preparing for the voice shopping...

Preparing for the Voice Shopping Future5 Ways to Get Your Brands Ready Now

“Over the last 15 years that I've been observing and analyzing retail and technology, there've been at least a dozen technologies described as potential game changers, but I think voice has clearly emerged as a truly game-changing technology. Much of the industry is adapting, a little too late to a mobile-first world, but you now increasingly hear retailers, and especially brands, talk about mobile first, voice second.”

Keith Anderson | SVP Strategy and Insight, Profitero

3PREPARING FOR THE VOICE SHOPPING FUTURE

‘The Year of Voice’

Study after study points to the phenomenal

growth of voice-activated devices like the

Amazon Echo or Google Home, driven by the

rapid change in how shoppers are searching for

information online.

As shoppers, we’re using voice search on our

smartphones, tablets or voice assistants. Twenty percent of mobile queries were made by voice

in 2016, with ComScore predicting that 50

percent of all searches will be voice within the

next three years.

And if you needed any further proof: Amazon

reported that the Echo Dot was the best-selling

product from any manufacturer in any category

across Amazon globally on Cyber Monday 2017.

US Voice-Enabled Speaker User Share in 2017

NOTE : Individuals of any age who use a voice-enabled speaker at least once a month.

SOURCE : eMarketer, April 2017

“Voice commerce is yet another technological vehicle that is reducing the steps consumers need to take before making a purchase online. It allows consumers to make real-time purchasing decisions, creating a shopping environment that is both ad-hoc and spontaneous.”

Kantar Retail | The Future of eCommerce in FMCG

5VOICE-ASSISTED SHOPPING: CUTTING THROUGH THE HYPE

So what should brands be doing now to get ready for the voice shelf?

It’s clear that voice-activated shopping is big and only set to get bigger — but many companies are unsure about where to even start with their voice strategy.

To help you cut through the hype, we outline five key tactics to consider focusing on now. You might be surprised to find out that basic eCommerce optimization, e.g a good search ranking, accurate and complete product content, as well as highly-rated and well priced products, is the foundation to a successful voice strategy.


1. Aim for an Amazon’s Choice designation

Voice search dramatically changes the way results are

provided to shoppers: the shopper asks a question and hears

an answer, which means there is essentially just one spoken

result (whatever Alexa and her algorithm-brain decides to

recommend!)

Unlike traditional web-based shopping today, there is no

notion of search rankings and in fact, currently there’s no way

to sponsor search results on voice devices like the Echo. This

means that it’s even more important for a brand to appear as

the only result that Alexa reads if you voice a general search

query e.g cereal.

So how do you get to be Alexa’s favorite?

Consultancy Bain & Co. has found that if a shopper is making a

first-time purchase of a given item without specifying a brand,

Alexa frequently recommends "Amazon's Choice" products

before the top search result.

Amazon Echo first-time purchase recommendations

SOURCE : Bain & Co

Amazon’s Choice is a label applied to products that can

be directly purchased from Amazon Echo, identifying “best

fit” products in response to a shopper’s search query or

voice request.

When shoppers use Echo to make a purchase, Amazon will first

look for Prime-eligible products in their order history and offer

those for purchase. If a matching item isn’t found there, Alexa

will look for “Amazon’s Choice” items next and then search

through all Prime-eligible products.

An Amazon’s Choice designation has the potential to establish

individual products as the first or only option presented

when unbranded queries are submitted by shoppers. And

while Amazon hasn’t disclosed how products are included in

Amazon’s Choice list, products tend to be highly rated, well-priced items eligible for Prime shipping.


2. Embrace voice-search optimization

If Alexa cannot find an Amazon’s Choice product, Alexa will then

look for products that are most relevant to keywords she’s been

given by the shopper.

Here it’s important to know that voice search or spoken queries

tend to be more ‘long tail’ than text queries. A verbal query

has a longer query length, which means it has more words,

whilst text queries are typically more concentrated—usually

around 1-3 words.

For example, a typical text-based search query may be:

‘Restaurants in Boston’. Contrast this with a voice-led, action-

oriented search query which might ask: ‘Which restaurants are

now open for lunch in Boston?’

Voice search queries are longer than text queries

SOURCE : Search Engine Land article citing Bing data, May 2017

Text searches more concentrated around 1-3 words

Speech searches longer through the tail

Because of this, it's important to optimize around phrases that

mimic how people actually talk.

Alcohol brand Diageo has publicly stated its shift in focus to

conversational search phrases, and much of the company’s early

voice search efforts involve brainstorming what naturally spoken

questions may be asked about its brands.

According to the company’s head of digital innovation Benjamin

Lickfett, there will come a time when many search queries won’t

be “mai tai” in text form; instead, it will be “how to make a mai

tai” as a verbal query. When that happens, Lickfett believes it

will be a “winner-takes-all” market as voice agents will provide

instant answers rather than a page with a list of results.

“I believe that voice search will become a new standard in search as the hands-free environment has a lot of advantages over touch or click. It will have a huge impact on brands and retailers alike, as the 'relevant set' will no longer be something in the consumer’s head but rather a more or less dynamically calculated list nested inside a machine. Therefore it will be absolutely inevitable to do a very good job on voice search optimization (VSEO)—we have to understand the algorithm to be among the top three search results, as nobody will listen to more than three suggestions.”

Dirk Ploss | Head of Global eCommerce Multichannel, Beiersdorf


3. Get your product content in order

When an Amazon shopper asks Alexa to “tell me more” about

a product, they’ll hear one or more feature bullets before being

asked if they want to buy it. This short, bulleted content sounds

best when kept free of special characters, capital letters, and

punctuation such as colons.

When faced with wordy sentences, Alexa selects the bullets that

can be read within a limited timeframe (typically 16-20 seconds),

at times skipping the first bullet entirely.

Therefore, products with short, concise, and conversational

product-detail page content fare best on voice-enabled devices,

according to product content specialist Content26.

A good example is the bulleted list Unilever created for St. Ives

Blemish Control Face Scrub.

“Brands that want to create a great shopping experience on Alexa need to pay attention to content. One garbled bullet will make your content unlistenable.”

Trinity Hartman | Director of Content, Content26


4. Consider promoting products via Alexa Deals

Alexa Deals are special offers on items such as everyday

essentials, available exclusively on Alexa devices.

The majority of companies currently using Alexa Deals are

big brands with deep pockets, however it’s a good option to

consider if you want to temporarily boost sales from an Alexa

device—as well as an opportunity to test the ROI from voice-

specific promotions.

But more importantly, promoting your products as an Alexa Deal

will help to train shoppers to buy your products: your product

will appear in the shopper’s purchase history and therefore jump

to the top of the list when they search for a similar item in the

future using their Alexa device.

Profitero analytics show that a Mentos Gum product rose from

a negligible share of the Gum category to a 35% share in the

course of a few days just by using an Alexa promotion.

SOURCE : Profitero, 2017

Mentos Gum sales uplift following an Alexa Deals promotion


5. Think about experimenting with an Alexa Skill

Amazon has developed more than 15,000 skills or ‘apps’ for use

with the Echo, and it’s an area many brands are dabbling in as

they begin to experiment with voice technology.

Campbell became one of the earliest CPG brands to launch an

Echo ‘skill’ or app in 2015, enabling Echo users to ask for recipes

from “Campbell’s Kitchen”—the company’s portal for cooking-

related content—just as they’re in the process of adding items to

their grocery lists.

But while many brands have reported early success stories

(Unilever’s Cleanipedia Skill—which answers questions about

home cleaning with a direct link to eCommerce, ‘Have a wine

stain? Try Persil’—now has 15,000 users in the U.K.), it’s also

worth putting in the time and investment up front to explore

whether voice-enabled experiences are suitable for significant

digital investment.

Campbell has recently updated its Alexa Skill for the Amazon Echo Show


Wrapping up

The growing popularity of voice devices serves as a powerful

reminder of just how quickly voice technology is making its way

into shoppers' households.

More and more shoppers will use voice search to actually

ask for the products they’re looking for, and it’s going to be

increasingly important that your products are well optimized for

the ‘invisible’ shelf.

But don’t get lost in the hype. Practically speaking, you can do a

lot to win in voice today simply by getting the basics right with

your eCommerce strategy in general.

This includes:

• Having a good number of quality reviews

and a highly-rated product

• Being well-priced

• Including frequently-searched, relevant search terms in your

title and description

• Using copy that is clear and concise, emphasizing key

product characteristics like brand, variant, and pack size

This (in addition to being Prime eligible) will greatly enhance

your ability to be designated as an Amazon’s Choice product,

which is currently the main criteria for appearing as a top result

on Alexa devices.

Next to that, keep your product pages clear, simple and concise

so that you make Alexa’s job as easy as it can be.

Want to find out more?

Ask Profitero how we can help optimize your product

content and search ranking to get your products ready

for the voice shelf.

For more information, email [email protected]

or visit http://www.profitero.com.

For additional guidance, contact Profitero today at:

Tel US: +1 844 342 7464 Tel UK: +44 208 123 3101

About Profitero

Profitero helps brands improve and grow their online sales

faster. With our solution, brands can benchmark their complete

digital shelf performance against any competitor, across any

global retailer site or mobile app, in real-time. Only Profitero

can link digital shelf performance to increases in sales and

market share, allowing brands to achieve better focus and ROI

from their optimization. Many of the world’s leading brand

manufacturers and retailers depend on Profitero’s granular

and highly accurate data to measure and improve their

e-commerce performance. These include Barilla, General Mills,

L’Oreal, Beiersdorf, Sam’s Club, Waitrose, Ocado, and Delhaize.

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