Google is also doing its Free Express delivery service with minimum purchase amounts.
Google and Walmart have announced a partnership to bring Walmart voice shopping to Google Assistant and Google Home. Free delivery will also be available through Google Express, which is changing its pricing structure.
Although this is not discussed on either company's blog, this move is likely a response to Amazon's voice shopping through Alexa devices. It's also part of Walmart's efforts to grow its e-commerce business and reach new audiences.
The initial use case will be product reordering, but beyond that, Walmart intends to use its data to make personalized shopping recommendations based on purchase history. The company also has ambitious plans for voice purchasing and offline commerce:
One of the main use cases for voice shopping will be the ability to build a basket of previously purchased commodities. That's why we decided to deeply integrate our function Easy Reorder on Google Express. This will allow us to offer highly personalized shopping recommendations based on customers' past purchases, including those made in Walmart stores and on Walmart.com. To take advantage of this customization, customers only need to link their Walmart account to Google Express.
And this is just the beginning. Next year, we will also take advantage of our 4,700 stores in the US and our network to create customer experiences that don't currently exist through voice shopping, including picking up an order in store (at a discount) or using voice shopping to shop for fresh groceries across the country.
A less flashy but equally important part of the announcement is that Google Express will now be free if the order value is greater than a defined purchase minimum (typically $25-$35). Previously, Google Express was $10 a month or $95 per year with additional delivery costs per order. The company certainly made the change to drive consumer adoption.
Both Google and Walmart are aligned in a battle against Amazon, which has a significant lead in voice assistants. According to a recent NPR survey, Amazon has a 76% market share among smart speaker owners compared to Google Home at 16%. 8% of homes with smart assistants share them both.
The deal also foreshadows the likely alignments of each side of the battle for voice computers, now that Whole Foods shareholders have approved its acquisition with Amazon by almost $ 14 billion, a deal originally announced in June. Whole Foods is currently available on Google Express, but it seems unlikely that will remain the case for long.
