Alexa, can you help me make a sale?

Voice is taking off and retailers are already scrambling to cash in. In May, eMarketer released a forecast estimating that 5.6 million Americans will use a voice-activated assistant device at least once a month this year, a 129% jump over the previous year. EMarketer also estimated that Amazon’s Echo speaker will attract 70.6% of users, while Google Home will garner 23.8% and smaller players, such as Lenovo, LG, Harmon Kardon and Mattel will make up the rest of the market.

Meanwhile, a separate study from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners reports that about 10.7 million U.S. Amazon customers currently have an Amazon Echo device, with the Echo Dot now representing about 52% of all Echo devices in the market and the original Echo accounting for about 36%, according to the report. Along with an early grab for device market share, Amazon has added thousands of skills to the Alexa voice assistant platform, far outpacing its rivals in the space, and has launched programs to expand that number through its developer community.

For its users, Echo and Alexa bring news, music, help them run their digital lives and, as smart homes come online, their appliances. For Amazon, the voice technology can bring new sales and could deepen — perhaps to the most dramatic degree yet — its relationship with customers, particularly Prime members.

“It’s dangerous," Keith Anderson, VP of strategy at Profitero told Retail Dive in July. "It’s so much easier than pulling your phone out of your pocket, unlocking it, pulling up the app, making a product search, and ordering it. Even with one-click ordering, there’s eight more steps involved. It’s much easier to stand up wherever you are in the room and just say, 'Alexa, purchase more paper towels.'"

Along with the convenience, Alexa can also keep customers immersed in Amazon’s shopping platform and ecosystem. "Retailers like Best Buy and Walmart sell products that have Alexa in it," Jason Goldberg, senior VP of content and commerce at SapientRazorfish, told Retail Dive earlier this year. "So you go to Best Buy and you buy an Alexa, but when you say 'hey Alexa, buy me more printer ink,' she’s buying it from Amazon, not Best Buy." No wonder Amazon was pushing its Echo devices hard on Prime Day.

Timeline

The history of voice technology in retail since the Echo

• November 2014

  Amazon releases first Echo devices alongside its Alexa platform

• March 2016

  Amazon releases Echo Dot

• May 2016

  Google Home release

January 2017

Starbucks launches voice ordering on iOS and Alexa

February 2017

Google introduces voice shopping at Costco, Walgreens and other retailers

March 2017

Alexa can place Prime Now orders

April 2017

Amazon releases Echo Look

July 2017

Peapod launches voice ordering on Alexa

Amazon considers granting third-party developers access to Alexa transcripts

August 2017

Walmart and Google partner on voice shopping

September 2017

Home Depot chooses Google Home for voice shopping

See the full timelineClose timeline

An ever-present, all-knowing, Jeeves-like voice assistant with seamless buying capabilities that doubles as a DJ is great for Amazon, less so for other retailers. That could explain why other heavy hitters — including Walmart, Home Depot, Walgreens and Costco, among others — are teaming with Google to allow voice shopping via Google Home.