Voice Commerce: eCommerce through voice commands

Recently we talked in this blog of the revolution that voice search means in the interaction between user and the Internet, and how the voice begins to reveal itself as a new and very powerful interface. 

This type of screenless searches also have their implications in eCommerce. So, ladies and gentlemen: Welcome to VoiceCommerce, eCommerce through voice commands. Today, we are going to tell you all about it. 

Voice Commerce is the transactional aspect of voice searches. Voice Commerce focuses on concentrating the search intentions that make a purchase implicit and that are really close to converting or implying a direct conversion. 

This entails a series of very important conditions that must be observed from the point of view of the user and business. 

When we talk about the reasons that drive voice search, we said that the user prefers to use the voice for convenience, to be compatible with other simultaneous activities and because it allowed him to make more complex queries. 

In the case of Voice Commerce these first two reasons come first. 

Let´s not deceive ourselves: purchasing using voice is very convenient. Maybe purchases that are not excessively sensible or require a long decision-making process, but it is great for those that are impulsive or recurring. 

It has a lot to do with circumstantial and context. Imagine you preparing some coffee in the morning and realize you are running out of milk, and instead of writing it down on a list you ask for it directly using a voice assistant. 

You will not perform a benchmark or value the pros and cons of 5 brands of milk: simply want to replace a product you already know and looking for an immediate solution. This is basically what Amazon does with its famous Dash buttons, but without limitations or linking to a single article. 

It also seems to be very much in line with the reality of the new consumer being able to do other activities at the same time, and here comes context again. 

So far, buying was linked to a device with screen that required all our attention. 

The evolution towards Voice Commerce leads us to a different reality that allows us to make purchases through voice without having to stop doing other activities. We no longer have to "go shopping" (if it is virtually), simply moving to purchase mode for a period of time. 

The best example we can think of is to do the shopping while driving on the way home. 

But, does selling through voice work? Well, in case you are wondering, we will say yes it does, users use the voice to buy. 

One of the biggest drivers of these technologies, and the main responsible for removing virtual assistants of mobile devices, is precisely Amazon with its intelligent Echo loudspeakers, which is estimated to have placed on the market 50 million units. 

As you can imagine, the most obvious interest of the company is to enhance the basis of its business, which is no other than eCommerce (no matter other added services included in its offer). And their movements in the last few months are very revealing. 

First, Dash buttons were launched, which without a doubt, were a preview to obtain patterns of consumption of households. 

Then, one of the most important supermarket chains in the United States was acquired (Whole Foods), which put the icing on its strategy for the sale of fresh products and convenience that was expanding to more and more countries. 

At the same time, it quickly landed in house automatization with connected speakers and the rest is history. 

Not only has Amazon seen the business opportunity in all this (we remind you that Google and Apple are competing for the voice market as well), but of course, it is the player that best illustrates the new reality of eCommerce. 

Obviously, a different interface with a completely new usability and different patterns to those we have been ruled by for so long require adjustment.

At eCommerce level, we are entering a different dimension. To begin with, we must reconsider the structure of our campaigns and even the architecture of our websites. 

Semantics has changed everything, and keyword research should be updated with the different ways of synthesizing search intentions. 

We have already said more than once that the keyword research is the cornerstone of the information architecture and of practically any online strategy in search engines (either SEO or SEM). 

Now it is time to redefine the terms and include those that are more natural in terms of language. People stop searching using keywords without articles ("Adidas shoes Buy") and change the interaction with search engines asking when, how, when,where or why. 

An interesting exercise is always to use the suggestions by search engines themselves. Google is really good at this: 

Do you realize the amount of data you get from a simple query? Users want solutions to specific problems and ask as they would do with a shop assistant rather than a machine. 

Of all the tools to do a keyword research, there is one especially suitable for these queries like Voice Search. Its name es answerthepublic.com and its reports are great: 

All the work you do in your research has to be strategically coherent in all aspects. Especially relevant in:

As you can see, the optimization for Voice Commerce is an optimization by and for the user.