COMMENTARY

31 Million Projected To Shop Via Smart Speakers This Year

• by Chuck Martin , Staff Writer, Yesterday

Consumers seem to be warming to the idea of using their smart speakers to shop for things.

A new forecast says 31 million people in the U.S. will shop via smart speakers this year -- an increase of 32% from a year ago.

By 2021, the number of smart speaker shoppers will grow to 38 million, according to the report by eMarketer.

In the forecast, shopping is defined as browsing, researching products and adding items to a shopping cart.

Actual purchasing by smart speaker will reach 21 million people this year, with the majority of purchases comprising electronic media, such as movies or music, according to eMarketer, which sees no sign of the smart speaker market slowing.

Smart speaker owners perform a range of shopping activities via smart speaker, including ordering movies, TV shows or music (21%), browsing products (15%), asking for product recommendations (15%), reordering a previously purchased product (14%), adding products to a shopping cart (13%), ordering groceries or household items (8%) and ordering electronic devices (7%).

An earlier survey by Sumo Heavy found that more than half (55%) of consumers plan not to use voice assistants for any future purchases. That number is likely to drop over time.