Smart Speakers Are Shopping for Your Customers. Can They Find You?

By 2025, nearly 75% of U.S. households are expected to own a smart speaker. Devices like Amazon Echo, Google Nest Hub, and Apple HomePod are becoming common in homes, and they're changing how people shop.​

Shoppers are asking these devices to reorder items, find new products, and even make purchases—all without looking at a screen. This shift means that the way products are discovered and bought online is evolving.​

For online sellers, this change is significant. Voice assistants typically provide a single response to a query, so if your product data isn't optimized for voice search, your products might not be the ones customers hear about.​

Many product feeds are still designed for visual browsing, not for voice interactions. This gap presents an opportunity. By updating your product feeds to be voice-friendly, you can ensure your products are more likely to be recommended by voice assistants.

More Smart Speakers, More Sales—If You’re Ready

Voice shopping isn’t just a novelty anymore—it’s becoming a real part of how people buy.

In 2024, shoppers spent about $15 billion through voice-enabled devices in the U.S. alone. That number could pass $50 billion by 2030. Globally, voice commerce is expected to hit $148 billion by then, growing steadily each year.

A big reason for this growth? People are getting more comfortable using voice for everyday tasks. Asking smart speakers to reorder laundry detergent or look up new shoes feels natural now. Around 43% of voice assistant users have already used their device to shop—sometimes without ever glancing at a screen.

If you’re selling online, this shift matters. As more buyers start their shopping journey with a voice command instead of a search bar, your product data needs to be ready for that interaction. Otherwise, your products may not show up—or worse, not be found at all.

Traditional Feeds Don’t Work for Voice. You Need a Different Kind of Product Data

Voice search isn’t just a different way to ask questions—it’s a different way to get answers. And that changes how your product feed should work.

When someone types into a search bar, they usually use short keywords. Something like “running shoes men size 11.” But when they ask a voice assistant, it sounds more like a conversation: “What are the best running shoes for men in size 11?” Voice search is longer, more natural, and often phrased as a question.

Here’s the catch—voice assistants don’t scan the web like a person does. They pull from structured data. That means they rely on the details in your product feed to decide what shows up. If your feed isn’t built to match how people talk, your products won’t surface in those results.

To stay visible, you need to rethink how you build and format your product data. It’s not just about stuffing keywords or having nice images. You need titles and descriptions that sound natural when spoken. You need clean, structured fields that voice assistants can read easily. You might even need to include answers to common questions, because a lot of voice searches start with “how,” “what,” or “where.”

If your feed is still built for screens, now’s the time to update it for speakers.

Sound Like Your Customers Talk—That’s the Key to Voice Search

If you're looking to stay ahead in voice commerce, your product feed needs to do more than just show up. It has to speak the language—literally.

Here’s how to start:

1. Use natural language in your descriptions

Write product titles and descriptions the way people talk. Voice searches tend to be more conversational, so skip the jargon and focus on clarity. Instead of “Men’s Running Shoes – Size 11 – Lightweight – Blue,” try “lightweight blue running shoes for men, size 11.” Think answers, not keywords.

2. Keep your data clean and structured

Voice assistants don’t guess. They read from structured fields. Make sure your feed has properly mapped attributes like brand, size, color, material, and price. Use consistent formatting so platforms like Google, Amazon, and Meta know exactly what you’re selling.

3. Add FAQ-style content

A lot of voice queries start with questions. Adding Q&A-style content to your product data—or linking it with your landing pages—can help surface your products when someone asks, “What’s the best smartwatch under $200?” Use schema markup to structure these answers where possible.

4. Focus on accuracy and completeness

Voice search often returns just one result. If your feed is missing key info—like availability, shipping times, or variants—you might get skipped. Make sure each product entry is complete and up to date.

This isn’t about starting from scratch. It’s about shaping your feed so that voice platforms can understand it—and trust it enough to recommend your products.

Common challenges in voice feed optimization

Transitioning to voice commerce introduces several challenges:

• Speech recognition errors: Accents, slang, and background noise can lead to misinterpretations.​
  
• Limited integrations: Not all ecommerce platforms seamlessly support voice commerce features.​
  
• Consumer trust: Some users hesitate to make purchases via voice due to privacy concerns.​
  
• Data accuracy: Incomplete or outdated product information can hinder voice search results.

Don’t Tackle Voice Optimization Alone—The Right Tools Help

Getting your feed ready for voice doesn’t have to mean starting from scratch. Automation can do a lot of the heavy lifting—especially if you’re managing product data across multiple platforms like Google, Amazon, Meta, and more.

Feed management platforms help restructure product data to meet the specific requirements of each channel, including voice-enabled ones. They can clean up your feed, apply custom rules, and keep listings accurate and consistent.

Some tools also let you add voice-friendly content—like FAQ-style answers or natural-language descriptions—without changing your original source data.

Here’s what that looks like in practice:

• Automate feed optimization: Keep your product data up to date and structured correctly for voice platforms.
  
• Customize product data: Use feed rules to align product titles, descriptions, and attributes with the way people speak.
  
• Manage feed distribution: Distribute optimized data across all your sales channels, without duplicating work.

With the right tools, your product feed does more than keep up. It leads the way as shopping habits shift to voice.

If Smart Speakers Are Doing the Shopping, Your Feed Needs to Stand Out

Smart speakers are everywhere, and people are using them to shop. That changes the way your products need to show up online.

When someone asks a voice assistant for a product, it doesn’t return a long list. It gives one answer. If your product data isn’t built for that kind of interaction—clear, structured, and easy to read out loud—your listings could get skipped.

You don’t need to rebuild everything. Start by checking how your product feed is set up today. Ask yourself:

• Does it sound natural when read out loud?
  
• Are all the important fields filled out?
  
• Can a voice assistant easily understand it?

If the answer’s no, it might be time to make some updates. And if you’re already managing feeds across Google, Amazon, Meta, or other channels, there are tools that can help you do it faster and with less stress.

What to do next

• Take a look at how your product data is written and organized
  
• Find the gaps that could affect voice search results
  
• Use tools that help you clean up, customize, and sync your feed across channels

The way people shop is changing. Getting your feed ready now means you won’t be playing catch-up later.