Voice Commerce: Optimizing for Smart Speakers

"Alexa, reorder my usual coffee beans."

This is the sound of voice commerce (or v-commerce), and it's a rapidly emerging new frontier for online retail.

Voice commerce is the practice of using a voice-activated smart speaker or a digital assistant (like Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, or Apple's Siri) to make online purchases.

While it is still in its early days, the incredible growth of smart speakers in homes around the world means that optimizing for voice commerce is becoming an important consideration for forward-thinking e-commerce businesses.

How Does Voice Commerce Work?

Voice commerce is designed for simple, low-friction purchases. A user can simply use a voice command to add an item to their shopping list or to reorder a product they have purchased in the past. The payment is then handled automatically through their linked account.

What Kinds of Products Work Best for Voice Commerce?

Currently, voice commerce is best suited for:

• Simple, Low-Consideration Re-purchases: It's perfect for reordering common household items or consumable goods that you buy on a regular basis, like coffee, paper towels, or your favorite brand of dog food.
• Low-Cost Items: Customers are generally not going to make a large, high-consideration purchase (like a new laptop) through a voice command without first doing more research on a screen.

Why You Should Pay Attention to Voice Commerce

• It's Incredibly Convenient: For the right kind of purchase, it is the most frictionless shopping experience possible.
• It's a Growing Channel: The number of households with smart speakers is constantly growing.
• It Builds Loyalty: If a customer has a good experience reordering your product through their voice assistant, it can be a powerful way to lock in their loyalty and to make you their default choice.

How to Optimize Your E-commerce Store for Voice Commerce

Optimizing for voice commerce is less about changing your website and more about ensuring your product data is structured and available on the major voice platforms.

1. Be on the Major Marketplaces

The two biggest players in voice commerce are, by far, Amazon and Google.

• Amazon Alexa: To be discoverable through Alexa, your products need to be for sale on Amazon. When a user asks Alexa to order a product, it will look for that product in their Amazon order history or will suggest a popular choice from the Amazon marketplace.
• Google Assistant: To be discoverable through Google Assistant, you need to make your products available through Google Shopping.

2. Optimize Your Product Listings for Voice Search

When a user is searching with their voice, they use natural, conversational language.

• Use Long-Tail Keywords: Your product titles and your descriptions should include the kind of natural, long-tail phrases that a person would speak.
• Answer Questions: Your product description should be written to answer the common questions a person might have about the product.

3. Aim for the "Top Choice" Position

When a user asks to buy a generic product, the voice assistant will often suggest a "top choice" or a "best seller."

• How to get there: Having a high sales velocity, a large number of positive reviews, and a well-optimized product listing on Amazon or Google Shopping can help you to become the default recommended product for a certain category.

4. Encourage Repeat Purchases and Subscriptions

Because voice commerce is so well-suited for reordering, you should have a strategy to encourage repeat business.

• Offer a "Subscribe and Save" option for your consumable products.
• Use post-purchase email sequences to remind customers to reorder.

Conclusion

While voice commerce is still an emerging channel, its potential for creating a truly frictionless shopping experience is enormous. For now, the strategy for e-commerce businesses is clear: to be visible on the major platforms like Amazon and Google Shopping, and to optimize your product listings for the natural, conversational language of voice search. The brands that build a presence on these platforms today will be the best positioned to win the "top of mind" (and "top of voice") position with the customers of tomorrow.