5 Tips to Optimizing Your Amazon Business for Voice Commerce

The use of voice-control technology is growing rapidly worldwide and particularly in the U.S., where adoption of voice assistants — including Amazon Alexa, Apple’s Siri, and Google Assistant — is increasing faster than experts had previously anticipated. 

This year, eMarketer estimates that over 111 million people in the U.S. are using a voice assistant at least monthly, up 9.5% from 2018. As consumers become more comfortable using voice-control technology for everyday tasks like checking the weather and getting directions, growth of voice commerce is also poised to rise. 

A majority (69%) of brands believe voice ordering will be a key component of their future sales strategy and an opportunity worth pursuing, according to Feedvisor data, and more than two-thirds of consumers with a voice-activated device (VAD) in 2019 said they would consider using it to voice order a product in the future.

Is your Amazon business optimized for a seamless voice commerce experience? 

With Amazon at the forefront of consumers’ shopping behavior — from discovery to conversion — it is becoming increasingly necessary that brands and sellers alike optimize their Amazon operations for voice commerce to meet consumers where they are, at every stage of their purchase journey, offering convenient, personalized experiences that drive revenue and brand loyalty.

1. Generate More “Conversational” Content

Voice technology is constantly improving. Through natural language processing, the technology can hear speech, interpret it, and measure a user’s sentiment. With this in mind, you should adapt your content and ad copy to account for high-value searches that come from VADs to increase the levels of comprehension and relevance. Focus on incorporating conversational, long-tail keyword phrases into your content and listings, and provide context related to an inbound question or query.

2. Provide Information for Different Funnel Stages

When planning out content that will work well for voice search, leverage informational intent such as guides and how-to manuals, navigational intent such as store locations and services, and transactional intent such as product details and comparisons to provide consumers with the information they need across every stage of the purchase journey. 

3. Ensure Your Listings Are Mobile-Friendly

Many voice searches occur not only on smart speakers but also mobile devices. As such, your online storefront and product listings must be optimized to appeal to consumers using smartphones or tablets. Be sure to implement digestible content and fine-tune your product titles for quick consumption and easy navigation.

4. Optimize for Voice SEO

Research has found that, when voice ordering, consumers tend to buy the first or second item ranked in Alexa or Google search results. To ensure your products achieve this coveted search placement, you must leverage insights and analytics to understand voice search results across Amazon and Google platforms. 

5. Create Unique Voice Experiences

Perhaps the biggest challenge to voice commerce adoption is the lack of visual components that consumers are accustomed to with traditional shopping experiences. To compensate for this, you must create unique experiences and a brand voice that is informative, interactive, and appealing in order to enhance consumers’ engagement with your brand and product. Simplify the reordering process to anticipate your customers’ needs, which in turn will drive brand loyalty and increased revenue.