase, reported Adobe . Voice Shopping, on the other hand, has not contributed significantly to sales so far this holiday season.

As smart speakers proliferate, voice purchases should continue to increase, especially as these devices have inspired people to talk more about their phones and cars, Schreiner said. According to Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, 53 million smart speakers are currently in use in the United States, up from 27 million a year ago. Amazon Echo devices account for 70% of the total, while Google Home uses 25% and Apple's HomePod 5%.

Ben Arnold, an analyst at the Consumer Technology Association, agrees with Schreiner, saying the voice will become a fourth sales channel, alongside the brick-and-mortar, online and mobile.

"What we found in our research is that, yes, there is an interest in voice telephony service.Some people intend to shop with their voice during the holidays," Arnold said. "Which will determine the quality of promotions."

Mom's word

Voice purchases are still young, so there are many reasons why they can disappear.

A few weeks ago, I sat for an interview with Jonathan Scott, one of the identical twins who host the HGTV Property Brothers show. He spoke to me about their new housewares store onlinecalled Casaza, which will include new technologies such as augmented reality so that people can get an idea of ​​what a piece of furniture might look like at home.

He was much less interested in the voice buying service and did not intend to use it on the site.

"Try to ask for a turquoise chaise longue with mahogany feet, she can not find it, she does not know what you're saying," Scott said about voice assistants in general. "Check the weather, turn on and off the appliances, turn on the light, it's phenomenal." Buy expensive items? We found that most of our customers said no, they're not there yet. ;easy."

Scott addressed one of the many weaknesses of the voice buying system at the moment. Alexa and Google Assistant are not able to answer complex requests like this lounge chair. For clothing purchases that involve fit, color and material, these assistants stumble.

There are also problems when listening to the purchase results. When asked questions about shoes or toothpaste, Alexa and Google Assistant only talk about one item at a time, which is usually a slower process than just looking at your phone or your laptop.

In addition, it is more difficult to compare prices between websites, making it more difficult to get the best price or the same price as in your previous order. Alexa and Google Assistant have sometimes still not understood simple orders, which increases the risk of acquiring the wrong product.

The spokesman for Amazon however clarified that, if customers want to have more details before buying, Alexa will send them the information on their phone so that they can make their purchase at the company. 39; help from the Amazon app.

Some of these issues are also mitigated by smart screens, such as Amazon Echo Show and Google Home Hub, which combine smart speaker and tablet, and have appeared since last summer. Using touch screens of devices, users can see the lamp or pants that they wish to order, browse more options more easily and be less likely to accidentally buy the wrong one article.

Even with the challenges, traditional retailers are starting to dive into distance selling, most of them testing simpler tasks like shopping lists and not yet offering them. Purchase, which would require a lot more logistics and development, said IBM's executive Karl Haller, consulting with major retailers on the use of new technologies.

He added that grocery and consumable retailers were talking to him more, while fashion and wholesale retailers were less interested. He expects remote purchases to grow in the simpler retail sectors, such as orders again, and less in complex segments such as clothing.

"I can not imagine how painful it would be for Alexa to tell me about three different OLED TVs – it would take too much time," said Haller.

But, according to him, Alexa and Google Assistant may become a little smarter than an experienced salesperson and will have a conversation with customers to determine what they want to buy.

At that time, even someone like Helisek, the accidental voice client, said that he would be happy to use Alexa to shop.

"I'm a big nerd, and I'll be totally on board for something like this," he said. "I think it would be really cool to have that kind of conversation."

First published at 5 am November 21st.
Update, 17:55 PT: Added more details on Echo and Google Home market shares.
Updated November 23 at 9:20 am Pacific Time: Adds information about Thanksgiving sales and Black Friday.

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