The Voice Shopping Future

According to Keith Anderson, SVP Strategy and Insight, Profitero, "Over the last 15 years… there've been at least a dozen technologies described as potential game changers, but… voice has clearly emerged as a truly game-changing technology… you now increasingly hear retailers, and especially brands, talk about mobile first, voice second." The report says that study after study points to the phenomenal growth of voice-activated devices like the Amazon Echo or Google Home, driven by the rapid change in how shoppers are searching for information online. Amazon reported that the Echo Dot was the best-selling product from any manufacturer in any category across Amazon globally on Cyber Monday 2017. In The Future of eCommerce, Kantar Retail says "Voice commerce is yet another technological vehicle that… allows consumers to make real-time purchasing decisions, creating a shopping environment that is both ad-hoc and spontaneous." So what should brands be doing now to get ready for the voice shelf?