Alexa for retailers and the voice shopping landscape with Shilp Agarwal

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Kane Simms

About this episode

Retailers with Alexa skills can see a 12-15% increase in cart size, improve customer experience and gather vital competitive data as voice shopping explodes. Shilp Agarwal, CEO of Blutag, joins us to share more about the voice shopping landscape.


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In this episode: Alexa for retailers and the voice shopping landscape

Voice shopping on Alexa and Google Assistant smart speakers is a $2bn market today, and is forecast to explode. I’ve wrote about the potential of voice shopping for the Harvard Business Review last year, but things are starting to pick up.

According Amazon’s Patrick Gauthier, 20% of Americans are ready for voice shopping now, and 39% of all Americans will complete some part of their purchase journey via voice by 2022.

And while it might not generate a huge percentage of sales today, the learnings that you’ll gather through observing and collecting data on how customers are interacting with your brand, will be worth its weight in gold when the volcano erupts.

Introducing Shilp Agarwal, CEO, Blutag

Our guest today is Shilp Agarwal, serial entrepreneur and co-founder of Blutag, the voice shopping platform making it possible for retailers to sell on Alexa and Google Assistant with ease.

Shilp talks us through how he sees the voice shopping landscape today, how it’s changed over the last two years, and why it’s going to explode in the next 18 months.

Some highlights for retailers considering Alexa for voice shopping

Selling via Alexa skills can have an ROI and offer some key learnings. Fresh Direct increased its shopping cart size by 12% with its Alexa skill, powered by Blutag.

But the ROI is about more than sales. You can get ahead of your competition by excelling in customer experience, offering voice options at different stages of the customer journey. From product research and consideration, through ordering and delivery tracking, right through to post-sales.

And you don’t need to be all things to all people straight away. Instead, try focusing on smaller parts of the shopping experience that’ll help you get moving quickly, offer some value immediately and learn from your users. Things like repeat purchases or delivery checking are ideal.

One thing is for sure, voice shopping is on the horizon and getting ahead now will put you in a great position.

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Kane Simms

A strategic AI advisor who, for the past decade, has helped business leaders and product owners transform customer experience using conversational and generative AI.

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