Tag: voice search

Role of Voice Search in eCommerce

With the day to day advancements in technology, online shopping has become way too convenient. Voice search has come up as the next big thing in the industry.

With the popularity of voice software like Apple’s Siri, Google Assistant, Amazon Echo and Alexa, and Cortona, voice search has set a trend. People have adapted to voice search and become familiar with it. Brands have also taken up this opportunity to provide an effortless shopping experience to consumers.

Voice Search Stats

Comscore reports that by 2020, nearly 50% of the searches will be voice-based searches.

Google also stated that 2 out of every 10 searches are made through voice, and the number is expected to grow in the coming years.

Reports have also suggested that voice-shopping is estimated to make $40 Billion by 2022.

Impact of Voice Search in eCommerce

Voice search has encouraged quick search functionality, and this is why people are using voice commands very often to search on desktops, mobiles, and tablets. They just speak and the voice assistant helps them with their search query.

Isn’t it amazing? You do not need to open the website or the app, type the product name and then search. You can simply let the assistant know what you are looking for and it will present you with the desired search results.

Many eCommerce websites have enabled voice search option in their search bar as well, hence allowing shoppers to search for products or categories in the website by giving a voice command.

If you also want to add voice search option on your website, you can take a look at our Voice Search module that places a microphone in your search box, giving people the option to perform a voice-based search. The module is currently available for PrestaShop and will soon be available for Magento as well.

How to optimize your eCommerce website for Voice Search?

To make sure that your website’s search engine delivers relevant results on voice searches and consumers’ shopping experience is not hampered, consider the following key points.

1. Long-tail keywords

Voice search should not be optimized just for small keywords; it needs to consider the long-tail keywords as well.

Voice search is different than type search. When people use voice commands, they generally tend to use long-tail keywords to get accurate results. So, do keep this in mind to make it effective. But for that, it is important to understand consumer’s habits towards the way they search.

2. Questions

The most common use of voice search is for asking questions. People start their search query with why, what, where, which when using voice commands, which is not so common when they type it.

For example, if a user wants to search for smartphones under $200, he will simply search by typing “smartphones under $200,” whereas for the same search using voice commands, the user will ask- “Which are the best smartphones under $200?”

You see the difference in approach? It is there suggested to optimize your site for questions. These sorts of voice search queries have skyrocketed in recent times.

3. Natural Language

Your eCommerce website should be optimized to understand and process simple and plain English used by people. Add some common terms, product titles in natural language that people use during voice search so that the search engine can easily understand what the user meant.

4. Local Search

Voice searches are mostly made to find out nearby things, like best heart hospitals near me, best restaurants near me, best AC shops near me, etc. which we can also refer to as local searches.

Make sure that your business is listed on Google and optimized for voice search so that it can be displayed locally in the search results whenever a related search is made.

Final Thoughts

Voice search is the future of eCommerce. People are finding it more comforting to interact with search engines using their voice and not by typing. Artificial Intelligence has been so advanced that in the upcoming years, voice search’s accuracy level will be very high and it will dominate heavily over any other. It is completely going to change the way online shopping is done.

Apart from voice search, you should focus on image search as well. Add an image search option on your website so that if people do not the name of the product and want a similar item, they can find the related results, if any, by uploading the image.

This can be made possible through our Image search module which is available for PrestaShop and OpenCart. So if you are looking to add the image search functionality as well on your website, you can consider taking the help of this module.

For any assistance regarding the module, you can reach out to us at support@knowband.com

5 eCommerce tips and tricks to ensure fast growth

In this age of the digital world, awareness has become a prerequisite for every individual and all the industries are growing so rapidly that we never know what becomes trendy like how. The one such industry which has grown manifolds and thanks to the 4G Internet is the eCommerce industry. For those who are not aware of it, the eCommerce industry is one of the fastest growing industries all over the world. And the biggest gift given by this industry is the trend of online shopping ruling the world. Individuals from every corner of this globe are indulged in this process and saving their time and energy. According to Statista, e-retail revenues are projected to grow to 4.88 trillion US dollars in 2021.

However, rapid growth also brought huge competition between different eCommerce merchants. The increase in eCommerce businesses led to the competition heat up between these merchants. This made them responsible to keep pace with some new eCommerce trends especially those involving technical advances to shape consumer behavior.

Here are the 5 tips and tricks to ensure fast growth in eCommerce business:

1. Enhance video content and marketing:

Video marketing is one of the best and most popular ways of content marketing nowadays. As consumers love watching videos nowadays, it’s an easy and fun way to actively engage customers on your eCommerce website resulting in the upliftment of sales and revenues.

To overcome the competition, it’s the most beneficial way to improve your eCommerce growth and take it up to new heights of success. By embedding the videos from social media like youtube or adding video-based design elements, sellers can easily enhance their home page or product page which can attract more customers towards your store.

2. Serve Omnichannel consumers:

In today’s interconnected digital era, customers are searching for their favorite product on more than one online channel or Marketplace. According to Statista, Amazon accounted for 56.1 percent of the segment’s traffic, eBay accounted for 19.5% traffic, Walmart 3.8% and Etsy accounted for 3.5% of traffic. These numbers are clearly the resemblance of the crucial need to serve omnichannel consumers by marketing the products and services on all the available channels or Marketplaces.

Today, it’s easier than before to promote your brand or product online but before that, sellers need to turn their ideas into an eCommerce business. Just be sure to market your website on different platforms like social media, renowned marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, Etsy, Walmart as well as on small retail stores too. Never ever leave an opportunity to promote your brand store in any possible way. And no matter which channel you are selling, always sell genuine and reliable products to build customer’s trust in your brand and eCommerce store too. It will not only help you to increase customer traffic but also differentiate your eCommerce store with others.

3. Mark ways towards success with AI Chatbots:

If you want to give tough competition to other sellers, you can try your hands on the 24/7 assistance feature given by AI empowered chatbots. Customers love immediate response for their queries and chatbots are the perfect solution for this. Automated chatbots can resolve any kind of query of numerous customers at the same time. However, they can’t think outside the box, recognize misspelled words or evaluate incomplete queries as their creativity is limited by the code that created them.

But, thanks to these technological advancements as they have made these chatbots smart and sophisticated too. They are SSL compatible and multilingual too which helps you attain customer satisfaction in regional areas too. Therefore, it will increase the consumer traffic on your website leading to a lump sum amount of sales and revenues.

4. Voice search is a new boon:

It usually happens when customers are unable to write the correct spelling of their desired product and are unable to find it on the website. This leads to a decrease in the conversion rate of the website as the qualified leads also turn into non-qualified ones. Voice search is the new trend in these online stores as it helped many who were unable to write the correct spelling on the search tab. They can just simply speak the name of their product and it will be presented on their mobile screens.

According to Statista, 35 percent of users stated that they would consider purchasing food via their voice assistant in the future. Some latest gadgets for voice search like Google Play, Alexa by Amazon, Amazon Echo, etc. are some of the best innovations for eCommerce platforms. Many online store owners have already adopted the voice search functionality for their online eCommerce business. The advancement of voice search is an outgrowing opportunity when it comes to enhancing your SEO and this could also be enhanced by improving your product description on the website.

5. Safe and secure payment method:

When it comes to checkout, customers believe in a safe and secure checkout and payment method as there are many people who leave the cart abandoned due to the lack of trust which can end up losing potential customers. The final stage of online shopping should be smooth and simple as many people get frustrated due to the complex checkout process and payment gateways.

According to Statista, 69.23 percent of digital shopping carts and baskets were abandoned in the year 2017 and the purchase was not completed. Many times, it is due to the lack of trust in payment gateways on the checkout. So, if you want to improve the conversion rate of your website and want to be an extra edge over other competitors, be sure to provide a simple checkout process and secured payment options. You can apply PrestaShop one page checkout addon on your eCommerce store.

Final Verdict:

As the eCommerce industry continues to evolve, the most important responsibility is to provide a positive consumer shopping experience. Sellers should remain aware of the latest eCommerce trends which include omnichannel marketing, chatbots, video content and marketing, and a simplified checkout and payment process, and it will definitely help you to stand out from your eCommerce competitors.

Competition is at its peak and we have to overcome this. To remain an extra edge over others, KnowBand offers Marketplace integrators that enable sellers to integrate their eCommerce store to some renowned marketplaces like Etsy, eBay, Walmart, Google Shopping and Newegg. You can now list the products and the descriptions at a few button clicks. Thus, it becomes easier to update the details in bulk. Moreover, the attribute mapping becomes a cake-walk with the automated approach. So, integrate your eCommerce store and earn a huge chunk of profits.

Find more related articles here:

  1. Keys to successfully buy online and pick up in-store 
  2. 8 tips to drive more customers on a Marketplace
  3. 6 Summer Holiday eCommerce shipping mistakes to avoid
  4. 9 tips to help you sell more on Walmart Marketplace

Secret keys to success for eCommerce Platforms in 2019

So we have landed in 2019 and the competition in the eCommerce market seems to be growing more with each passing day. Well, this fact is more clear than ever that staying ahead in this industry wouldn’t be everyone’s cup of tea now.  Keeping your business to the list of successful ones would require some extra efforts from your end.  The market growth of the past few years and upcoming advancements in the eCommerce industry leads us straight to the need of some popular and dynamic trends. So, if you are keeping a track of these trends, you can never go wrong in giving a sky-high growth to the eCommerce platforms.

5 secret keys to the success of an eCommerce business:

1. Augmented Reality:

Augmented reality helps eCommerce sites to improve the customer shopping experience. AR helps in connecting the best of both worlds together. But wait, do we exactly know about this secret mantra? Well, when you connect the real world with digital elements via any mode like smartphone, cameras etc. that’s when you create Augmented reality (AR). Right from offering better product view to enhancing the overall shopping experience for the user, both technologies have their own significance.  For example:

  • Lenskart is one of the leaders in the spectacles market and also an eCommerce giants company based in India. Their unique feature known as ‘3D Try on’(based on AR) allows users to check how a frame looks on their face with a photo perception before actually making the purchase. It is easy to use and has continued to evolve its offering. This feature can be used on both web and app formats.
  • Another example we can see of Sephora. This company uses the AR feature on its website to let users check how a dress look on them or how they look after applying full face make up before purchase. This helps them to get the right product and can confidently buy it for themselves.

Augmented reality has already benefitted the mobile app market. Today’s generation is more advanced and demanding when it comes to new technologies. So, if you want your business to stand out, think about incorporating augmented reality or virtual reality.

2. Voice Search:

Easier navigation is a must-have in your eCommerce business. There is no doubt that voice search was a boom in 2018 and will be significantly growing in 2019 as traditional search is breaking down more use of voice search. Online store owners have already adopted the voice search functionality for their online eCommerce business. According to statista, 35 percent of users stated that they would consider purchasing food via their voice assistant in the future. Some latest gadgets for voice search like Google Play, Alexa by Amazon, Amazon Echo etc. are some of the best innovations for eCommerce platforms. Both, AR and voice search will definitely grow eCommerce industries to the next level in terms of business growth and opportunities.

3. Artificial Intelligence:

Artificial intelligence will definitely be pulling its weight in the marketing world this year as AI is now powering customer segmentation, retargeting, push notifications, click tracking etc. Visual search techniques are already boosted in eCommerce.

But What is Artificial Intelligence?

Artificial Intelligence refers to the intelligence showcased by machines. AI boosts machines to think, respond and perform tasks like human beings. It also helps machines learn from experience and adjust to new input. It increases precision and accounts for more accuracy and fewer errors, which means greater work efficiency. The AI analyses more and deeper data for valuable insights and can add to the capabilities of various devices with its smart, useful algorithms.

For example:

  • Flipkart, one of the biggest e-commerce companies in India, is turning to Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence to solve the complicated address puzzle, the most unique problem in India, as many customers write the same address in different ways. So AI helps to detect the exact location by understanding different formats of address and makes this complicated process easy.
  • Amazon is the first one to use this technology to generate product recommendations according to customer views on a product. This trend helped Amazon to grow to the next level in terms of business growth.

4. Mobile Applications:


As we all know, smartphones and tablets are the unavoidable need of eCommerce industry as they provide connectivity with the huge mobile audience. The steady shift from internet access on desktops and laptops to browsing on smartphones has been rather swift. An online store owner who has not developed a mobile app for their eCommerce website should consider the increasing demand of smartphones and must take their website business to app market if they are really looking forward to expanding their business. There is an efficient way to create a mobile app without any technical or coding knowledge. It’s a hassle free way to upgrade your eCommerce website into mobile apps(Android and iOS).

Moreover, if you already own eCommerce mobile apps then keep a check that whether the apps are updated to the latest trends and innovation. This could be a boom for enhancing the revenue of your store. Thus, 2019 is likely to bring about a brighter future for mobile app development, either we will see some brand new mobile app development trends or a huge upgrade from what users are already using.

5. Dropshipping:

The newbie eCommerce businesses can think about this trend as it can prove profitable to them with small capital. Dropshipping is the process in which the store owner doesn’t physically store the product but could manage the purchase as the shipment is been processed directly to the buyer via third party vendor. It has great advantage for small and medium sellers, that is no inventory. Seller doesn’t require to purchase a large number of goods and keep them in stores. It increases the revenue of small businesses thus gives sellers more confidence to continue using this technique.

  • Amazon: If you get to know that an order is coming from a third party supplier and not Amazon.com, then they are utilizing the drop shipping technique. Amazon is a partially using the drop shipping method which helped in fulfilling its own product shipments.
  • Zappos is an example of a company that started as a drop shipping company then transitioned to handle their own inventory after they wanted more control over their business.
    So, the steady growth of global e-commerce by dropshipping is profitable for sellers who are engaged in the e-commerce business.

Conclusion:

Well, one thing is for sure that these tricks aren’t a secret to you anymore. The above-listed tips and their concerned examples would surely help you in uplifting your eCommerce business. Each trend has its own importance and requires to be used wisely for abundant growth and success if used wisely.