Voice Shopping Rises to 45 Million U.S. Adults in 2021
Tis’ the season for shopping and sometimes that includes searching for and buying items using a voice assistant. In 2018, Voicebot Research found that 20.5 million U.S. adults had used voice to shop for a product at least once. That figure rose to 45.2 million in 2021 reflecting 120% growth and a 30% compound annual growth rate (CAGR).
The data comes from Voicebot’s Voice Shopping Consumer Adoption Report 2021. Released this morning. the report includes 32 charts and 40 pages of analysis and resources. Data includes information regarding consumer shopping behaviors across digital channels, voice shopping sentiment and behavior, demographic breakdowns, and details related to voice shopping transaction characteristics.
Get ReportThe Voice Shopping Pot of Gold?
Voice shopping has been a popular topic to speculate upon over the past few years. Will this become a key channel for consumer purchases? Well, consumer data is mixed on the topic. Most of the core metrics are favorable. The U.S. adult population that has used voice shopping at least once rose to 17.5%, up from just 8.2% in 2018.
During that same period, the average order size for a voice shopping purchase rose by over 16%. Voice shoppers that believe the technology is good for any type of purchase also doubled to 28%. There are many favorable metrics to go by if you are a voice shopping optimist.
However, there are also some signs that consumers, as a whole, are not fully on board yet with the practice. For example, 63% of consumers said they are unlikely or very unlikely to use voice commerce. The growth in use and improved sentiment have come entirely from the formerly undecided consumers.
This is not unprecedented. We see similar trends in the mid-1990s related to web adoption. Consumers can imagine how they would use something until they do and then adoption ensues. So, voice shopping is growing but future growth will hinge on greater awareness and a shift in the perceived benefit of speaking instead of tapping or clicking. There will also need to be more supply of voice shopping experiences. Few of these actually exist today.
Where is Voice Shopping Headed?
The data indicate steady growth in voice shopping over the past few years and favorable sentiment among those who have tried out the experience. A key finding from 2018 that was reinforced in 2021 is that voice shopping is about more than the transaction. Consumers are using voice features to facilitate product search and evaluation prior to purchase and what to use them post-purchase as well for order tracking. The interest and use are about the entire shopping lifecycle. You can expect to see this grow as more options are made available, particularly among websites and mobile app publishers.
Data in the Voice Shopping Report
The Voice Shopping Consumer Adoption Report 2021 is the most comprehensive analysis of this emerging technology space published to date. Among the 32 charts are included:
- U.S. Consumers with Voice Shopping Experience 2018-21
- Where Consumers Prefer to Shop 2018-21
- Consumer Digital Shopping Experience 2018-21
- U.S. Consumers with Voice Shopping Experience by Gender
- U.S. Voice Shopping Experience by Age
- Voice Assistant Features Consumers Would Use in Stores 2018-21
- Consumer Experience and Sentiment Toward Using Alexa, Google Assistant, or Siri for Shopping
- Voice Shopping Weighted Average Order Size 2018-21
- Product Categories Used by Voice Shoppers
- And, many more….(click to see the full chart list)
Use the button above to access the report. Also, if you have any questions feel free to message Bret Kinsella on Twitter. Happy Holidays.
Follow @bretkinsella Follow @voicebotai
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