The announcements over the past few days that France’s Monoprix and Coop Sweden have both introduced voice ordering solutions indicates that 2018 could well be the year in which consumers ditch the keyboard and turn to their vocal chords when conducting their weekly shop.
Monoprix’s solution, which uses the Google Assistant app, requires shoppers to simply turn to their smartphone or connected device (such as the Google Home speaker) and say "Ok Google, parle avec Monoprix" ("Ok Google, talk with Monoprix”), before dictating their shopping list, adding or removing items and availing of special offers in particular categories.
The device is also ‘intelligent’ enough to suggest other ingredients that might be needed; as Monoprix’s Pierre-Marie Desbazeille explained, if you buy milk and eggs, “we can suggest that you also buy flour, to make crêpes.”
