The NRF Big Show: Apparel's Top 20 Takeaways

Conversational commerce is a big disruptor, but it's got some kinks to work out to be a more human-oriented experience. Voice is natural, and it can have a huge impact on retail because it can mirror the real world, says Michael Haswell, director of global business development, retail & shopping, Google. But there are hurdles to getting people to move beyond telling voice-activated personal assistants to play a song or look up an address to real shopping activity. Currently, they can really only handle "low cognitive loads." If you ask a home assistant to buy peanut butter, it can probably handle that, especially if it already knows your brand preference.