Voice commerce about to have its Black Friday moment in sun
£100 million (2.5%) of all goods purchased online over the Black Friday period will be made through voice assistants, according to Wunderman Thompson Commerce. It is also predicting that, by 2022, this will be much as 10%.
£4 billion, meanwhile, will be spent through online channels (mobile, desktops, laptops as well as voice) in the UK from Black Friday through to Cyber Monday.
With Britain’s exit from the European Union delayed until next year, this could boost retailers who were concerned about the 31st October deadline. Consumers who may have been holding back spending might now take advantage of the deals on offer ahead of Christmas.
“While it was as recently as 2016 that we saw the majority of Black Friday purchases coming through mobile, in 2019 we will see the continued rise of social channels such as Instagram – due to its role in the inspiration phase – and the true emergence of voice purchasing,” says Hugh Fletcher, Global Head of Consultancy and Innovation at Wunderman Thompson Commerce.
“The signs are all there: convenient, fast and easy, voice commerce will make its biggest mark on the retail market to date. Amazon will certainly be the biggest player in the space, looking to discount its own voice-enabled assistants to move further into the home and ‘own the interface’ with its customers.”