Walmart teams up with Google to rival Amazon in voice-shopping
US retail giant Walmart is partnering with Google in order to offer customers the opportunity to buy its products through voice-activated devices.
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Amazon has been dominating the voice-shopping sector through its virtual assistant Alexa, through which users can order their purchases and have them delivered to their door.
Traditional brick-and-mortar retailers such as Walmart are having to adjust their strategies in order to compete with online competitors such as the Seattle-based giant.
In a blog post written by Walmart’s ecommerce boss Marc Lore, the executive said the new service would aim to make shopping faster and easier.
“Starting in late September, we’ll be working with Google to offer hundreds of thousands of items for voice shopping via Google Assistant – the largest number of items currently offered by a retailer through the platform,” Lore wrote.
Walmart, which owns the Asda chain of UK supermarkets, will offer customers a discount on picking up their items in store.
“Starting in late September, we’ll be working with Google to offer hundreds of thousands of items for voice shopping via Google Assistant – the largest number of items currently offered by a retailer through the platform,” Lore added.
Amazon has made significant strides in diversifying its revenue streams, and forced other retailers onto the defensive with competitive prices and often free delivery.
Earlier this year, Jeff Bezos’ company accused Walmart of bullying tech suppliers into avoiding its cloud computing service, one of its fastest growing operations.