As technology progresses, your e-commerce website needs to keep up. Following all the new technology trends can be exhausting, but you need to be aware that innovation brings sales. The more advanced your website is, the better your results will be. The key is to know which innovations are worth your attention and which are just a waste of time and money. Voice technology is definitely an upgrade that can improve your business.

 Just consider that Gartner foresees that by the year 2020, 30% of all web-browsing sessions will be managed without a screen. If you jump on board with such movements from the very start, you’ll position yourself as a leader in your niche.

When did it all start?

With the emergence of Alexa, Siri, Google Assistant, and Microsoft Cortana, voice technology has made a lasting imprint on our lives. What used to seem like science-fiction, has now become a part of our everyday life.

Voice technology entered our lives slowly and now it is ready to conquer new markets. Voice-driven user experience for an e-commerce website is an existing change but it is yet to become a widespread phenomenon.

However, the number of marketers, technology experts, innovators, and business owners who support voice commerce is rising. So, let’s address what this term refers to.

What is voice commerce?

Voice commerce makes the online purchasing experience easier for customers since it enables them to make a purchase without using a keyboard or a mouse. They can complete their order or browse through the website with simple voice commands.

With voice commerce, customers can complete an order while they are cooking, driving, or preparing for work. It is quick, easy, and effective.

Voice shopping consumer adoption report lists the following top reasons why consumers enjoy voice shopping:

1. It’s hands-free
2. It’s possible to do it while doing other things
3. It’s faster to get answers and results

All the users need is a virtual assistant and a mobile phone or a smart speaker. The most popular smart speakers are Amazon Echo (powered by Alexa) and Google Home (powered by Google Assistant).

Why use voice technology for an e-commerce website?

• It gathers valuable information
• It improves the shopping experience on mobile phones
• It boosts engagement
• It shows your progressiveness
• It increases the number of sales

The list of arguments that support how voice commerce is beneficial to an online business is practically endless. As Nicolle Garrison from Live Inspired Magazine states, quality research is the key to expertise. That is why we did some research on our own and sourced five main reasons that justify all the hype about voice technology.

 1. It gathers valuable information

Marc Lore, CEO of the e-commerce division of Walmart, explains that the reason why he supports this trend is that voice-controlled virtual assistants help companies gather customer data to provide more personalized services. He said the following about voice technology:

“Voice is the next big way for us to be able to leverage data from a person’s car, home, or device. It will allow them to shop in a very conversational way with a robot, in the same that they would with a specialist on a showroom floor of a retailer.”

A personalized experience is what every retailer aims for so here is a way to provide that to your customers.

 2. It improves the shopping experience on mobile phones

Due to our busy lives, mobile phones are one constant in our daily routines that we can always grab for.

Bethany Stone, the head of the marketing department at Studicus shares her findings on the subject:

“It was predicted that by 2019, nearly 72% of marketing dollars will be spent on mobile app development and promotions for mobile platforms. The increase in mobile purchases indicts that every e-commerce owner needs to work on this aspect.”

Using voice technology for an e-commerce website is another way to improve shopping on mobile phones. It can be one of the factors that will power the number of sales.

 3. It boosts engagement

With creativity and imagination, you can easily take voice technology to the next level. Some known brands have found a new way to make use of this feature – creating engaging content.

Take the whiskey brand Johnnie Walker as an example. They developed an Alexa skill that asks the customers about their preferences in order to find a whiskey that suits their specific taste. After that, it suggests a Johnnie Walker product that would be the best choice.

This is the perfect example of how brands use voice technology to boost engagement and build a strong connection with their customers.

 4. It shows your progressiveness

Both your customers and competitors will have to respect the effort you put into your business if you start using voice technology.

Businesses who are always on top of the game are admirable and trustworthy. Just think about it, a company that invests in its development must believe in the quality of its products.

Using voice commerce is a great way to launch an innovative marketing campaign. Make this feature public with a clever promotion. Use writing services like Trust My Paper or Best Essay Education to come up with an original idea.

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 5. It increases the number of sales

The road from browsing for products to making the purchase is full of obstacles. The abandoned cart rate and bounce rate is what every serious business owner analyzes and tries to decrease.

Voice technology is a method for achieving that. Considering that the purchase process is much shorter with voice commerce, the customer will have less time to change its mind.

Impulse purchases tend to be the ones that bring the most money. Voice technology speeds up the customers’ decisions and doesn’t leave them much time to think about it.

By improving the browsing and buying process with voice technology, you’ll actually be doing both you and your customers a favor. Customers will be able to do their shopping in no time and you’ll get your increased sales rate.

Is voice technology the next big thing in e-commerce?

• Voice commerce can drastically improve user experience and strengthen the bond between the brand and the buyer. People expect novelties from successful businesses, and voice technology in the e-commerce niche is a novelty that you shouldn’t ignore.

The Blockchain technology is fast becoming indispensable in sectors like banking & finance and other business organizations worldwide. It even has the capability to transform procuring as well as the supply chain making it the greatest invention after the internet. The blockchain technology will be able to ensure a greater and efficient supply chain by tracking inventory and making payments. In fact, Blockchain has been awarded as one of the ‘Top Ten Emerging Technologies’ by the World Economic Forum due to its potential to change the very working of economies.

How does Blockchain Technology Impact the Supply Chain?

Since the blockchain technology is secure and transparent, it can have far-reaching possibilities as far as the supply chain is concerned. Every time there is a sale the transaction documented with a clear record of the product right from the manufacturing process to the sale. This will help to reduce costs, delays and human errors that are quite common during transactions.

It has been observed that blockchain technology is already being used by some supply chains and its several benefits could help it to become a universal operating system. Below we have given various ways to show how blockchain and supply chain can be the perfect match.

Data variability in the supply chain is common due to the differences in keeping records among companies. This can be rectified if blockchain integrates with supply chain where you can get all information from the blockchain ledger reducing reference to different data points.

The most important thing that blockchain technology offers to the supply chain is transparency. The stakeholders can keep track on the status of products and will be able to detect any error.

The Smart contract can be set up by members including simple disputes like delay in delivery. Such issues can be resolved automatically which will consequently lead to the saving of time and cost. Supply chain participants can thus improve the processes and resolve unprecedented issues that pop up unexpectedly.

Blockchain technology can help to track a product in the supply chain. The product status attaches itself to the blockchain once you scan the QR code or RFID chip. The data can be accessed by all members who can ascertain the reason for a delay.

Smart Contracts of the supply chain automate payments. The payment cycle is usually between 60 to 90 days but with blockchain, the vendor can be paid once the product is received. Smart contracts can handle complex payments that are currently controlled by intermediaries.

Future of Blockchain Supply Chain

Integrating Blockchain with the supply chain is the start of creating better efficiency eliminating the need for trust. But its potential can be unlimited if we combine it with Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. Solving logistics problems can be made easy with distributed computing. We can believe that in the future supply chain when merged with blockchain technology will run with the least of human intervention. It is already observed that automated warehouses that connect with IoT devices can communicate with self-driven vehicles all going with smart contracts on the blockchain. It is just a matter of time before blockchain will be a valuable asset in the future of successful management of the supply chain.

Nowadays, it hardly seems a day or week goes by without taking the name of a company that joins the rank of organizations using their own virtual assistants. From news agencies to normal stores, each is getting driven by some kind of artificial intelligence. So, it is not surprising to see the baking sector whose traditional call centers are getting replaced by AI assistants.

AI Fundamentally New To Banking Sector

Despite the obviousness of the trend, the introduction of robotics in the banking industry will have a great financial effect on other fields of apps. This is what expert analyst of the banking sector feel. Now sometimes the AI in banking can be something that is fundamentally new for various industries.

However, to the banking sector, it isn’t. Various analysts and researchers feel that banks were the primary industry who were using this robotic process automation in banking; where the first neural network for automatic lending came into the industry about twenty years ago.

In addition, it might be important to note that the latest technology in artificial intelligence is evolving in an unprecedented way. The interim actions of this particular banking transformation can be quite impressive.

Various reports suggest that about 80% of the banking sector representatives feel that technology will surely advance where to an extent AI in banking will work in the financial organization along with having living individuals as employees as well as reliable advisors.

Benefits Of AI

Various industry experts feel that the benefits of large-scale introduction of robotics in the banking industry will really be fruitful for banks and companies in the financial sector. As per the research which was conducted in the field of financial technologies, in the USA along, latest technology in artificial intelligence will provide financial institutions and banks with a huge amount of savings, i.e. about 30% till 2030 or somewhat more than $1trillion.

Here, the components of the impressive figure will show how much effective the latest technology in artificial intelligence is. Various reports suggest that the amount of saving in the front-office will be about $480 billion. This is somewhat half of the aforesaid sum, which is possible due to the reduction in the amount of specialist present insecurity, cash operations, retail banking network, and various other staff.

In addition, another $400 billion will be saved by using the robotic process automation in banking for most of the middle-office related works like technologies used for identifying customers and verification like AML/KYC along with other forms of data processing. Lastly, the AI in banking for the back office which is related to accounting and regulatory units will simply lower the expenses that bank incurs to roughly about $200 billion.

Impact Of AI In Banking

1. Personalized Financial Services

AI will expand the gamut of financial services. This is possible by the means of consumer financial services. Nowadays, consumer financial services will keep the consumers as well as their unique demands right at the core of their best-optimized offerings.

Moreover, robotics in banking industry makes it quite possible to provide consumers with a good amount of personal financial concierge. Now this will automatically allow them to decide and find out the suitable style of spending, making saving as well as investing which is simply based on their personal goals and habits.

The presence of the latest technology in artificial intelligence for finance will make it very much possible to create intelligent products. And most importantly these products will help you to learn from the customer’s financial data as well as determine what might work for them, what won’t and even assist them to track their financial activities in a much better way.

2. Reducing Cost & Finance

This can be something that most of us experience and sometimes agree with. The robotic process automation in banking for the financial sector has now become an automated process. Even it has drastically lowered the cost of the serving customers. So, besides making the financial services cheap (i.e. by reducing the cost of the financial services), it has even made it quite convenient to avail too.

Now through many digital servicing channels, AI is simply proving its efficiency in attracting a huge section of the population towards the best financial services. This is quite helpful especially for those services which were found to be cumbersome, time-consuming and expensive.

3. Latest Management Styles

The best part of the AI in banking is that it is opening up brand new avenues for banking as well as insurance leaders who want to seek a good amount of advice. No more are the major financial expertise limited to the opinions of humans, especially with regard to making forecasts and recommendations. With the emergence of robotics in the banking industry and finance, financial leaders and experts can ask questions which are pertinent to their business. Also, these machines can even analyze data and assist them to make all kinds of data-driven management decisions.

4. Wealth Management For Clients

One of the major banking areas where there is a huge amount of investment in the latest technology in artificial intelligence is wealth management. Here both newcomers and incumbents are able to know that the digital shift occurring in the banking space will simply affect this sector. Industry heavyweights have started to acquire tech start-ups using special focus on automated analysis of huge amounts of unstructured data.

Here, the purpose is to find out the typical behavioral patterns. Experts are hoping to create robotic process automation in banking that can easily provide insights on servicing their high-net-worth clients. Frankly, by automating huge parts of the wealth management process, they can easily provide tax-optimized and personalized investments to clients, having less in investable assets compared to what they usually qualify for professional wealth management.

5. Fraud Scenarios

Using AI, one can easily simulate the umpteen situations whenever there are any cybercrimes or fraud activities taking place. One important thing to note is that AI in banking and finance follows somewhat a proactive approach in making the financial services breach-proof as well as environmentally safe.

Previously, designers of the financial service system had to wait for the incidence of fraud to occur. But now the waiting period is destroyed. AI is providing extensive assistance in the field of finance for securing its products and services through a continuous understanding of human psychology.

The Future

Frankly, AI in banking and finance is all about continuous learning as well as re-learning of data, patterns, and developments present in the financial world. The best part of using the latest technology in artificial intelligence is that it provides flexibility in creating the current line or system of financial products as well as services.

So, it means that one doesn’t need to begin from scratch. Also, there can be an improvised way of making the offering better over time. Once robotics in the banking industry is introduced, it will ensure that the financial services are updated and ready for facing the market. So, no doubt, AI in banking and finance invaluably contribute to the financial industry. So, over time, AI will not only revolutionize the financial and banking sector but will become the industry itself.