Voice Commerce: The Surge of AI-Powered Hands-Free Shopping

Hey, it’s Alex.

In today’s issue:

• Voice Commerce: The Surge of AI-Powered Hands-Free Shopping.

• The Resale Ready Scorecard.

• and more…
  

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The Future of Software is Relationships (with humans)

Imagine using a piece of software for your Shopify store where you had a direct say on the features and capabilities you wanted to see, without having to wait years.

Then imagine that using this replaced 50% of the apps which represent 90% of your operating costs on Shopify.

Now imagine along with this, you get support and guidance on how to maximise the results guaranteeing a multiple on your ROI.

Welcome to Roadmap.

Brands like RUBY, Blunt Umbrellas, Abel, and Two Islands are already using Roadmap to great effect - join us.

BEST LINKS

My favourite finds this week

🛒 Shopify Changelog

• Reply directly to customers who submit a Shopify Form (learn more).

• Menus can now be duplicated in the Shopify admin (learn more).

• Markets persist between customer accounts and online store (learn more).

🤖 AI

• Wispr Flow - I started using this Monday, and have use it to get through emails in 5-10x the speed - currently at 120 words a minute, and 2500+ words written this week to start - highly recommend (website).

• Google confirmed the "plan is AI mode" and they will "keep migrating it to the main page (LinkedIn).

• “Most powerful person on the planet right now is someone who has deep domain knowledge about an industry and can use stuff like n8n, lovable and cursor to make industry specific software tools” (LinkedIn).

📘 Book of the week

• Post Office - Charles Bukowski - (Link)

DEEP DIVE

The Rise of Voice-First Commerce

Shopping is changing shape.

No longer confined to screens or schedules, commerce is becoming ambient - woven quietly into daily routines via voice. Whether cooking, commuting or winding down, people are ordering, reordering and researching through a simple spoken command.

This shift isn’t a novelty. It’s a signal.

One that suggests how digital interaction is evolving: more natural, less intrusive.

A Quiet Surge

This week alone, I discovered the app Wispr Flow AI, and immediately saved time writing emails and answering questions from my team. The dictation corrects my grammar, spell checks, and turns my jumble into what I meant to say.

When it comes to ecommerce voice-led shopping is growing fast. The market was worth nearly $50 billion last year and is expected to triple by 2030.

More users every day research products by voice, and a growing number are completing transactions that way too.

Why? Because it’s easier. It fits around lives, not the other way around.

While the level of voice controls, automation and integrations to 3rd party services will vary internationally - US being further ahead - it is easy to see the impact will be game changing.

What Will Drive The Change

1. Effortless Utility

Voice commerce frees people to act on intention in the moment. No screen, no scroll, no form fields. Just: “Reorder coffee.” Or: “Where’s my parcel?”

Especially helpful when hands are full - or for those for whom traditional interfaces exclude rather than include.

2. Smart Personalisation

AI now knows not just what people buy, but when they’ll likely need it again. Voice assistants can, and will help anticipate reorders, recommend with more relevance, and do so in language that feels more human than robotic. The result? Frictionless, almost invisible transactions.

3. Seamless Searching

People no longer browse - they ask. Good voice interfaces will handle this naturally: “Show me cruelty-free moisturiser under $40,” filters and all. Major retailers are building entire flows around this kind of request-response rhythm.

4. Instant Support

Simple questions don’t always need a support rep. Voicebots will handle delivery queries, refunds, and FAQs with ease - escalating only when complexity calls for a human.

5. Safer Payments

Voice biometrics and layered authentication will now make hands-free checkout not just possible, but trustworthy. Confidence, as ever, is the true currency of commerce.

Changing Customer Expectations

As friction fades, purchase behaviour shifts. Customers act faster, decide sooner. And brands benefit - from richer behavioural data to stronger repeat purchase rates.

Food, beauty and lifestyle retailers already report higher engagement and conversion as voice-led journeys mature.

But there are tensions too.

Visual absence can lead to uncertainty. Privacy concerns linger. And while assistants grow more fluent, human nuance remains a challenge.

Still, the direction is clear.

Looking Ahead

Voice won’t replace traditional commerce. But it will run alongside it - quietly becoming the way many people prefer to interact with their favourite brands.

For brands willing to adapt early, the benefits compound: greater loyalty, leaner operations, and a deeper understanding of what their customers actually want - spoken plainly, in their own words.

🌱 RECOMMERCE x ALMOND LABS

Is Your Brand Ready to Own Its Resale Channel?

In NZ and Australia, customers are already buying your products second-hand. The question is - are you benefiting from it?

Globally, the resale market is quickly growing. It’s expected to hit a value of $47 billion by 2025 (The Spinoff).

Complete your scorecard to see how ready your brand is to take on resale.

🚗 GUIDE

10 actionable steps a brand can take to prepare for voice commerce

1. Simplify Product Data Structure

Your voice assistant is only as good as your data. Ensure your product catalogue is clean, well-tagged, and consistent. Rich metadata - like size, colour, ingredients - enables better, faster voice filtering and accurate results.

2. Optimise for Natural Language

Think beyond keywords. Voice searches sound like questions: “What’s the best moisturiser for dry skin?” Structure your content - product descriptions, FAQs, and even naming conventions - around how people naturally speak.

3. Clarify Brand Positioning

In a voice-first world, you don’t have a visual grid to fall back on. Your tone, product language, and brand story must be concise, distinct and easily spoken. Refine your voice identity so it resonates clearly through voice interfaces.

4. Refactor Navigation Around Intent

Voice users don’t browse - they direct. Instead of menus, think journeys: reorder, track, ask. Map the most common customer intents and align them with fast, voice-driven flows.

5. Enable Reorder & Subscription Logic

Voice is often used for habitual purchases. Ensure your platform can support quick reorders, subscription models, or predictive logic - “Order my usual toner” - without friction.

6. Introduce Conversational Interfaces Gradually

Don’t overhaul overnight. Begin by integrating conversational touchpoints on web or support (e.g. FAQ chatbots), so customers start getting comfortable engaging in natural dialogue with your brand.

7. Invest in Voice-Friendly SEO

Focus on long-tail queries and featured snippets. Tools like Google’s People Also Ask or AnswerThePublic can surface common voice queries. Design your content to answer them - clearly, simply, succinctly.

8. Ensure Secure, Streamlined Payments

Review your checkout process. Frictionless voice commerce demands secure but smooth authentication - consider integrating biometrics or voice recognition protocols for speed and trust.

9. Test Scenarios with Real Speech

Labelling features isn’t enough. Test your buying flows by actually speaking them. You’ll quickly find where language breaks or intent gets misread. Design iterations should follow how people really speak.

10. Prepare Support to Handle Voicefall

Not every query can be automated. Create clear escalation paths - from voicebot to human - so customers feel heard and supported, no matter the channel.

📣 HAVE YOUR SAY

How did we do?

Thanks for reading!

See you next week.

Alex Murton
Shopify for Lifestyle Brands
Co-Founder @ Studio Almond, Almond Labs & Shopify For Lifestyle Brands.