Originally posted August 6, 2020
As connectivity becomes more pervasive than ever before, consumers’ shopping habits are radically changing. Gone are the days when product purchases involved extensive planning, research, and visits to multiple stores. Today’s shoppers expect to buy whatever they want, whenever, wherever, and however they want.
Welcome to the age of connected commerce.
This tectonic shift in shopping habits also represents new opportunities for savvy retailers to gain a competitive advantage. Merchants who better understand how to connect with the connected consumer can help future-proof their operations, while also increasing sales and engagement.
In an effort to better understand the art of doing business in a connected world, Amazon Pay has packaged a five-part series exploring how businesses can prepare for this next level of customer expectation. Our findings and insights are based on the results of a 25-minute double-blind online survey that Amazon Pay conducted of global consumers.
In part one of our connected commerce series, we explore how the advent of cloud-based voice services has the potential to revolutionize the world of commerce. The always-on access that voice services offer consumers represents an incredible opportunity for brands and retailers to truly become a part of their customers’ lives.
Next we investigate the reasons why consumers are adopting voice, gaining a deeper understanding of what audiences are looking for in a voice commerce experience. (Hint: the answer involves convenience and speed).
After discussing the why of connected commerce, we tackle exactly how connected consumers are using voice. Because of the wide swathe of activities that voice interfaces afford, customer interest in voice isn’t limited to the point of purchase – they have an interest in using voice services across all phases of the shopping journey.
We then move over to the retailer’s side, examining voice’s growing role in retail commerce. If you think voice commerce is still two or three years away, think again – it’s already here. But voice won’t supplant other channels; instead it will supplement and complement existing channels.
And finally, we have some advice on how retailers can best prepare for the connected consumer. Effortless cross-channel commerce experiences are no longer a “should have” for retailers but a “must have.” We’ll show you where to get started in using voice as an integral part of your business’s commerce strategy.
If you want to capture the insights of our Connected Commerce series in one handy infographic, we’ve got just what you need right here – a one-page distillation of insights into our recent global consumer research.
Perhaps you’d like to go even deeper. In that case head over to our Paytalks library and watch our recent webinar on planning for the future of retail in the connected world.