“Audio commerce” is the potentially game-changing idea for businesses that can seamlessly implement customer interactions and create purchase opportunities into natural environments and surroundings. In other words, people can buy anything, anytime, anywhere, just with an Audio command. Gartner estimates that by 2021, the smart speaker market itself will be worth USD 3.5 billion. Voice commerce sales are predicted to hit $40 billion by 2020, a study from OC&C strategy consultants shows. By 2022, with over 18 billion IoT (Internet of Things) devices like connected cars, appliances, wearables, and other consumer electronics projected to be there, the potential for leveraging audio is massive. In fact, with conversational commerce steadily becoming the norm, it is believed that audio will be the key, and is therefore on the rise.
Voice commerce sales are predicted to hit $40 billion by 2020, a study from OC&C strategy consultants shows.
Experts are betting big on voice becoming the preferred mode of transaction for e-commerce, banking, and payments in the near future, streamlining the business process are the key factors driving the voice assistant application market.
Hereby enclosing some of the notable virtual voice assistants making an aggressive push in the Indian market:
- ToneTag: ToneTag’s audio / sound based solution brings the ease, convenience, and customization of online shopping to the offline retail space. The unique functionalities of this solution will enable a series of seamless, interesting and engaging offline shopping experiences for the customers as well as the merchants. It’s audio-based offline retail solutions would enable brands to broadcast the communication through any audio source (like ambient music or radio) or digital display (OOH, TV ad or more), directly to the customer’s mobile. This will enable brands to run optimized campaigns and channelize the right communication to the right audience at the right time and hence attain the desired RoI in real-time.
- Audible Suno: Technology giant Amazon’s audiobook company Audible launched a new app in India called Audible Suno featuring original audio series, in a bid to expand its reach in India’s highly competitive digital entertainment and streaming space. This new platform will feature hundreds of hours of Audible’s original audio series across a plethora of genres. Audible is deepening its presence into an already crowded content market with plethora of podcast options and video streaming apps, including Amazon Prime.
- Flipkart Saathi: Flipkart launched a ‘smart assistive interface’ feature called ‘Flipkart Saathi’ to support first-time e-commerce users on the platform and enhance their overall shopping experience. This feature is available in Hindi and English to start with and is Flipkart’s attempt towards further humanising e-commerce. With this feature, it aims to empower consumers across tier II, III cities and beyond in rural India, as it seeks to bring the next 200 million consumers online.
