The number of voice commerce shoppers in India is expected to reach 168 million by end of 2022: Report

WATConsult releases the 4th report of WATInsights – Digital commerce series. Titled ‘Digital Commerce in India – Voice Commerce,’ the report is by WATConsult’s research division, Recogn. The report shares insights on the ever-increasing adoption of Voice Commerce, the evolution of conversational AI solutions, challenges associated with voice-activated assistants and sentiments of consumers towards using this emerging branch of digital marketing.

Voice Commerce is making its way into the Indian customers’ shopping habits faster than ever. For the record, at present, there are 83 million voice shoppers in India. This suggests that it has already seen an uptick and is poised to grow at an impressive rate of 103% by the end of 2022 to reach 168 million voice shoppers.

Voice simplifies the online shopping experience, enabling voice-enabled searches to be immensely popular and widely adopted. Voice commerce offers a natural user interface and experience, thus, making it appear as a game-changer for retail and e-commerce brands. To offer a personalised digital shopping experience, retailers are optimising their stores for voice commerce by further investing in upgrading their e-commerce capabilities, technology & platforms. Over time, voice shopping has influenced the way customers purchase online. It has also affected their shopping behaviour, making it even more crucial for businesses to include voice in their marketing strategies.

There is a paradigm shift in the way searches are performed as users turn to voice for searching and shopping for products online. It is pertinent to note here that, in India, the use of voice technology for shopping is at a nascent stage and only one-third of the users have used voice assistants to purchase products online. As per the report, 42% of the females have used voice assistants for online shopping, while most youngsters belonging to the age group of 18-24 years have frequently used the assistant enabled devices to shop online. Additionally, majority of the working professionals residing in the top 4 metros and next 5 metros have also used voice assistants for online shopping.

Most female voice commerce shoppers are concerned about the privacy and security of the financial data while shopping online using voice, withstanding the benefits of the platform. However, the challenge for older customers belonging to the age group of 65 years and above is the inability to break through the habit of typing and searching for products online.

Commenting on the latest issue of WATInsights, Digital Commerce in India – Voice commerce, Heeru Dingra, CEO, Isobar India group says, “Voice integrated with online commerce is transforming the future of digital commerce and revolutionising the B2B and B2C e-commerce in India. With artificial intelligence and native language processing undergoing a massive transformation, voice commerce will help a great deal in increasing consumer confidence and improve conversion prospects for brands and businesses.”

Sahil Shah, Managing Partner, WATConsult adds, “I vividly remember ordering from Amazon Alexa device for the very first time. It was an extremely smooth and native experience, compared to what I had thought it would be. With the ecosystem developing at breakneck speed, including both hardware and software, voice commerce is here to stay and scale up for sure. What is exciting to see is who wins the race and commands a significant pie of the voice commerce market; also, how brands scale up their voice-led experiences in a digital-first world? And no, it is not just the basic things one can order, it is everything from paying bills to buying grocery to booking a movie ticket to ordering for a hyperlocal delivery; all with the power of your voice.”

The research covers some relevant topics like Instagram in India – users’ perspective, voice technology in India, and the usage of the internet in the local language.

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