Groceries Most Commonly Shopped Category in Voice Ordering

NEW YORK — Shoppers are adopting voice-ordering technology to streamline their shopping experience, and the most commonly voice-shopped category is grocery. 

Today, 20 percent of consumers who use voice-ordering technology report ordering groceries through smart devices, according to new research from global firm OC&C Strategy Consultants.   

By 2022, it’s expected that voice shopping overall will increase from $2 billion today to $40 billion. This growth will be driven by an anticipated increase in the number of homes using smart speaker devices — from 13 percent to 55 percent over the next four years.

Amazon, through the ubiquity of its Echo smart speakers, is currently dominating the voice-ordering market with 10 percent penetration in U.S. homes. Trailing the e-retail leader are Google’s Home devices (4 percent) and Microsoft’s Cortana (2 percent).

Due to the popularity of voice shopping for groceries, it makes sense for food retailers to make this service as intuitive and frictionless as possible for customers, according to OC&C. Food retailers will have to develop connected applications featuring a voice-shopping option that can integrate into current smart devices, the firm noted. 

"In order to properly position themselves, retailers must ask themselves key questions such as: What objectives am I trying to meet? How should I tailor my voice proposition to meet those objectives? Which AI system is best suited to enabling those objectives? How can I build consumer trust in my product recommendations? How can I make the order economics work?" said Coye Nokes, partner with OC&C.

Click here to read more from Convenience Store News sister publication Progressive Grocer.