By Christian McKenzie
- Walmart offers Voice Order grocery shopping through Google’s Home assistant
- 14% Generation Z is comprised of African-Americans who are open to trying voice-assisted shopping services
Buying groceries at Walmart (WMT -0.52%) just got easier for customers who can now speak into any Google (GOOG -1.52%) Home assistant device to shop at the retail giant. As the most popular ordering category, grocery purchases make up 20% of voice-assisted shopping. If this service takes hold with Generation Z, which boasts a $44 billion annual buying power, it could prove to be a good investment for Walmart.
Why This Matters: Since 14% of Generation Z is African American and 38% of this demographic is open to using voice-assisted shopping services, Walmart needs to attract them as customers. Currently, Walmart tops Amazon (AMZN +0.74%) in popularity ratings among online grocery shopping sites. However, Google Home has a 23.8% share of the voice activated assistant market, lagging behind industry leader Amazon Echo with a 70% share.
Walmart already ranks in the top 20 brands that urban consumers shop at
E-commerce front runner Amazon naturally drives traffic to the grocery chain it acquired in 2017, Whole Foods, so partnering with Google seems like a good bet for Walmart. With its strong brick and mortar presence, Walmart already ranks in the top 20 brands that urban consumers shop at, and it seems they want to stay popular with this demographic.
Situational Awareness: Walmart seems to be preparing for its digitally-inclined customer base to expand, which now includes Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients in New York. It’s a participating retailer in a two-year pilot program with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service that allows SNAP users to buy groceries online. “The majority of folks that are buying things on EBT are redeeming government benefits at Walmart…” according to Fred Killingsworth, CEO of Hinge.
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