- When Did Voice Assistants Begin to Change eCommerce?
- Key Advantages of Voice Assistants for eCommerce
- How Do Voice Assistants Understand and Process Shopper Requests?
- Which eCommerce Players are Winning Big with Voice Technology?
- How Can Voice Tools Improve Fulfillment and Customer Satisfaction?
- Conclusion
Voice assistants are transforming the manner in which people interact with digital platforms. What was initially a convenient tool for reminders or basic questions is now playing an important role in shaping online shopping habits.
In India, where smartphones are reaching more towns and villages and internet use is rapidly growing, voice technology is opening up new opportunities. Voice search queries are increasing at a rate of 270% per year, showing how quickly people are adopting this convenient way to shop.
For sellers, this translates into more visibility, higher sales, and the ability to stand out in a competitive market. Instead of waiting for customers to adapt to your platform, voice assistants adapt to them and bring you closer to the next wave of online shoppers in your region.
In this blog, we explore how AI voice assistants are shaping the future of eCommerce and what it means for your business.
When Did Voice Assistants Begin to Change eCommerce?
Voice assistants started changing online shopping when people began using them to place orders, reorder items, or make payments, not just to get information. Growth was slow at first, but affordable smartphones, cheap internet, and increasing comfort with online tools helped adoption rise quickly.
In India, a key turning point was when voice assistants began supporting local languages. This made it easier for first-time online shoppers in smaller towns to buy products without typing in English. For small sellers, this opens up a new customer base that was previously hard to reach.
Today, voice assistants help customers not just find products but also make decisions and complete purchases, making shopping simpler and faster.
Key Advantages of Voice Assistants for eCommerce
Voice assistants are no longer just a tech trend. They can help sellers reach more customers, increase sales, and make shopping easier. Here is how they do it:
- Enhanced Product Discovery
Voice search lets customers find products by speaking naturally. They can ask questions, compare prices, or request recommendations in their own language without needing to type.
For sellers, this means products become more visible to customers who might otherwise struggle to find them. Easier discovery brings in new buyers, especially first-time online shoppers, and helps sellers stand out in crowded marketplaces.
- Faster and Smoother Checkout
Voice-enabled checkouts make buying simple. Customers can confirm payment options, delivery addresses, and quantities with voice commands. Reordering becomes easy, and secure methods like voice PINs or connected wallets make payments safe and quick.
For sellers, this matters in three ways:
- Lower cart abandonment: When checkout takes seconds instead of minutes, fewer customers drop off mid-purchase.
- Easier repeat orders: Shoppers can quickly reorder groceries, medicines, or daily essentials, giving sellers a steady stream of repeat sales.
- Trust through security: Features like voice PINs and wallet integrations reassure customers that their payments are safe, which helps build long-term loyalty.
The result is a checkout experience that feels effortless for customers and more profitable for sellers.
- Personalisation and Engagement
AI virtual assistants learn from user behaviour and purchase history. This helps provide personalised product recommendations and promotions. The conversational experience also keeps customers engaged and encourages repeat shopping.
This means better targeting without extra effort. Tailored promotions and recommendations encourage upselling, cross-selling, and repeat shopping, which directly increases average order value and customer lifetime value.
- Improved Accessibility and Customer Satisfaction
Voice shopping helps first-time buyers, low-literacy users, and those uncomfortable with typing. After purchase, assistants can track orders, handle returns, answer questions, and collect feedback.
This reduces the need for constant manual support and ensures customers feel looked after. Smoother experiences build trust, encourage positive reviews, and keep customers coming back.
How Do Voice Assistants Understand and Process Shopper Requests?
Voice assistants employ a mix of technologies, including automatic speech recognition (ASR), natural language processing (NLP), artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning to read spoken commands. Here’s how the process works for an online shopping request:
- Speech Recognition: The assistant translates spoken words into text.
- Contextual Understanding: The assistant considers the history of interaction, purchasing history, and preferences to respond accordingly.
- Action Execution: Finally, it carries out the command, whether to add products to a cart, give options, or finalise the transaction.
Product descriptions, catalog descriptions, and metadata must be optimised not only for text search but also voice search, which is more conversational and longer in nature.
Which eCommerce Players are Winning Big with Voice Technology?
Here are some examples of global brands using voice tech in eCommerce:
- Amazon (US): A pioneer in voice shopping with Alexa, enabling add-to-cart, reorders, and payments. In 2025, Amazon began testing AI-powered audio product summaries inside its app, while launching Alexa+, a more conversational assistant.
- Alibaba (China): Through Tmall Genie (AliGenie), shoppers can browse deals, reorder essentials, track deliveries, and even pay; entirely by voice.
- Domino’s: Its “Dom” assistant takes pizza orders via app and phone, automating thousands of transactions daily and reducing strain on call centers.
- Starbucks: Customers can place voice orders through the Starbucks app or reorder favourites hands-free with the Alexa Reorder Skill.
- Tesco (UK): Running a 2025 open beta with Google systems, Tesco now offers complete grocery checkout by voice.
- Ocado (UK): With an Alexa skill, shoppers can add or remove items, check order status, and track deliveries without lifting a finger.
- Carrefour (France): Among the first to integrate Google Assistant for grocery shopping, enabling voice-driven searches and checkout.
How Can Voice Tools Improve Fulfillment and Customer Satisfaction?
The voice tech is not just limited to the pre-purchase stage. It can also offer plenty of richness to the post-purchase fulfillment and experience. Here’s how:
- Easy Order Tracking: Customers can check delivery status with a quick voice command, lowering support requests and saving time for sellers.
- Consumer Support: Voice assistants can handle simple tasks like returns, FAQs, and basic troubleshooting, reducing customer frustration and easing pressure on service teams.
- Feedback Collection: Asking for reviews through the voice tech is not as pushy as typing, and it helps improve the response rates.
Conclusion
AI voice assistant is changing the future of eCommerce. For sellers, they represent a chance to connect with the next wave of online shoppers, many of whom are more comfortable speaking than typing. By investing early in voice-enabled discovery, checkout, and support, you not only follow consumer trends but also shape them.
A frictionless checkout experience is at the heart of this journey. That is where solutions such as Shiprocket Checkout come in, helping you offer faster, safer, and more reliable payments alongside the convenience of voice commerce. Together, they ensure that every interaction, from product search to delivery, feels effortless for the customer.
Sellers who act now will build stronger trust, encourage repeat business, and stand out in crowded marketplaces. The future of eCommerce is already being spoken, so are you ready to make your store part of the conversation?
Not all the time. You can begin by optimising the search functionality, metadata, and the product descriptions for voice-based searches. Implement it in stages.
Small sellers can benefit equally by offering voice in regional languages. This lowers entry barriers, expands reach beyond metros, and gives them an agility advantage over larger, slower-moving competitors.
Yes, with secure authentication methods, such as encryption, voice PINs and even connected wallets, all transactions are safe.
Even though Hindi and English are pretty significant, regional languages like Tamil, Telugu, and Bengali are rapidly growing. Prioritising them makes products accessible to first-time shoppers in non-metro regions.
You should do it sooner, as it will help you to tap into the increasing demand. In India, voice commerce is still in its initial stages.
