Amazon is enabling consumers in India to shop with Alexa

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The e-tailer is enabling Android users in India to search for products, add them to their carts, and check out, all by using voice commands, per TechCrunch.

Consumers can access this feature - which is primarily available in English but does understand some words in other languages - by tapping an in-app icon. India is reportedly the first country outside of the US where Amazon has rolled out these capabilities. The move follows Amazon enabling consumers in India to make bill payments via Alexa in October 2019, as it appears to see an opportunity in voice payments in the country.

Voice commerce has struggled to catch on around the world, but Amazon may see a unique opportunity for it to succeed in India.

• The use of voice commerce features appears to be decreasing in many countries, raising questions about how popular the channel will become. A 2020 survey of online shoppers in Australia, Germany, Sweden, the UK, and the US from Episerver found that only 7% of respondents used a voice-assisted device to complete a purchase multiple times a month, down from 17% a year prior. And the decrease in usage extended to product discovery - just 8% of respondents used voice-assisted devices to research a product or service multiple times a month, down from 22% a year earlier - suggesting that interest in the shopping method may be waning before ever truly taking off.
• But the rising use of voice search in India may mean that voice commerce can find greater popularity in the country. India saw its voice search volume skyrocket recently, so consumers in the market may be more interested in voice-assisted services than those in other locations. And if that interest in search holds, those consumers may be happy to have the opportunity to complete purchases through the same channel, bolstering voice commerce adoption and potentially Amazon's performance in India.

Amazon will need to expand beyond English to maximize voice's performance in India, and the e-tailer may be prepared to do so. Amazon found that 80% of Indian customers would prefer to shop in a language other than English in 2018, which led the e-tailer to enable consumers to select Hindi as their preferred language when shopping on its app or site.

This preference likely carries over into voice shopping, so it's important that Amazon develop Alexa's ability to understand and operate in Hindi, along with other languages that are popular in India. This would allow Amazon's voice capabilities to reach more consumers, potentially boosting its sales in the massive e-commerce market.

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