Alexa, order my usual coffee. Hey Google, find running shoes for women under $100 with good reviews. Siri, what’s up with my order?
This is happening now, not later. It’s Voice Commerce (v-commerce), and it’s changing how people shop as much as smartphones did.
Voice commerce means using voice commands with assistants (like Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri) to find, research, and buy stuff online. It’s becoming a big deal, changing how people find brands and shop.
The numbers are huge. The voice commerce market was worth about $43.7 billion in 2024 and should jump to over $252.5 billion by 2034, growing fast!
If you’re an e-commerce brand, pay attention. A website that works on phones isn’t enough anymore. You need to get ready for a world that listens. That means:
- Making Shopping Conversational: Create a smooth, easy, and personal experience that feels like chatting with a salesperson.
- Getting Good at Voice SEO: Change your search engine strategy so your products are the ones the assistants choose and tell people about.
You can’t ignore this shift. Let’s look at how to do these things right.
Why Voice Commerce is Taking Off
To see why this is important, look at the numbers:
- Tons of Users: In 2024, there are over 8.4 billion voice assistants. That’s more than people on Earth!
- People Are Using It: Almost half (49%) of Americans use voice search when shopping.
- They’re Buying Stuff: It’s not just looking around. 60% of online shoppers in the U.S. have bought something using a smart speaker.
- It’s Easy: People like voice because it’s fast (44%), simple (49%), and lets them do other things at the same time (31%). You can order groceries while cooking or check on a delivery while getting ready.
- Smartphones Rule: Smart speakers are popular, but most people (89.2%) use voice assistants on their phones.
Voice isn’t just a trend. It’s becoming the way people shop because it’s so easy.
It makes you recall what customer experience expert Annette Franz said:
If products are all the same, the experience is what makes you different.
Voice is where customer experience is happening now. The brands that make shopping easy and friendly will get more customers.
How to Make Shopping Conversational (The Experience)
This is all about how it feels to shop. On a website, you have pictures and buttons. With voice, you only have words. You need to totally rethink how people shop with you.
Like Steve Jobs said:
Start with the customer experience and then build the tech, not the other way around.
That’s the key. Don’t just add a voice skill because it’s cool. Do it because it helps customers better than anything else.
Here’s how to create a better experience:
- Make Re-ordering Easy
The easiest way to get started with voice is re-orders. People already know the product and your brand and have their payment info saved.
What to do: Make sure your system works well with Alexa and Google Assistant for simple re-orders. This is the easy part. Make repeat purchases super simple.
- Understand Natural Language
People don’t walk into a store and say, Best running shoes. They say I need running shoes for trails, and I have high arches.
Your voice AI needs to understand what people mean when they talk naturally. That means using Natural Language Processing (NLP) that can:
- Remember what they asked before.
- Understand complex questions with lots of details (like a blue cotton t-shirt in medium).
- Answer follow-up questions like, Do you have it in black?
- Make it Personal
Voice is personal. A generic script won’t work. The best voice shopping acts like a personal shopper by knowing about the customer.
Bad: We have 5,000 shoes. Which do you want?
Good: Welcome back, Sarah. You bought the Nike Pegasus 39s six months ago and run 20 miles a week. You probably need new ones. The Pegasus 40s are here. Want to hear about them?
This kind of personalization, using past purchases and preferences, builds trust and gets people to buy.
- Write Speakable Product Descriptions
This is important but often missed. With voice, the assistant’s voice is your new product picture.
People can’t see the product, so they need a good description. Website descriptions with pictures won’t work.
What to do: Write different descriptions just for voice. Keep them short, descriptive, and answer common questions.
Add Reviews: People will ask, What do the reviews say? Your system should be able to summarize them. For example: This product has 4.8 stars. People like the battery life, but some say it’s heavy.
How to Get Found with Voice SEO (The Discovery)
If people can’t find you, a great experience doesn’t matter. Voice SEO is different than regular SEO.
Important: Regular Ecommerce SEO is about being one of the 10 links on a page. Voice SEO is about being the ONLY answer.
Usually, that answer comes from Position Zero, the Featured Snippet. Aim to win that spot.
Here’s how:
- Target Questions, Not Keywords
Keywords are old news. Now you need to target questions.
Old Keyword: best protein powder
Voice Search: What’s the best-tasting vegan protein powder that won’t make my stomach hurt?
What to do: Use tools like AnswerThePublic and check your customer service questions to find out what people are asking. Then, create web pages or blog posts that answer those questions directly.
- Format for Position Zero
To get the featured snippet, make it easy for Google to find the answer.
How: Use a question as a heading (like How Do I Clean Suede Shoes?).
Answer: Right after the heading, give a clear, short paragraph (40-60 words) that answers the question.
Lists: Use numbered or bulleted lists for how-to or best-of questions. Voice assistants love lists.
- Use Schema Markup
This is important. Schema markup is code you add to your site that tells search engines what your content is about. It helps search bots understand you. For voice, you must do this.
- Product Schema: Tells Google the price, brand, and reviews of your products.
- FAQPage Schema: Tells Google, This is a list of questions and answers. This is gold.
- HowTo Schema: Marks your content as a guide, which assistants can read step by step.
- Speakable Schema: This tells the assistant, Read this part aloud.
- Own Local SEO (Near Me)
Many voice searches are local. Where’s the closest coffee shop? Find a hardware store open near me.
If you have a physical store, your Google Business Profile (GBP) is your new voice homepage. It needs to be perfect.
What to do: Make sure your Name, Address, and Phone Number (NAP) are the same everywhere.
What to do: Keep your hours updated (including holidays).
What to do: Ask for and respond to Google reviews.
Common Questions About Voice Commerce
Here are some common questions:
Q: What is voice commerce?
A: It’s using voice commands to find and buy stuff online with devices like smart speakers (Amazon Echo, Google Home) and smartphones (Siri, Google Assistant).
Q: How does voice shopping work?
A: You speak a command to your device. The device uses AI to understand what you want (like buy product). Then, it checks an e-commerce database (like Amazon or a store’s website) and uses your saved payment and shipping info to buy it.
Q: Why is voice good for customers?
A: It’s fast, easy, and convenient. You can do other things while shopping (like order pizza while driving) and easily re-order things with one command. It’s also great for people with disabilities.
Q: What are the problems with voice commerce?
A: Trust and security are big. People worry about saving their credit card info. Also, it’s hard to browse when you can’t see products, which makes it tough for things like clothes. Plus, assistants still don’t always understand accents or complex speech.
The Conversation is Starting Now
Voice commerce is here now, with billions of devices and people wanting convenience.
Changing from typing to talking is as big as going from desktop to mobile. The brands that do well will see their website as a conversation, not just a catalog.
They’ll win by making the experience easy, personal, and friendly, and by getting good at voice SEO.
As Dan Roth said, if your content isn’t starting a conversation, you’re doing it wrong. Now, that’s literally true. Your business needs to be ready to talk.