We are already there! We made a shift from being tech-assisted to tech-dependent. Businesses are now more open to banking on technologies aligned with the changing purchasing preferences of their buyers.

Switching from traditional contact center construct to voice commerce is one of them. 

Let’s uncover how India is poised to be one of the biggest voice commerce consumers but before that, let’s understand what voice commerce is and how it made a significant impact on our shopping preferences. 

What is Voice Commerce?  

Voice commerce is e-commerce that uses AI or voice recognition technology to assist buyers in making transactions seamlessly. Users are now easily able to make purchases using their voice with virtual assistants like Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant or with the aid of virtual receptionists like IVR solutions. 

Users at large are making transactions and bookings online, and voice assistance has amped up sales for businesses more than ever.

• According to a recent study, about 80% of consumers who have made purchases with voice assistants are satisfied with their experience 

• Statista estimated about 72% growth in voice technologies due to COVID-19

• India’s voice commerce shoppers are touted to reach 168 million after 2022

It all started with the virtual business phone system 

Although millions are considering voice shopping over keyboard shopping, many are still skeptical about voice-only buying choices. A recent survey affirms that many female voice commerce shoppers are hesitant to use voice commerce due to privacy and security concerns. 

They still prefer human intervention when placing orders, tracking orders, or resolving critical issues. 

For users like these, businesses are relying on simplified cloud communication solutions to drive down the operational hassles of a traditional contact center and streamline customer interaction setups. Large infrastructural structures are now gradually getting replaced by cloud telephony technologies where businesses are now operating their sales and customer service teams remotely. 

Not only large enterprises, but small to mid-scale businesses in tier 2 and 3 cities in India are also active users of cloud-based business phone systems, and why not? These solutions have maximized mobility and ease of use to their daily customer call-handling tasks, simplifying customer communication at large. 

Many Ecommerce brands are scaling big by: 

• Handling orders and returns with Interactive Voice Response (IVR) 

• Automating cash on delivery confirmations

• Enhancing team productivity with automated call routing 

• Managing mobile communication for order deliveries and customer support 

• Elevating marketing initiatives with automated call campaigns 

• Ensuring customers recognize their brand through a verified number instead of a spammy one to increase call pick-up rates

• Activating virtual or toll-free numbers to let their customers make purchases on call with auto-send payment links via instant messaging. 

Now let’s dive deeper into the success stories of some of the biggest names in the Ecommerce industry. 

#1. How Lenskart Achieved milestone customer service efficiency 

India’s biggest eye-wear brand, Lenskart has millions of retail and online customers. However, their earlier customer communication setup was not adequately equipped to cope with the bulk customer calls. 

They were looking for an advanced call automation system to ease their call-handling process and relieve their frontline execs from manual processes. 

With cloud telephony solutions deployed to scale their business communication based on their multi-store and location-based requirements, their customer service teams could achieve call efficiency and productivity by 10X. Their marketing RoI also increased by 30% followed by a boost of 40% in customer calls. 

#2. How Caratlane improved feedback collection by 80% 

One of India’s premium jewelry brands Caratlane by Tata Group caters to both retail and online customers. They lacked resources to help track customer calls made by store execs. They also didn’t have a unified dashboard to check the status of customer feedback calls. With an outbound call management Dialer App, they are now able to track and make calls on the go, even remotely. All the calls sync automatically on a single dashboard making the customer success team’s life much simpler. 

And the results? 

• They are now easily able to collect customer feedback and that’s 80% more than what they were able to achieve with their old setup.

• Their Net Promoter Score (NPS) also improved by 40% increasing customer retention. 

#3. How Pharmeasy ensures seamless and trusted customer communication 

Listed as India’s leading healthcare service provider, Pharmeasy became an instant hit as a go-to app for booking medicines, lab tests, doctor’s appointments, and more. However, with increasing demand, they were finding it challenging to connect with bulk customers on calls to manage order confirmations and delivery status for health test bookings, sample collections, medicine orders, and more. 

Due to the lack of a ‘verified caller ID’ for their business numbers, customers were skeptical to receive their calls. Many customers also marked their business number as ‘spam’ resulting in disappointing call pick-up rates and customer satisfaction scores. 

After integrating their business number with ‘Truecaller for Business’, they experienced improvements in call efficiency by up to 83% and elevated call pick-up rate. 

#4. How Wakefit significantly improved conversions with call authenticity solution 

Wakefit is a renowned name in the home and sleep solutions category with a sizeable customer base. As a D2C brand, they were finding it difficult to get a grip on one of the most important customer touchpoints — Voice calls. With the lack of a seamless call communication setup, their customer support reps were mostly worked up when managing order confirmations and complaints. 

However, with experiential call-authenticity solutions, they could assure trust amongst its customers with a green screen and a verified badge instead of a red spammy one. They also achieved significant conversions by improving their call retention rate. 

So the crux is, voice commerce or business communication through voice solutions is here to stay and expand exponentially in days to come. What are your thoughts about the future of voice commerce in India? Share your thoughts in the comments. 

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Author bio:

Dipannita Das, Content Lead at MyOperator 

Dipannita Das has worked as a journalist, now a content marketer with over 12 years of experience in both mainstream and digital media. Currently, she’s remotely employed as a content lead with a leading cloud communication brand, MyOperator by the day, and a curious dog communication enthusiast by the night.