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How are connected consumers using voice?

It’s a lot more complicated than you might think, touching every step in the shopping journey.

Welcome to part three of a five-part series of posts where we’re going to dive into the art of doing business in a connected world. We’ll be sharing customer insights on voice and connected commerce, based on a 25-minute double blind online survey that Amazon Pay conducted in April 2019, among 10,297 consumers in the US, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and India. To download an ebook that shares all of our findings, click here.

Because of the intuitive, fast interactions that cloud-based voice services offer, connected consumers are using, or planning to use, voice for a wide swathe of activities. Consumer interest in voice commerce is not limited to the point of purchase. In fact, they express interest in using voice services across all phases of the shopping journey.

The top two activities are product searches (research phase) and delivery notifications (post-purchase phase). Comparing prices, making a shopping list, contacting customer support, and adding items to the shopping cart comprise the next tier and are closely bunched together. Arranging product returns and offering product feedback round out the list.

While product searches and delivery notifications top the list, the likely adoption of voice in other phases of the journey proves that consumers are already thinking broadly about voice shopping. Businesses can begin developing a voice skill around the most common use-cases in the shopping journey; however, they will eventually need to build one for all phases.

More than a new way to shop

One in three consumers willing to purchase products using voice services implies that they expect this channel to evolve to a point where they trust it enough to pursue a transaction. This trust extends to the use of voice services for other financial activities such paying bills (26%), banking (26%), sending and receiving money from individuals (22%), and donating to charities (19%).

The propensity to use voice for these activities almost doubles among those who own smart speakers today with 48%, 46%, 45%, and 39% indicating that they are likely to use voice services for paying bills, banking, sending and receiving money from individuals, and donating to charities respectively. All these activities include some exchange of money. This proves that voice’s reach goes beyond commerce into the realm of financial management. Businesses must realize that when they execute a voice skill, they are being compared to peers not just in their category but outside as well.

To access the full results of Amazon Pay’s survey and read more insights into the future of connected commerce, click here.