Why Voice Is Connected Commerce’s Killer App

Consumers have experienced the convenience of shopping with their voices, and they cannot get enough.

The share of consumers who own voice-activated devices has doubled since 2017, with more of them using those devices to make purchases, listen to music or simply check the weather forecast than ever before. So, what is it about voice-enabled devices that consumers find most appealing, and how has widespread ownership changed connected commerce?

In the third annual How We Will Pay Study, in with collaboration Visa, PYMNTS surveyed more than 5,000 U.S. consumers to learn all the ways in which they use voice-enabled devices in their daily lives. We take a closer look at how consumers are using those devices in the Just Say To Pay brief, in which we explore how owning and using voice-enabled devices increases consumers’ appetite for other new, seamless ways to shop and pay.

Our research shows that consumers have a strong demand for voice-enabled commerce, regardless of which devices they purchase through. Many consumers report making voice-enabled commerce on not one, but multiple devices. Consumers who own both voice-enabled speakers and smartphones are twice as likely to make voice-enabled purchases on both devices than on just one or the other, in fact, showing that consumers are more interested in the experience of shopping with their voices than in doing it on any particular device.

Even more interesting is that consumers who have already experienced voice-enabled commerce are more interested in trying new connected commerce experiences than those who have not. Half of consumers who own voice-enabled devices say they would be interested in using apps that allow them to automatically pay for restaurant orders, and 46 percent would be interested in using apps that allow them to automatically pay for in-store purchases. Only 32 percent and 28 percent of consumers who don’t own voice-enabled devices say the same, respectively.

Such findings only begin to scratch the surface of consumers’ increasingly complex relationships with their voice-enabled devices.

To learn more about how voice-enabled devices are shaping the eCommerce ecosystem, download the report.