Voice Assistants expanding to new markets and languages in Europe
As voice-controlled assistants become more integrated into consumer lifestyles, Google and Amazon stand out as leaders in this area with the Google Home and Alexa respectively. Both companies are now expanding internationally, signaling broader competition in the growing voice assistant space.
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“eCommerce offers the biggest growth opportunity for voice technology”
Google expansion
Google’s Home and Home Mini smart speakers have been available in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Singapore, according to the Google support page. The expansion in June this year also brought these devices to Spain, Ireland, Austria… However, the Google Home devices only support a limited number of languages. Unfortunately, Google’s expansion did not include any additional language support.
Amazon expansion
Amazon plans to release Alexa and its Alexa-enabled smart speakers in Spain and Italy later this year. This includes speakers by Bose and Sonos , which both have the ability to connect wirelessly to Alexa through an Amazon Echo. Amazon is inviting developers to create skills for Alexa in those languages and opening an invite-only preview for hardware manufacturers who want to enable Alexa in their devices. This release is a push for Alexa’s language capabilities as well as a more familiar cultural experience for users.
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Voice assistants and retail search
With this rise in Voice Assistants across the globe, companies are paying extra attention to the way Google and Amazon are expanding their product reach. This expansion could signal many changes for the way consumers search and purchase products.
Already, Voice Assistant technology is changing the marketing landscape of retail search. Research from Walker-Sands, 2018 future of Retail Report, shows that 50% of Voice Assistant owners have used their device to make a purchase within the last year. As companies like Google and Amazon continue to create a more seamless retail search experience with Voice technology, we will see voice-directed purchases becoming the standard.
“50% of the owners of a voice assistant have used it to make a purchase in the past year”
Summary
eCommerce offers the biggest growth opportunity for voice technology. Google and Amazon are expanding their voice assistant products to European markets, signaling potential opportunities for the way consumers search for and purchase products.
eBusiness Institute
Find out more about how eBusiness Institute can help companies to implement Voice in their eBusiness and eCommerce strategy. Learn how we can help with your Voice Strategy or contact us to discuss how we are helping clients leverage e-business to their competitive advantage. We assess, guide, discover and implement your digital transformation to become a voice future-ready business.
Sources:
Images:
Amazon http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-imageproduct41
Bose https://community.bose.com/t5/SoundTouch-Archive/Alexa-and-Bose-SoundTouch/td-p/91496
Sonos https://d1b6tx2agdphz5.cloudfront.net/sonos-en/attachment/32cd3371-6d7f-41d4-8e6d-dbaf3297f4e8.jpg
Pexels https://images.pexels.com/photos/408503/pexels-photo-408503.jpeg?cs=srgb&dl=adventure-blur-cartography-408503.jpg&fm=jpg
Report:
Walker-Sands Future of Retail Report https://www.walkersands.com/futureofretail
Google market (as per 12th July 2018 https://support.google.com/store/answer/2462844
