Walmart, although widely known for its retail services, still has a missing piece: voice shopping. For that reason and to compete better with Amazon, the retail store is adding voice-controlled shopping and is turning to Google for that.
Walmart customers can now shop for groceries through the ‘Walmart Voice Order’ feature, which is based on Google’s AI-powered voice assistant.
The two companies announced a partnership this week that looks set to strengthen Walmart in its continuous and fierce war with Amazon.
Using this new feature, users can add Walmart to Google Assistant and simply link their existing Walmart delivery accounts. Walmart customers’ purchase histories will be linked to Google Assistant, allowing Walmart to identify which type of products customers prefer.
This tie-up between the two companies will enable Walmart to get closer to customers who purchase groceries through voice assistants.
As voice shopping is expected to become the norm over the coming years, Walmart does not want to be left behind.
“We continue to innovate for the future and look to technology,” said Tom Ward, Senior Vice-President of digital operations at Walmart US.
Even though the future sounds promising for Walmart, let’s not forget that Amazon’s Echo accounts for more than 60% of smart speaker sales. What other weapons will Walmart have to use in its fight against Amazon?