A recent Walker Sands survey has shown that U.S. consumers are becoming increasingly excited about voice-controlled home assistants. The survey found that 44% of those surveyed either already owned or planned to purchase a home assistant, like an Amazon Echo or Google Home device, within the next year.

Source: BizReport

Despite voice assistants being in their relative infancy, 19% of shoppers have already made an online purchase using one, with an additional 33% planning to make one within the next year. Among millennials, defined in this survey as ages 26-35, voice ordering is even more popular, with 37% reporting that they ‘always’ or ‘often’ shop online through voice.

However, as voice transactions become more commonplace, users are also expressing concerns about the safety of making online purchases through voice. In fact, security and privacy were considered concerns by 38% and 33% of the consumers surveyed, respectively.

But, in general, the rising preference of users to use voice-controlled devices to shop and make purchases means that online merchants need to be ready. Specifically, search terms, content and navigation should be configured in a way that keeps in mind that many will be searching via voice on mobile devices for what they need rather than typing in terms in a search bar.