Number of Consumers Considering Artificial Intelligence–Enabled Devices for Holiday Shopping Doubles

  • Survey commissioned by SAP shows four out of 10 U.S. shoppers are considering smart assistants to purchase gifts
  • Interest in using chatbots and voice-enabled devices for commerce is growing, but barriers remain
  • Businesses are well-advised to include smart assistants in their omnichannel strategy

WALLDORF, Germany--()--SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today announced that nearly four out of 10 consumers who own in-home assistants are considering using them for holiday shopping this year — to purchase gifts for others (16 percent), research deals and savings for gifts (15 percent), and for their own purchases (7 percent). These findings derive from a survey commissioned by SAP of 1,000 U.S. consumers, researching usage of artificial intelligence (AI)–powered smart devices for holiday shopping. The survey affirms growing interest in relying on AI technologies for commerce and that companies already considering chatbots and voice-enabled assistants in their omnichannel strategy are on the right track.

More Consumers Trust AI to Do Their Shopping
Voice-enabled speakers such as Amazon Echo, Google Home and Sonos One will be installed in 55 percent of U.S. households by the year 2022, according to research from Juniper Research. The smart assistants are seeing an uptick in adoption by U.S. consumers, who are increasingly using them for a variety of applications — from streaming music and making lists, to hearing the news, and even making purchases.

When it comes to holiday shopping specifically, the survey found that just 17 percent of consumers that own an in-home assistant said they used it last year. The increased interest in using the devices for holiday shopping in 2017 — more than double compared to the prior year — demonstrates a growing interest in relying on AI-powered technologies for commerce. The top reason for using an in-home assistant to purchase gifts is convenience, with more than 18 percent of respondents citing this as a key benefit.

“As retailers look to meet shoppers’ expectations for convenience and personalization, artificial intelligence is playing a crucial role in the customer journey,” said Johann Wrede, global vice president of strategic marketing for SAP Hybris solutions at SAP. “Chatbots and voice-enabled assistants deliver a convenient, hands-free experience, removing even more barriers to customer engagement. These technologies will not be successful on their own, however — they will need a rich set of customer data in order to make relevant recommendations and be truly helpful.”

Barriers Prevent Further Adoption of Smart Devices for Commerce
While AI is becoming more accepted for helping with holiday purchases, there are still many skeptics who haven’t gotten on board with using their in-home assistants for commerce. Only 28 percent of respondents feel that their device understands them well enough to recommend gift ideas. Additionally, smart speaker owners report the top two limitations of the assistants as:

  • Can’t determine visual product quality (20 percent) — shoppers want to be confident in their purchases and know what they look and feel like
  • Requires too much guidance (19 percent) — consumers are looking for a seamless experience and want their devices to understand their needs and foster convenience

SAP® Hybris® solutions are being developed with a commitment to furthering AI and machine learning (ML) innovation and helping organizations overcome barriers to adoption. A ML co-innovation program has been launched with the goal of partnering with customers to embed new capabilities into SAP Hybris Sales Cloud and SAP Hybris Service Cloud solutions. Additionally, SAP Hybris solutions offer components or features with embedded ML today, including advanced personalization, contextual merchandizing, customer experience, shopping assistant bot, best product, best offer, best channel, best sending time, best audience, affinity scoring, sentiment analysis, imaging intelligence, service ticket text analysis, and customer service bot.

See also an infographic on consumers’ use of AI for holiday shopping here.

For more information on SAP Hybris solutions, visit the SAP Hybris News Center or follow SAP Hybris solutions on Twitter at @saphybris. For more information on SAP, visit SAP News Center or follow SAP on Twitter at @sapnews.

About SAP
As market leader in enterprise application software, SAP (NYSE: SAP) helps companies of all sizes and industries run better. From back office to boardroom, warehouse to storefront, desktop to mobile device – SAP empowers people and organizations to work together more efficiently and use business insight more effectively to stay ahead of the competition. SAP applications and services enable more than 365,000 business and public sector customers to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and grow sustainably. For more information, visit www.sap.com.

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For more information, press only:
SAP
Michael Baxter, +49 151 1719 6185
m.baxter@sap.com, CET
SAP News Center press room
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Release Summary

SAP SE today announced that nearly four out of 10 consumers who own in-home assistants are considering using them for holiday shopping this year.

Contacts

For more information, press only:
SAP
Michael Baxter, +49 151 1719 6185
m.baxter@sap.com, CET
SAP News Center press room
press@sap.com
or
PAN Communications
Jenny Radloff or Nikki Festa, +1 617-502-4300
SAPHybris@pancomm.com, ET