Amazon Prime Day 2018 could bring voice e-commerce inflection point
Amazon Prime Day will be about more than deals and one of the biggest e-commerce days of the year. It'll really be about voice.
Last year's Prime Day help seed what turned out to be an Alexa everywhere strategy that put multiple Echos in homes. The Christmas shopping season furthered Amazon's Alexa carpet bomb plan.
With Prime Day kicking off Monday it's worth noting that Amazon's Echo Look and Echo Show are likely to garner a lot of interest and sales. Keep in mind that Amazon is pushing its own brands throughout Prime Day. Amazon's private label brands, Whole Foods and Alexa devices are all going to be part of good deals.
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Thus far Amazon is planning the following for pushing Alexa devices:
- Save $30 on Echo Spot at $99.99
- Save $30 on Echo (Second Generation) at $69.99
- Save $20 on Echo Dot Kids Edition at $59.99
- Save $100 on Echo Look at $99.99
- Save $100 on Echo Show at $129.99
Given that Echo Show just became generally available look for Amazon to add video, Alexa and voice into homes. As we noted previously, voice--either through Prime Day devices or actual shopping--will likely be one of the bigger themes to watch.
Read also: Amazon Prime Day 2018: Everything you need to know (CNET)
So you have two sides of the Amazon voice equation. On one side, Amazon will be pushing Alexa-powered devices. In addition, Amazon will be encouraging e-commerce through Alexa. Walker Sands has projected that as much as 19 percent of consumers may place orders via Alexa.
Cowen & Co. also highlighted how Alexa use cases are proliferating. Cowen estimates that 35 percent of Echo owners made a purchase via Alexa.
Amazon Prime Day 2018: The best early deals in tech so far
Prime Day 2018 is likely to move the needle on those figures.
It's unclear whether Amazon Prime Day can continue to be the biggest e-commerce sales event year after year, but the inflection point in voice interfaces may be here. In the enterprise, this focus on voice is already accelerating. Alexa for Business and enterprise software vendors are focusing on voice interfaces.
Should Alexa cement its commerce chops the service will be tough to beat at home or office or even enterprise apps.
Deals of the day for phones, storage, and laptops.
More on Prime Day 2018:
- Rival tech sales to Amazon Prime Day 2018 now on There is a number of sales being launched by rival companies which don't require a Prime membership.
- Voice is going to play a substantial role on Prime Day 2018 Brent Leary shares his big prediction for Prime Day 2018 with John Lawson.
- 3 things to look for in the Amazon Prime Day 2018 results Amazon Prime 2018 hasn't taken place yet, but we're asking Amazon to clue us in on how much of the shopping done on the day will come via Alexa and what that will mean for the future of voice shopping.
- Amazon Prime vs Amazon Business: Everything you need to know You've probably heard about Prime. But did you know it's more than just free two-day shipping? And what about Amazon Business? Yes, Amazon also offers a marketplace with Prime-like benefits just for businesses. Here's what you need to know about both.
- Prime Day: A showcase for Amazon's engagement 'echosystem' Amazon Prime Day arguably is replacing Black Friday as the shopping day of the year. Brent Leary, customer analyst/influencer extraordinaire, shows how Prime Day is part of the Amazon masterplan to foster engagement and disrupt the universe. Today's the day.
More on Alexa:
- Amazon brings Alexa to hotels
- Cisco Live 2018: Mixing Alexa and networking
- Alexa, what will customer service look like in 2025?
- Amazon gives Alexa a memory, better conversational skills
- Alexa for Business likely to win in smart office, leverage AWS, Echo, developers and consumers
- Cheat sheet: Alexa for Business TechRepublic:
- Amazon AI: The smart person's guide
- How to become an Alexa developer: The smart person's guide