Over the past two years, a number of consumer studies that were released found that a significant numbers of smart speaker owners are engaged in “voice commerce.” But, there is a new report that is apparently based on internal Amazon data that indicates something different – smart speakers owners aren’t engaging in voice activated commerce.
According to the The Information, “… according to two people briefed on the [Amazon] internal figures,” only about 2 percent of Echo device owners have made purchases directly through their smart speakers this year. However, in September 2017, 57 percent of smart speaker owners surveyed told NPR and Edison Research that they had ordered something using the device.
There was an early 2017 Walker Sands survey that concluded that 19 percent of consumers made any sort of purchase with the help of a virtual assistant in a 12 month period. Other surveys indicate a different amount of numbers in between.
According to the NPR 2018 research update, over 70 percent of smart speakers purchased at least one item through their devices in the last three months.
In 2016, Amazon said that on Prime Day, “Members purchased on average one Alexa-exclusive deal per second during Prime Day using their voice.” It suggests considerable scale and volume, although this does not reveal the percentage of Echo owners making voice purchases.