Shopping via smart speakers is not taking off, report suggests – TechCrunch

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U.S. consumers aren’t adopting voice-based shopping as quickly as expected, according to a new report today from purchases-via-smart-speakers-are-not-taking-off”>eMarketer.
While consumers have been happy to bring smart speakers into their home, they continue to use them more often for simple commands — like playing music or getting information, for example — not for making purchases.
By the end of this year, eMarketer estimates that 21.6 million people will have made a purchase using their smart speaker.
Still, it’s important to point out that the overall number of people making purchases via a smart speaker is growing.
It will even pass a milestone this year, when 10.8% of all digital buyers in the U.S. will have made a purchase using their smart speaker.
EMarketer attributes the slower-than-anticipated growth to a number of factors, including that security concerns are leading people to not yet fully trust smart speakers and their makers.
Apple and Google have addressed the latter by introducing smart home hubs that include screens, speakers and built-in voice assistants.
“Though there are thousands of smart speaker apps that do everything from let you order takeout to find recipes or play games, many consumers don’t realize that they need to take extra and more specific steps to utilize all capabilities,” said eMarketer principal analyst Victoria Petrock.
To be fair, a forecast like this can’t give a complete picture of smart speaker usage.
Many consumers do ask Alexa to add items to a shopping list, for instance, which they then go on to buy online at some point — but that wouldn’t be considered voice-based purchasing.
Instead, the smart speaker sits as the top of the funnel, capturing a consumer’s intention to buy later, but doesn’t trigger the actual purchase.
That said, Amazon, in particular, has failed to capitalize on the potential for voice shopping, given how easily it can tie a voice command to a purchase from its site.

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