WALLDORF, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)--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.
Any statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “forecast,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “project,” “predict,” “should” and “will” and similar expressions as they relate to SAP are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. SAP undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. The factors that could affect SAP's future financial results are discussed more fully in SAP's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including SAP's most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates.
© 2017 SAP SE. All rights reserved.
SAP and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP SE in Germany and other countries. Please see http://www.sap.com/corporate-en/legal/copyright/index.epx#trademark for additional trademark information and notices.
Note to editors:
To preview and download broadcast-standard
stock footage and press photos digitally, please visit www.sap.com/photos.
On this platform, you can find high resolution material for your media
channels. To view video stories on diverse topics, visit www.sap-tv.com.
From this site, you can embed videos into your own Web pages, share
video via email links, and subscribe to RSS feeds from SAP TV.
For customers interested in learning more about SAP products:
Global
Customer Center: +49 180 534-34-24
United States Only: 1 (800)
872-1SAP (1-800-872-1727)
