FRANCE – Paris-headquartered retail giant, Carrefour, in collaboration with Google, has launched a new voice-based e-commerce grocery shopping experience in France, to further accelerate its trajectory of e-commerce.
The launch makes Carrefour the first retailer in the world to offer customers the new integrated voice shopping service on the Google Assistant, as the company continues to build on its multichannel offering.
Based on a combination of advanced technologies, the retail group says that the innovative service simplifies and personalizes the grocery shopping experience while protecting the personal data of users.
As the retailer accelerates in the e-commerce market, the company said that is expanding the range of services it offers customers by adding a new channel – voice – a technology already adopted by 46% of the French population and one of the rapidly growing sectors.
Carrefour’s new voice-enabled grocery shopping service is based on the Google Assistant, a digital assistant available on smartphones and compatible smart speakers and connected screens and was developed by the two companies within their framework of their strategic partnership signed in June 2018.
As the first retailer in the world to integrate with the Google Assistant’s voice-based shopping service, Carrefour said that the integration enabled a “triple innovation.”
According to the food and grocery retailer, Google Assistant allows users to add items to their shopping list by voice using common words such as butter, milk and cheese.
The group explains that because the Assistant is connected to its e-commerce inventory, it is then able to convert that list into a cart of products available for sale on its online grocery selling platform.
Carrefour further added that the conversion is customized, so the specific items added to the shopping cart by the Google Assistant reflect the user’s product preferences as closely as possible, “while leaving the userfree to delete, modify or add products as they wish.”
“Once the shopping cart is confirmed on the Google Assistant, the customer moves seamlessly to Carrefour’s e-commerce site to finalize their order, confirm their slot and delivery method (drive, drive piéton or home delivery), pay and take advantage of their loyalty benefits,” the retailer explains.
Building on the technological integration as well as advances in voice recognition and artificial intelligence, the group noted that the new service service simplifies and customizes the e-commerce grocery shopping experience by offering shoppers with three key features: voice command, shared shopping list and preferred product recognition.
Carrefour noted that the service safeguards users’ personal data adding that users can withdraw their consent at any time and disassociate their accounts.
“The partnership developed with Google gives Carrefour a head start in terms of technology and customer experience,” said Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, Carrefour Group’s Executive Director of E-Commerce, Data and Digital Transformation.
“Carrefour is the first retailer in the world to integrate with the new voice-based grocery shopping experience on the Google Assistant.This innovation, developed with Google, will further accelerate the trajectory of e-commerce at Carrefour.”
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