MUMBAI: Voice Commerce is making its way into the Indian customers’ shopping habits faster than ever. The number of voice shoppers in India is poised to grow at an impressive rate of 103 per cent by the end of 2022 to reach 168 million voice shoppers, according to the latest report of WATInsights - Digital commerce series. For the record, there are 83 million voice shoppers in India presently, suggesting that it has already seen an uptick.
WATConsult, an Isobar Company & hybrid digital agency from dentsu India, has released its fourth report on the digital commerce series, titled ‘Digital Commerce in India - Voice Commerce’. The report by the agency’s research division, Recogn, shares insights on the ever-increasing adoption of Voice Commerce, the evolution of conversational AI solutions, challenges associated with voice-activated assistants and sentiments of consumers towards using this emerging branch of digital marketing.
There is a paradigm shift in the way searches are performed as users turn to voice for searching and shopping for products online. As per the report, 42 per cent of the females have used voice assistants for online shopping, while most youngsters belonging to the age group of 18-24 years have frequently used the assistant enabled devices to shop online. Additionally, the majority of the working professionals residing in the top four metros and next five metros have also used voice assistants for online shopping.
It is pertinent to note here that, in India, the use of voice technology for shopping is at a nascent stage and only one-third of the users have used voice assistants to purchase products online, as per the report.
The report stated that most female voice commerce shoppers are concerned about the privacy and security of the financial data while shopping online using voice, withstanding the benefits of the platform. However, the challenge for older customers belonging to the age group of 65 years and above is the inability to break through the habit of typing and searching for products online.
Commenting on the latest issue of WATInsights, Isobar India group CEO Heeru Dingra said, “Voice integrated with online commerce is transforming the future of digital commerce and revolutionising the B2B and B2C e-commerce in India. With artificial intelligence and native language processing undergoing a massive transformation, voice commerce will help a great deal in increasing consumer confidence and improve conversion prospects for brands and businesses.”
Voice simplifies the online shopping experience, enabling voice-enabled searches to be immensely popular and widely adopted. Voice commerce offers a natural user interface and experience, thus, making it appear as a game-changer for retail and e-commerce brands. To offer a personalised digital shopping experience, retailers are optimising their stores for voice commerce by further investing in upgrading their e-commerce capabilities, technology & platforms. Over time, voice shopping has influenced the way customers purchase online. It has also affected their shopping behaviour, making it even more crucial for businesses to include a voice in their marketing strategies.
WATConsult managing partner Sahil Shah added, “I vividly remember ordering from Amazon Alexa device for the very first time. It was an extremely smooth and native experience, compared to what I had thought it would be. With the ecosystem developing at breakneck speed, including both hardware and software, voice commerce is here to stay and scale-up for sure. What is exciting to see is who wins the race and commands a significant pie of the voice commerce market; also, how brands scale up their voice-led experiences in a digital-first world? And no, it is not just the basic things one can order, it is everything from paying bills to buying groceries to booking a movie ticket to ordering for a hyperlocal delivery; all with the power of your voice.”
WATInsights are periodically published reports based on primary research conducted by Recogn, the agency’s research division that provides consumer and business insights to its audience. WATInsights delve into the different aspects of the digital industry, consumer behaviour, and more. Additionally, the research also covers topics like Instagram in India – users’ perspective, voice technology in India, and the usage of the internet in the local language.
