7-Eleven Adds Voice Ordering to Delivery Service

IRVING, Texas — 7-Eleven Inc. is expanding its delivery service to include voice ordering.

The convenience store retailer launched 7Voice, a feature on its 7NOW deliver app. With the launch, customers can place 7-Eleven orders through voice-controlled Google Home and Amazon Echo systems.

Once customers place and pay for a 7NOW voice order, the selected 7-Eleven items are delivered in about 30 minutes or less.

"We continuously challenge ourselves to find even more ways to offer convenience and value to our customers, when and where people need it most," said Raghu Mahadevan, 7-Eleven vice president of digital and delivery. "7Voice takes 7NOW ordering from screen to voice, enabling customers to order in whatever way they prefer that is most convenient to them."

The 7NOW app auto-locates a customer's location and places the order at the nearest participating 7-Eleven c-store. A courier will pick up the order and deliver it to the specified address in 30 minutes or less. Using real-time tracking, 7-Eleven can let customers know when to expect their orders.

How It Works

Alexa Set-up

• Say "Alexa, enable 7NOW."
• Open the Alexa mobile app.
• Go to "Skills" > "7NOW skill" > "Settings" > "Link Account"
• Say "Alexa, open 7NOW."
• Start ordering.

Google Set-up

• Say "OK Google, talk to 7NOW" to open smart speaker.
• Open Google Assistant app on phone and follow steps to finish linking 7NOW account.
• Start ordering.

No minimum order is required, and the service is available 24 hours a day. Delivery for the first 7NOW order is free, and the regular delivery fee is $3.99.

"Whether customers are shopping in our stores or from their couch, we want every interaction with 7-Eleven to be easy and fast with a variety of options," Mahadevan said. "We are constantly researching and developing ways to take both in-store and at-home retail experiences to the next level."

The convenience retailer continues to innovate in the retail technology space, leading Convenience Store News to name 7-Eleven as its 2019 Technology Leader of the Year.

In the past two years, 7-Eleven launched the 7NOW delivery app and added the 7NOW Pins option enabling delivery to hundreds of public places, expanded its 7Rewards loyalty program to a points-based system, introduced mobile checkout in select stores, added various mobile payment options, and implemented Augmented Reality experiences in the 7-Eleven app.

Irving-based 7‑Eleven operates, franchises and/or licenses more than 69,000 stores in 17 countries, including 11,800 in North America.