Giant American retail chain Walmart Inc, is all set to enter the voice shopping market through Google, in a bid to expand its online presence and compete with its biggest rival Amazon Inc.
Online retailer Amazon at present dominates the voice shopping market through an intelligent personal assistant called Alexa developed by the company. The online retailer has also given a sturdy competition to Walmart and also to other brick-and-mortar retailers in online sales.
The voice-controlled Alexa has a large share of the US voice-controlled device industry, with its Echo devices accounting for 72.2 percent of the market in 2016, according to Reuters reports.
Google reportedly will offer a large variety of Walmart products on its voice-controlled Google Assistant platform from late September and will also offer a wider selection of items than any other retailer, according to a Marc Lore head of Walmart's e-commerce blog post.
Above all, Walmart has been taking aggressive steps like offering hefty discounts, free shipping or more to reach an array of customers through online retailing.
"One of the primary-use cases for voice shopping will be the ability to build a basket of previously purchased everyday essentials," added Lore in an interview.
Voice shopping yet to take off in India
Voice shopping in America is gaining popularity. However, we are yet to see how the technology will take off in India. Amazon in June, announced that it will introduce Alexa Voice Service (AVS) along with its Echo speakers in the country by the end of this year, reported Economic Times.
If the plan to launch Alexa fructifies, Indians too can buy groceries online, book a cab or even play music just with the help of voice commands.
Walmart, on the other hand, is focused on expanding their retail outlets in India and announced to invest Rs 900 crore to open 15 outlets in Maharashtra, last month. However, it will be interesting to see if Walmart too enters the Indian market to introduce their version of voice shopping via Google.
