Online shoppers are now turning to voice assistants like Siri, Alexa, or Google Assistant to help not just with simple tasks like turning on music but also more sophisticated tasks like making purchases.
This makes integrating voice search into your online shop no longer optional but essential. With voice search, customers enjoy a hands-free shopping experience, which is quite a game-changer!
Embracing this technology helps you stay ahead of the competition, increases your organic traffic, and customer loyalty (by making shopping effortless), and drives more sales.
As voice recognition technology continues evolving and becoming more sophisticated, it's important to understand the benefits it comes with and how to integrate it into your current system.
This helps you meet the consumer’s growing demand for a more convenient shopping experience and gain an edge over your competition.
In this article, we’ll discuss more valuable insights into how voice search is shaping the future of e-commerce and how you can align your shop with this technology.
Understanding Voice Search
Voice search simply refers to a voice recognition technology that enables you to do a search on the internet by just speaking to your smartphone or any other internet-accessing device with a voice-activated speaker.
In other words, it eliminates the traditional method of manually typing on your device. Thus, it allows you to find info online without physically interacting with your device.
So, how is it different from traditional text-based search?
When using voice search, users tend to use a more conversational and direct tone than when typing.
A voice query also tends to be longer, more specific, and intent-driven. This shows the user’s desire for an immediate and accurate response based on their voice input.
A perfect example is when you want to check the weather of a given region, say New Jersey.
You can get this information by typing a simple phrase like “weather New Jersey.”
On the contrary, a voice search will involve a phrase like, “What’s the weather in New Jersey today?”
See the difference?
With this in mind, it’s important to change how you write your content to ensure you fit this new search method.
As more and more consumers get to know and use voice search for their day-to-day activities, including shopping, it only makes sense that you want to integrate voice technology into your e-commerce strategies.
A report by Juniper Research estimated the number of voice-assisted devices in use to shoot up to 8 billion by 2023.
This clearly indicates the technology’s explosive expansion and the need to embrace it.
The Impact of Voice Search on E-Commerce
Voice search in ecomm (voice commerce, or v-commerce) is no doubt shaking up the E-commerce industry. The idea of customers making online purchases by merely speaking on their smartphones is definitely redefining online shopping.
When presented with the option of text-based search vs voice search, many consumers are highly likely to go with the latter due to its high efficiency. This is especially true when they want quick answers or are multitasking.
Some of the potential benefits of voice search in e-commerce include:
Convenience: Performing searches and making purchases without physically interacting with your devices is probably one of the biggest advantages of voice commerce.
Faster shopping experience: Voice search also translates to faster and more accurate search results and thus a faster buying process.
Accessibility: Voice technology is friendly to users of all ages and disabilities, including the elderly and disabled.
Enhances customer experience: Voice technology creates a more interactive and responsive shopping experience. This gives customers a more personalized shopping experience, increasing their satisfaction.
Brand loyalty: A happy customer is more likely to return. By offering the personalized experience above, you can easily earn customer trust and loyalty for your specific brand.
A boost in mobile shopping: Because mobile devices are compatible with voice search, many mobile users have easier accessibility and this increases sales volume.
Optimizing Your E-Commerce Site for Voice Search
Keeping up with the voice search in E-comm involves optimizing your online shop for the voice search.
Proper optimization techniques increase the chances of your business for the voice search results, which are usually limited to only a few top options.
And this helps drive more organic traffic to your online store.
You probably already know about search engine optimization (SEO) for text-based search.
Optimizing your website for voice search requires you to employ a completely different SEO approach. This is because voice search is more conversational than text-based search.
Here are some proven strategies for optimizing your e-commerce site for voice search:
Use natural language: Natural language is the key to winning in voice commerce. It simply involves writing your content in such a way that it mimics the potential customer’s everyday speech. For instance, creating your content around the common queries your target customers are always asking and offering them a direct answer is one way to use natural language in your speech.
Incorporate long-tail keywords: As we mentioned earlier, voice searches are usually longer and more detailed. And what’s a better way to optimize for voice search than to use the longer, more specific long-tail keywords?!
Optimize for local SEO: Most voice searches are usually seeking nearby products or services. Therefore, optimizing your business for local SEO will help boost your business's online visibility for voice-based searches.
Create a FAQs page: This helps provide direct answers to common queries asked by consumers regarding your product or service. Ensure you craft each question and answer in a conversational tone.
Revise product information: We also advise you to revise your product information to make it more detailed and accurate. Ensure your products bear clear descriptions, quality images, and any other additional info that may prove helpful to the users. This increases the chances of voice assistants recommending your products to potential buyers.
Don’t forget snippets: Yes, optimizing your online shop content for snippets also positions you at a better angle of appearing in voice search results. This is based on the simple fact that voice search algorithms tend to favor featured snippets when providing users with relevant info.
Technical Adjustments for Voice Search Compatibility
Besides the content optimization tips we have discussed above, you’ll also need to make several technical adjustments to your store for voice search compatibility and improved user experience.
Key technical adjustments to make on your site include:
Work on your website speed: They say users will leave a slower website faster than a sinking ship! The same is true for buyers when they encounter a slow-loading online store. By making your website load faster, you’re aligning your business with the expectations of voice search users who prefer fast and accurate results. Compressing all your images, minifying JavaScript and CSS files, and using browser-caching techniques can help your website load faster. Did you know that a fast-loading website improves your search engine rankings?
Make your store mobile-friendly: The majority of voice searches are usually conducted using mobile devices, so having a mobile-friendly website is crucial. Mobile optimization simply involves making your website responsive to different screen sizes/orientations.
Add voice-shopping features: You may also consider adding voice shopping features on your websites to allow potential buyers to make purchases using voice commands.
Implement structured data & schema: This helps search engines to better understand your shop’s content and context, increasing its chances of being displayed as a relevant result for voice search.
Voice Commerce Challenges and Considerations
Despite being a significant leap in the E-comm landscape, voice search for ecommerce has its share of challenges that you need to be aware of.
For instance, there are data security concerns surrounding this technology. When making a purchase, a buyer risks their personal data being collected, including payment info and shopping habits.
Ensuring the security of this data is, therefore crucial, as any compromise can lead to significant reputational and financial damages.
Sometimes the voice assistants may pick background conversations as commands. This can lead to executing unintended acts like making accidental purchases.
Putting robust voice recognition and confirmation protocols before making a transaction can help eliminate this problem.
Voice technology as we know it today has several limitations such as dependency on high-speed internet connectivity and inability to handle complex queries and commands.
Poor recognition accuracy is another key issue with the current voice technology.
Future Trends in Voice Search and E-Commerce
Voice technology is continuously evolving and will only get better with time. In the future, we can hope for advanced voice technology that removes most (if not all) the limitations and challenges we have discussed above.
Some of the future trends we can anticipate as this technology grows include improved accuracy and a better understanding of context.
With advancements in AI and natural language processing, voice assistants can better understand context and nuance in our speech. The overall result is minimal errors and more accurate responses to user queries.
We are also likely to see a voice search technology with multilingual capabilities to cater to various languages and dialects across the globe.
There is also a high chance that voice search will go beyond mobile devices and home assistants. It will become integrated into IoT (internet of things) devices, cars, public transport, etc.
Conclusion
Voice search technology has a significant impact on the realm of e-commerce and is slowly becoming an essential tool for serious e-commerce ventures.
Many consumers favor voice search due to its high efficiency and convenience. It offers better accessibility, a faster shopping experience, and enhances customer experience.
By embracing this shift in the e-commerce landscape, you’ll be better positioned to meet your evolving consumer needs and offer them a more personalized and engaging customer experience.
Adopting voice search for your store also keeps you ahead of the competition.
In turn, you’ll reap potential benefits such as brand loyalty, local sales boost, increased organic traffic, and overall increased sales volume.
Remember, optimizing your store for voice search is key to being highly visible to voice-based searches by potential buyers.
Implement the voice search tips and strategies we’ve shared in this guide in your store today and secure your place in the future of online shopping!
