“Say Siri”, “Hey Google”, and “Attention Alexa” are words ringing across the world every day. According to Statista, more than 4.2 billion digital voice assistants are used daily. We’ve come a long way since HAL 9000 said, “Sorry Dave, I can’t do that.” in the movie A Space Odyssey way back in 1968. Today Siri will do almost anything. She’ll turn on your device, do a search, respond to commands and tell you what the weather looks like on Stone Henge today.
We call it SMART.
Welcome to the age of the Internet of Things (IoT), where voice-enabled devices have become the controlling hubs for smart home technology. Smartphones and smart speakers are at the forefront of this race for the next best and biggest thing. Could the future of smart speakers be in payments?
Can you see yourself asking Alexa to pay John via Google Pay in the near future?
Say what?
As biometric authentication methods become more widely accepted and contactless payments the order of the day, voice payments are likely to grow. It takes the hassle out of pins and passwords, as many believe a voice can’t be hacked. According to Melinda Ziemer, Director of Marketing at LumenVox, voice pay decouples any personal information from the voiceprint, so it’s not connected to any sensitive customer information. ”It’s just a bunch of 0s and 1s”. Routine transactions like money transfers, bill payments, and card activations can be done quickly and seamlessly. But it’s not about convenience and accessibility alone. Voice payments offer new, cost-saving integration opportunities across digital payment touchpoints. It promises to simplify and revolutionise the financial services industry.
Welcome to a new era in ecommerce: Say and Pay
According to Patrick Gauthier, VP at Amazon Pay, voice payments are the future of customer experience in retail. “It is akin to what happened with mobile maybe 10 years ago or even with ecommerce 20 years ago.” Leaders in ecommerce like Amazon and Alibaba have already incorporated it into their offerings. Will smaller retailers follow? They are already battling to keep up with the speed and convenience consumers experience when ordering from one of the multi-national ecommerce players.
Most of the development work will be done by the bigger players. Smaller businesses can sit back and wait for all the wrinkles to be ironed out before they go to market with tried and tested technology. And there are wrinkles.
Hurdles of voice payment technology
One of the biggest hurdles of voice payments is interoperability. Interoperability is the ability of computer systems or software to exchange and use information. And it’s currently lacking in the field of voice payments. It means that big players in this space can expand their reach at the expense of smaller players. The European Union expressed concern about voice payments and is investigating antitrust allegations for exactly this reason. For example, if you manufacture and market smart speakers you can push your products to the front of the queue. Amazon is a good example. They can programme their smart speakers to recommend products on Amazon at the cost of smaller businesses. It gives them an unfair advantage and opens the door to monopolies.
Trust and security offer further challenges. Will consumers trust their smart devices to do as they wish or will they be concerned that a slip of the tongue can send Siri on a shopping spree? These concerns will dissipate as users get accustomed to the technology and two-factor authentication becomes the order of the day. What’s more important is getting the user experience right so that it is better than what is currently available.
The winners of this race will be the payment providers that develop, test and implement fast. The disruptors are the smaller players that can move much faster and be more innovative.
At the centre of all this technology is the customer. If Dave asks for voice payments, HAL 9000 should say, “Sure, Dave. Would you like to use Apple, Google Pay, Alexa or Cortana?”
If you’re serious about ecommerce and staying at the forefront of technology insights and payments fraud, speak to Truevo. We are launching Apple Pay and Google Pay in the coming weeks. Subscribe to our waiting list. We can’t wait to Say Pay with you.
