The voice commerce market is projected to grow to $40B by 2022. This figure may seem optimistic, considering that 66% of voice assistant owners say they have never shopped by voice. However, that statistic is somewhat misleading since it doesn’t take into account that voice commerce isn’t limited to your home voice assistant (Alexa, Google Home, etc.). Mobile tools like Siri and Google Assistant are already driving commerce through on-device voice searches. Voice searches that return shoppable visual results have been in place for several years and are rapidly gaining traction with consumers for their ease of use and contextually relevant content.
When looking at developing a voice strategy for your brand, it is important to understand both the entry points and context of searches. A search done from a mobile device outside the home will likely have a different context from a search done from a digital assistant device in a shopper’s home. So, the same question needs two different answers, based on where the question is being asked. Fortunately, there are development standards available that allow you to tag your content to answer both needs. By implementing these structural standards, you are free to develop a strategy that delivers contextually relevant content to the user, no matter the entry point. The on-the-go mobile user will get their immediate shoppable results and the home user will get a more detailed answer in a conversational format, all from the same content source.
With structural standards in place, you are able to define the right content for each step of the journey at which the shopper can engage through any voice interface and understand where to support voice-to-screen and voice-to-speech interactions. Creating compelling and properly structured content to support these touch points will give your brand an edge in voice commerce searches and put you ahead of your competition in voice search results. Accomplish this, and you will be well on your way to a successful voice content strategy.
Contributed by: James Henningson, Integer Dallas
Image Source: Unsplash
