Back when the Internet was little more than an archive of documents, you had to plug all sorts of wires into a modem, disconnect your phone line, and listen for strange yet memorable beeping noises. Today, the world runs on the Internet. People love spending time online, and businesses love selling things to them.
According to an October 2020 report from Statistica, there was $3.5 trillion worth of global retail e-commerce sales last year, a number projected only to go up in the years to come. Billions of people around the globe shop online, pushing us to the height of convenience technologies. Need a new backpack? Order one online. Did the fridge stop working? Order a new one!
E-commerce knows no bounds when it comes to selling things online, and while the overall experience is far better than usual, it still leaves a lot to be desired. Webpages can get cluttered, but having too many pages can also be off-putting.
Slow loading times can weigh in when the customer is on the fence about buying something. Having to scroll through an e-commerce website just might be the most inconvenient thing about online shopping.
Although there are many online stores for a wide variety of products, the e-commerce industry lags in terms of UX. In the last few years, to save users from the hassle of online shopping, businesses have started using voice commerce to take the online shopping experience away from a webpage.
The Human Touch
Shopping has become a truly different experience from the days before e-commerce. Physical stores are no longer as important to start selling a product, and only the content on your product page has the power to persuade a potential customer.
Voice Commerce not only brings a friendly voice to the shopping experience but a human touch too. Voice assistants show up relevant search results when queried and through machine learning, they can also help tailor results to individual criteria like budget, size, color, and even style preferences.
Unlike a webpage, voice commerce adds an entirely different interface for online purchases, where users can interact with the technology in a personalized and hands-free manner. The number of people owning smart speakers and displays is rising, reducing hardware requirements to a bare minimum and giving anyone in the household access to voice-enabled e-commerce.
The e-commerce lifestyle is convenient, but hundreds if not thousands of options are now available to consumers as the trend catches on. Sifting through these lists of products on multiple websites can be slow, tedious, and, well, boring. It also proves to be slightly counterproductive, as users end up more frustrated with online stores after being spoiled for choice.
A helpful, friendly voice can help mitigate the dread that comes with shopping on the Internet. Built on a robust AI-based framework, voice assistants are programmed to understand users individually, putting them in a better position and mindset to purchase without additional obstacles.
Signing up for a website, payment information, and browsing through a seemingly infinite catalog can all be automated, making customers feel less overwhelmed and more likely to part with their money. Since the assistant can also save preferences from a user account, Voice Commerce is also incredibly successful at retaining customers. In fact, AI assistants can learn to detect customer satisfaction from speech mannerisms, which can be implemented into pre-emptive measures like offering discounts to keep them happy.
A Sound Ecosystem
Voice commerce has paved the way for a frictionless shopping experience that eliminates unnecessary steps and gets right to the action, putting the ‘friendly’ in ‘user-friendly.’ It’s hard to imagine an interface that can be more user-friendly and hassle-free than that.
Alan AI delivers this flawless, hands-free interface by integrating its sophisticated voice assistant into your daily apps. Using a simple and straightforward integration process, your customers could have access to a personalized voice assistant in a jiffy, helping them make conclusive purchasing decisions and improving overall customer acquisition and retention.
Humans are social creatures, having distinguished ourselves from our less-evolved cousins through communication, language, and societies. Shopping used to be a more social experience, with weekends spent at the mall with friends. Now, when all you have to do is scroll through a list of offers, the objective becomes much less enticing.
Good UX is paramount to any growing business, with statistics showing that customers react incredibly poorly to a bad experience. Especially today, when we are more physically disconnected than ever before, a friendly little voice on the other end could be just what your customers need to feel a little less alone.