This document discusses the growing trend of voice commerce and how merchants can leverage voice assistants. It notes that voice searches are faster and more natural than typing. People use voice assistants for multi-tasking and to avoid manual searching. The document outlines strategies for merchants to reach customers through voice platforms, including testing product queries, creating skills/actions, and suggesting relevant options. It provides statistics on voice shopping projections and issues with assistants understanding queries. Finally, it discusses developing a voice strategy, user experience, and publishing on Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and Samsung Bixby.

1. VOICE
COMMERCE
Giuseppe Vullo
@fuzzytake

2. WHY VOICE

3. WHY PEOPLE
LIKE VOICE
ASSISTANTS?
3.7x faster than typing
70% of searches use natural
conversational language rather
than keywords
44% control connected
home appliances
Multi-tasking (e.g., while driving,
dish washing, gym workout)
Frictionless (e.g., pull out your
phone, unlock it...)

4. WHY PEOPLE
BUY WITH
VOICE ?
No manual searching or filtering
(e.g., “a pair of black men’s
Adidas’ trainers under $90 in a
size 10”)
Get exclusive deals, promotions
Automate reorders
Track orders
Update shopping list

5. WHY
MERCHANTS
SELL WITH
VOICE?
Reach more clients (i.e., millions
of active users across millions
of devices)
Lock-in loyal clients (e.g.,
automated repurchase)
Collect user voice data &
increase ROI campaigns
Be found via voice platforms &
the Web
Don't let Wikipedia represent
their brand

6. VOICE TRENDS

7. VOICE
TRENDS 2020
“Voice-based shopping is expected to
jump to $40 billion.”
– Prnewswire.com
“22% of smart speaker owners have
already tried voice commerce.”
– Voicebot.ai
“21.6 million people will have made a
purchase using their smart speaker.”
– eMarketer
“50% of all searches will be voice
searches.”
– Comscore

8. 54.3%
45.7%
VOICE
SEARCH ISSUES
Book publishers lose
$46,000 per day due
to nonfunctional
voice queries
“"I want to read [the title of the book, with author]"
“I want to listen to [the title of the book, with author]”
“I want to order [the title of the book, with author]”
e.g., “I want to read Becoming, by Michelle Obama”
3.5M daily book-related queries
Source: Voicebot.AI, Publishers Weekly, 2019
Queries failed
to be understood by VAs
----------
Purchase attempts
70,000 per day
Understood
queries

9. VOICE
PLATFORMS

10. Audit the voice-first compliance of your product catalog (e.g., testing queries)
Get control of the responses provided to specific queries by creating an Alexa skill
Google Assistant action or Samsung Bixby capsule and ensure quality control
yourself.
WHAT TO DO WHEN VOICE
ASSISTANTS PROVIDE WRONG OR
INCOMPLETE INFORMATION ABOUT
YOUR PRODUCTS?
WHAT TO DO?

11. TAP INTO MILLIONS OF ACTIVE
USERS ACROSS DEVICES
Amazon
Alexa
Google
Assistant
Samsung
Bixby*
* Bixby Capsule's Marketplace is open in U.S. and Korea only

12. Amazon Alexa
Get intelligent with
Skills
Available across 100M
built in & enabled
devices including
iPhone and Android
Content search run on
Bing
Find the best-suited products (product brokering)
Nameless invocation setup can help visibility
“[Wake Word], [Intent] [Skill invocation name].”
“Alexa, launch Voicebot Says.”
INVOCATION
VOICE COMMERCE SEARCH & SEO

13. Amazon Alexa: search goals
Broad match: Alexa makes recommendations to first-time buyers
U: “Alexa, find me some batteries”
A: “Do you want to order this?”
Automated match: Alexa makes recommendations based on order history
U: “Alexa, find me some batteries”
A: “Based on your order history, I found one matching item [product information]. Shall I order it?”
Exact match: Alexa matches the brand mentioned
U: “Alexa, find me some Duracell batteries”
A: “Here's what I found”

14. Google Assistant
Available across
500M+ built in &
enabled devices
Get intelligent with
Actions
Content search run on
Google Search
Suggest a selection of merchants (retailer-neutral)
Implicit invocation setup can help visibility
“[Wake Word], [Intent] [Action invocation name].”
“Hey Google, talk to 1-800-Flowers”
INVOCATION
VOICE COMMERCE SEARCH & SEO

15. Bixby
Content search run on
Google Search
Available across 160M
Samsung devices
Get intelligent with
Capsules
Suggest a selection of Capsules
“[Wake Word], [Intent]”
“Hi Bixby, I want to send flowers to my wife”
INVOCATION
VOICE COMMERCE SEARCH

16. VOICE-POWERED APPS

17. 1
Voice Strategy
2
Voice UX
3
Contents & Code
Development
4
Checkout
5
Skill / Action
Publishing
Analytics
Target audience
Multi-assistant
Invocation
SEO
Key touch points mapping
Use cases definition
Persona definition
Tone of voice
In-app product
search & selection
Dialogues
Native purchase
Payment
Account linking
Log analysis
KPIs monitoring
Content refresh

18. Thank you!
References:
https://voicebot.ai/2019/04/05/alexa-can-now-invoke-skills-without-a-launch-request-some-google-actions-can-do-this-too/
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/339473012_The_Evolution_of_Marketing_in_the_Context_of_Voice_Commerce_A_Managerial_Perspective
https://whatsnewinpublishing.com/publishers-of-all-kinds-can-learn-from-the-mistake-of-ignoring-voice-technology/