One in six Americans (16 percent) now own a voice-activated smart speaker, up 128 percent from January 2017. Out of the rising number of people who own a smart speaker, 31 percent said they use it for shopping purposes, adding items to their cart so they can review them later for purchase.
Findings come from the Smart Audio Report, Fall/Winter 2017, which analyzed smart speaker ownership data from NPR and Edison Research. The study also found that 29 percent of smart speaker owners used their device to research an item they may want to purchase. A total of 22 percent used the speaker to re-order an item they have previously purchased. The same number of people ordered a new product with their smart speaker that they had not previously purchased.
Implications of Rise in Smart Speaker Ownership
The fact that a growing number of consumers are using smart speakers when shopping online is interesting for small businesses partnering with the likes of Amazon and Google. As consumers are using smart speakers to spend more time shopping online, researching items, re-ordering products and ordering new products, these innovative devices could prove advantageous to small businesses which sell online.
The rise of smart speakers also presents fresh opportunities for businesses to market their products and enhance their brand through voice-activated ads that enable viewers to ‘talk’ with a brand.
As Carrie Seifer, CRO for the IBM Watson content and IoT platform, commented in the report:
“We have already begun to see that consumers are spending more time with these cognitive ads than with other digital ads.”
With one in six Americans now owning a smart speaker, many of which are using these integrated devices to shop for products and engage with ads, small businesses would be wise to recognize the business potential of smart speakers.
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