Google Home launches Wal-Mart shopping

Both Google and Walmart took the opportunity to tack on some other news in today’s announcements. You can order by using Google Express or through Google Assistant on Google Home.

“Voice shopping is becoming a more important part of everyday shopping behaviour”, said Marc Lore, chief executive of Wal-Mart’s United States e-commerce business, Associated Press reported.

The partnership makes plenty of sense given that Google doesn’t really have an Amazon-like online store, but it does have an Alexa competitor.

While that continues to be speculative, what is nearly certain is that voice shopping is here big time, and artificial intelligence too will have a big role to play in that. We know this means being compared side-by-side with other retailers, and we think that’s the way it should be.

Google also had its say, in a blog post welcoming Walmart this morning and pointing out the time-saving convenience of getting “what you want, however you want, from the stores where you already shop”, as Sridhar Ramaswamy, SVP ads and commerce, puts it.

The great shopping wars between the two giants, Amazon and Walmart has begun as Walmart has started using Google’s personal voice assistant to bring the Artificial Intelligence in shopping.

It intends to offer personalized recommendations using Easy Reorder data. For example, if a user orders detergent, Google Assistant will remind them of the brand that they’ve previously purchased.

It is Google’s biggest partnership in the retail sector as it seeks to beef up the reach of its voice-controlled speakers. That prompted Walmart to integrate its “Easy Reorder” feature into Google Express. It seems that’s what Google’s strategy is, in trying to beat Amazon and in particular, Amazon Prime and its same-day deliver service.

Not only does Amazon’s online food and drink store continues to grow, it’s also still attempting to buy out luxury health food chain Whole Foods, which could win the hearts of many more loyal customers. And it now provides free shipping on all orders over a per-store minimum amount (usually $25 to $35). There’s also no membership required and shoppers will get free delivery within one to three days.

But net income fell 23.2 percent to US$2.9 billion, reflecting more aggressive spending on e-commerce and a willingness to compete by lower prices, as well as costs of US$788 million connected to a debt payment.

It’s part of Wal-Mart’s plans to expand its offering as bricks-and-mortar stores come under more pressure from online shopping. You can tell the Assistant to order products for you using just your voice.