Commentary
Consumers Tapping Voice Assistants To Buy More Things
- by Chuck Martin , Staff Writer, May 1, 2018
While voice is becoming a widely used computer interface, it has yet to make the leap to participating in the more significant activities of consumers.
For example, about a third (32%) of consumers use voice assistants daily to search for something they normally would use a search engine for, but only half (16%) use voice assistants to control other smart devices, according to a PwC study.
While 29% use voice daily to ask a quick question, only 10% use it to buy or order something, according to the study, which comprises a nationally representative survey of 1,000 U.S. adults conducted by PwC.
However, consumers are starting to tap into their voice assistants to buy things. Overall, half (50%) of consumers have made at least one purchase using their voice assistant, and an additional 25% would consider doing so in the future.
However, most of the items they would buy via voice assistants are small and quick.
While about a third of consumers have used a voice assistant for food, items that cost more are not yet as attractive. Here’s what online consumers have purchased using a voice assistant, according to PwC:
- 34% -- Food (takeout, a meal)
- 31% -- Groceries
- 24% -- A book
- 22% -- Home care items, electronics
- 21% -- Transportation
- 16% -- Reservation, dinner plans
- 3% -- Clothing
More than a quarter (27%) of consumers already have spoken to or issued commands to a smart speaker, so it’s not as if they are a secret, and it will only become more widespread.
The smart speaker is turning out to be one of the most significant of smart-home devices. Already, 26% of U.S. broadband households own at least one smart home device and household penetration of smart speakers alone will reach 50% by 2021, according to Parks Associates. That’s a lot of smart speakers.
On average, 80% of consumers who have shopped using their voice assistant are satisfied and 24% spent more money with the retailer, according to the PwC study.
With voice shopping expected to be in the tens of billions of dollars, voice commerce is the freight train around the corner. Amazon Echo and Google Home are just getting warmed up.
Chuck Martin is Editor of the AI & IoT Daily at MediaPost and writes the daily Connected Thinking column. He is a NY Times Business bestselling author and his latest book is “Digital Transformation 3.0” (The New Business-to-Consumer Connections of The Internet of Things.) He is CEO of Net Future Institute and a frequent keynote speaker internationally. Follow him on Twitter @chuckmartin and contact him at Chuck@MediaPost.com.
According to Dave Ramsey, (successful) financial advisor and prometer of being debt free,
states how foolish it is to use a credit card to buy dinner. Why? because you have no connection to the amount spent to the value of the purchase. Buying a soda at a 7-11 and using a debit/credit card, "feels" the same way if you use it to charge a $150 dinner for 2.
By paying cash, it's spent and gone. And when you shell out a benny and a half for one meal, it hits home that the value is not there. I say all that to make thus comment.
Imagine the disconnect in the values of product and money, when all you have to do is "speak" out your desires for what you want?? The advertisers are drooling to make this happen. The millennials who who WILL be the ones who swallow this the hardest, will be clueless on how much money they have , or how much they can spend.
I see this as in no way................PROGRESS.