How Voice Search is Transforming the Retail Industry
The retail industry has undergone a massive transformation in the last two decades. With the advent of ecommerce technology, consumers learned how to shop at virtual platforms with no boundary constraints.
The introduction of AI-powered voice search has smoothened customers’ shopping journey as the search process now got a new makeover. As per Statista report, more than 20 million US consumers purchased retail products and groceries using voice search tools between the years 2018 and 2020.
Searching for products online and using voice as an input is voice search in a nutshell. OK Google and Alexa are a couple of the most popular voice search platforms, virtual assistants widely adopted by retailers and consumers worldwide.
Powered with AI-ML digital technologies, these voice search assistants work on compatible physical devices called smart speakers, for example, Amazon’s Echo, Echo Plus, Echo Dot are a few smart speakers that act as a platform for Alexa to run. In this blog, we will discuss how AI-Ml-powered voice search is transforming the retail industry.
What is Voice Search
Voice Search is the AI-enabled technology that gives users the provision of verbal commands as input instead of text commands. The voice input is adequately processed and analyzed by advanced digital software leading to the required output. Voice Search is the key driver behind voice commerce technology that is transforming the retail industry globally.
Take, for instance, Apple’s “Hey Siri” or Google’s “OK Google”. These are the classic examples of voice search technology that leverage the powerful AI-ML-NLP technology providing a seamless customer experience.
Even as a B2B, B2C, C2C, ecommerce business, you can adopt a voice commerce platform wherein voice recognition technology (voice search technology) can help you connect with your users, customers, generating sales ultimately. Voice search works on smart speakers, smart home devices, mobile devices, desktops, and so on.
How Impacting
Voice search is transforming the retail industry on a greater note. The impacts are impressive and heavier than other search technologies in the retail space. Ecommerce companies are increasingly adopting voice-controlled virtual assistants in their digital strategies. Voice search-based voice-commerce technology has created a significant impact on the ecommerce sector.
How often do you use voice commands to search your products online, and then place your orders? How often do you use Alexa or Google Assistant? If you are a retail business, ecommerce store owner or enterprise, you can ask Alexa or Siri, and the like, to provide you with comparative results of your competitors, and they will do this so effortlessly and accurately.
They will return accurate results, on your screen. If you are a consumer or customer, voice-controlled virtual assistants (Conversational AI) are not just meant for your shopping activity. It can do much more than those activities.
They can search for your queries, can extract specific information, can bring to you your favorite music, names of favorite food you want to order, and related restaurants, aggregators from where you can order them, and so many things.
AI-Ml enabled commerce technology helps you with recommendations for your search process. Voice search-based virtual assistants can check your search history, previous records, order history, and based on these searches, they can give you recommendations for the best suitable products in the category you are looking for.
In this manner, voice commerce, equipped with the AI-enabled voice search assistants, is helping the ecommerce industry, the whole retail industry immensely.
Voice Search Benefits
The voice search (voice commerce) technology is hugely impacting the retail landscape and ecommerce stores, leading to improved customer experience and online shopping behavior of consumers around the world.
In the following paragraphs, you can see how voice search is proving beneficial across the retail industry with massive digital capabilities. Artificial Intelligence(AI), Machine Learning (ML), NLP, etc. are increasingly making inroads to consumers’ and retailers’ lives via voice-search technology.
Enhancing Customer Experience
Voice Search technology is enhancing the way your customers/online consumers interact with your retail business. Online retail, ecommerce and in-store retail business are all leveraging the massive AI-led voice search technology via voice search platforms.
It is allowing a seamless experience for your valuable customers. Indeed, the retail business landscape is transforming and voice search technology is only empowering it. For instance, a famous retail brand called H&M uses AIML-enabled virtual stylists (virtual assistant) who help customers with choosing products via recommendations.
The voice search technique applies here. This is how voice search is transforming the retail journey of H&M as the company is enhancing customers’ satisfaction levels.
Connecting with your Brand
Your customers buy from your retail store, then they start developing a unique connection with your brand via products they purchase. They get connected with your brand/company automatically. Using your products, they start to develop a sense of belonging for that very product as it forms a part of their life.
This valuable customer journey is greatly influenced by AI-ML-powered voice-search virtual assistants, by helping their capability to search, to buy, and connect ultimately with your brand.
Improving Results on Search Engine
Consumer demands are changing rapidly. Consumer behavior is changing its shift towards being unpredictable and impulsive. Voice search enabled voice commerce technology allows powerful keyword research and helps in search optimization that helps online businesses, ecommerce businesses to adjust accordingly.
When you are giving voice search commands on Google, the results that flash out bear certain correlations with Google’s featured snippets. So, businesses are capitalizing on this aspect of voice technology, optimizing content that can show in the organic search results.
Conclusion
AI-ML-NLP algorithms understand what users want by hearing what they command. Digitally-enabled voice search technology is increasingly providing customers a seamless experience. It finely integrates with customers’ shopping journey and leads them to an enhanced level of experience that helps companies to achieve business goals.