FMCG companies experiment with voice-recognition technologies

With the market for virtual digital assistants/smart speakers growing at a fast pace, new opportunities are emerging for retailers and brands in the form of voice-activated shopping, according to data and analytics company GlobalData.

In a report, GlobalData said voice-activated shopping can make the shopping process faster and easier than conventional online shopping.

Voice-activated shopping is powered by virtual personal assistant devices or smart speakers with voice-recognition software.

Tom Vierhile, innovation insights director at GlobalData, said: “Voice-activated shopping is a huge leap for many companies. FMCG companies should experiment with voice-recognition technologies to begin to understand key challenges and figure out how they need to position their own products to win in this emerging genre.
Companies like Colgate-Palmolive and Moët Hennessy USA are already experimenting with the technology and it is a good bet that more will follow.”

According to GlobalData's Q3 2016 consumer survey, just 2% of consumers say they do most of their food shopping online. Voice-activated shopping may be able to chip away at the dominance of brick-and-mortar grocery stores and shift these numbers to online.

However, early research into the behavior of consumers using digital voice assistants has found a greater tendency to use them in private areas than in public spaces due to privacy concerns. This could limit future growth of voice-activated shopping.

Vierhile said: “Voice-activated shopping has a few peculiarities that FMCG companies should be aware of before jumping in. Voice search, which underscores all voice-activated shopping, is dramatically different than traditional web searching.”