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When it comes to product and feature diversification, Amazon isn’t exactly a novice.

But at the core of its business, one might argue, is ecommerce: The business of buying and selling goods and services online.

So when The Information learned that one of Amazon’s newer, but core offerings — its digital personal assistant Alexa — was barely being used to make purchases, it gave pause.

According to the report, 2% of devices equipped with Alexa — which is mostly comprised of the Echo, Amazon’s smart home speaker — have been used to make a purchase. And out of that 2% — only 10% made repeat purchases.

The report also notes that 50 million units of the Echo have been sold.

The metrics got me wondering: Did voice shopping even have a “moment” that’s already come and gone? Or is it simply struggling to get its foothold — and its growth is yet to come?

I did some research to find out.

Why Voice Shopping Is Already a Thing of the Past [New Data]

Some Background

Alexa first became a household name in 2016, when Amazon aired its first-ever Super Bowl commercial featuring rapper Missy Elliott and actor Alec Baldwin, among other celebrities, using the Echo speaker.

Source: AdAge 

At the time, the assistant was only available on the Echo and its smaller version, the Echo Dot. Today, it’s also available on such Amazon platforms as Fire devices and certain Android phones.

One of its chief selling points — so it was thought — was the ability to make hands-free purchases on Amazon using Alexa, which could make product selections and recommendations based on your shopping history. 

Earlier this year, new data emerged that predicted voice shopping sales from Echo and Google Home devices would reach $40 billion by 2022: quite a significant jump from the present $2 billion cited at the time.

The reason, the report said, was improved technology within the realm search — as well as, perhaps, a growing number of brands selling smart speakers with voice shopping capabilities.

This month, Samsung threw its hat into the ring with the yet-to-be-debuted Galaxy Home smart speaker, powered by its own digital personal assistant, Bixby.

But this latest information may project a different direction. Perhaps the aforementioned study is correct about improvements in technology, and that the current experience leaves users with something to be desired, preventing them from taking the same action again.

But does that hypothesized dissatisfaction stem to the other use cases for smart speakers? And although 50 units of the Echo have been sold — the same number as Apple Watch units, notes Benedict Evans — our findings indicate that the issue might be rooted in perceived value.

Voice Shopping Usage

We asked 491 internet users across the U.S. and UK: Have you ever used a smart speaker to make a purchase?

On average, about half of the respondents answered “no.” But 20% also indicated that they don’t own a smart speaker to begin with.

Data collected with Lucid

While this does corroborate estimates of voice shopping’s slow growth, it also reflects a potentially (and equally) slow growth of market adoption of smart speakers to begin with.

How Smart Speakers Are Used

We asked 500 internet users across the U.S. and UK: What do you use your smart speaker for the most?

The results — in line with the previous survey — indicated that over half of respondents don’t use a smart speaker. 

Data collected with Lucid

The most common use for the devices, it seems, is checking the weather — hardly a cutting-edge use case — which came in at an average of 12.3%.

Voice shopping came in second, at 10.4%.

What the Numbers Could Mean

Again, we’re presented with the possibility of a low perceived value of smart speakers. 

But it could also be an instance of slow market permeation and adoption. Like many other instances of emerging technology, when something is new, it may seem cost-prohibitive and “not worth” the price tag. 

Take the HomePod, for instance: Apple’s Siri-powered smart speaker, which is currently priced at about $350. In my experience — which I wrote about here — it offers the least value compared to the Echo or Google Home. And yet, the latter two both offer smart speakers (usually the smaller version, but with the same capabilities) for as little as $50.

According to the 2018 Smart Audio Report, the yet-to-come growth trend may play out — and ownership could just now be starting to peak, with 18% of U.S. adults currently owning a smart speaker.

Source: Edison Research

Among those surveyed for that report, all were current smart speaker owners — but nearly three-quarters of them had owned them for less than a year, pointing to a potentially upward growth trend.

Source: Edison Research

The same could be true of using these smart speakers for home shopping purposes. While the survey asked respondents about a number of use cases for their smart speakers, home shopping wasn’t one of them — but “add an item to your shopping list” was.

Source: Edison Research

What’s interesting is that there was a higher rate of affirmative response here among the early mainstream owners — those who were a bit later to owning a smart speaker — than there was among first adopters.

Again, the question wasn’t asking about using the device to make a purchase, but rather, to build a shopping list.

But it still raises a question: Could it be that with the growth of smart speaker ownership among later adopters, there will also be growth in using them for voice shopping?

Possibly. While Evans says that he’s “always argued voice was not a great commerce model,” there are certain brand loyalty aspects to consider.

“There are broader benefits” to brands continuing to offer voice shopping capabilities on their smart speakers, Evans writes — like with Amazon, “keeping you tied to Prime, for example.”

When you think about the major manufacturers of some of Amazon’s competitors — Apple, Google, and now Samsung — there already exists a certain amount of brand loyalty for each. For many (yours truly included), straying from the iOS ecosystem for, say, a Google Pixel smartphone might seem like a terrifying scenario. For others, it may work in reverse.

So as more of these players begin to enter the smart speaker market, improve the technology, and maintain these capabilities — the growth (alongside brand loyalty) could follow.

Stay tuned.

In high school, one of my friends was determined to find the perfect time to post her Instagram photos to maximize the amount of likes she got. She was surprisingly scientific about it, posting at different times of the day and jotting down each of her posts’ “likes per minute”. After weeks of testing, she figured out which post time raked in the most likes, and, from then on, she could easily get 200 likes on all her Instagram posts.

My friend’s rather scientific method to maximize her Instagram likes still makes me chuckle to this day. But since I’m a marketer now, her desire to build a strong Instagram presence also resonates with me.

To build a sizable Instagram following, you need to create compelling content that your audience actually craves. But if you don’t post your content at the right time, most of them will never see it.

So how do you figure out the optimal post time for your specific audience?

The best way to find an ideal posting time is by testing the timing of your posts to see which post time generates the most audience engagement.

But if you don’t have enough resources or time to conduct your own tests, Sprout Social, a social media management platform with over 24,000 customers, has you covered. This year, they analyzed their customer data to see what time and day their social media posts generated the most engagement. They also segmented the data by social network and industry.

Looking at their aggregate customer data for Instagram, you can see that the following days and times (in Central Time Zone) are ideal for generating the most engagement on the social network:

Here are some more insights about optimal post timing extracted from their data:

• Posting at 5:00 AM CDT from Tuesday to Friday generates some of the highest engagement — people usually check their phones right when they wake up.
• Posting from 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM CDT during the weekdays also generates a lot of engagement — people usually check their phones during lunch or when they start to run out of mental energy toward the end of the work day.
• If you want to post on the weekends, post on Saturday around 11:00 AM CDT when people eat brunch or hang out with their friends.

This general data about optimal post timing is a great starting point for growing an engaged Instagram audience, but if you want to get more granular, here are the best times to post on Instagram if your organization is in the technology, B2C, education, healthcare, and non-profit industries, according to Sprout Social’s research.

Best Times to Post on Instagram for Technology Companies

• Best Time: Wednesday at 10:00 AM CDT
• Most Consistent Engagement: Wednesday to Friday from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM CDT
• Best Day: Thursday
• Worst Day: Sunday

Best Times to Post on Instagram for B2C Companies

• Best Time: Saturday at 11:00 AM & 1:00 PM CDT
• Most Consistent Engagement: Everyday from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM CDT
• Best Day: Wednesday
• Worst Day: Monday

Best Times to Post on Instagram for Educational Organizations

• Best Time: Monday at 8:00 PM CDT
• Most Consistent Engagement: Weekdays from 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM CDT
• Best Day: Monday
• Worst Day: Sunday

Best Times to Post on Instagram for Healthcare Companies

• Best Time: Tuesday at 1:00 PM CDT
• Most Consistent Engagement: Tuesday to Friday from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM CDT
• Best Day: Tuesday
• Worst Day: Saturday & Sunday

Best Times to Post on Instagram for Non-Profit Organizations

• Best Times: Tuesday at 3:00 PM & 9:00 PM, Wednesday at 3:00 PM & 4:00 PM, Thursday at 2:00 PM & 3:00 PM, and Friday at 10:00 AM & 2:00 PM,
• Most Consistent Engagement: Weekdays from 12:00 PM to 5:00 PM
• Best Day: Tuesday
• Worst Day: Saturday

Timing is Key

Every brand’s audience is different. To build a sizable, engaged Instagram audience, you need to know who your followers are. And one of the best ways to get to know your audience and capture their attention is by knowing exactly when they like to surf the app.

“Unriddled” is HubSpot’s mid-week digest of the tech headlines you need to know. Each week, we highlight the top stories in a quick, scannable way and break it all down. It’s tech news: explained.

Unriddled: The Tech News You Need

1. Samsung’s Big Moves

Samsung, which is largely known by some for its mobile devices, has been appearing in its fair share of headlines lately. From its latest smartphone release to a new smart speaker, here are some key highlights.

The Galaxy Note9

Samsung held a high-profile product unveiling last week, where it officially debuted the Galaxy Note9: its much-speculated latest smartphone release, which boasts such nifty features as a “health censor” that can measure vitals like your heart rate and blood pressure.

It comes with one of the company’s signature stylus pens: the Note9 S Pen, which can remotely unlock the phone, play music (from the phone), and even control games like Fortnite — a game that, Samsung will have you know, is available in beta to Galaxy users.

Source: Samsung

Its other boasting points include all-day battery life and 512GB built-in storage space. The price tag: a cool $1,000.

As for the design and build specs, VentureBeat‘s Kyle Wiggers has you covered. Read full story >>

Back to Bixby

When I attended the Samsung Developer Conference last year, the spotlight was largely on Bixby: the company’s digital personal assistant, akin to Amazon’s Alexa or Google’s Assistant.

But in the months following the event, Bixby had yet to make a mainstream appearance — until now. At the same unveiling event for the Galaxy Note9, Samsung at long last debuted its Bixby-powered Galaxy Home smart speaker.

Kind of.

The Galaxy Home speaker is slated to boast superior sound quality — much like the otherwise disappointing HomePod did — and is activated with the “Hi, Bixby” command. According to the Verge‘s Jacob Kastrenakeshe, the speaker should have the same Bixby capabilities as those available on Samsung phones. As for its release date, well, that’s to be determined.

However, this year’s Samsung Developer Conference is currently scheduled for early November, where I expect to hear more about Bixby — including, perhaps, more details around the Galaxy Home.

Of note: Among these announcements, Samsung also announced a new Galaxy smartwatch. Read full story >>

2. Facebook’s Video Acquisition

Facebook confirmed this week that it acquired the seven-person team, along with accompanying technology, from Vidpresso: a startup that helps make video content interactive.

For some time now, Facebook has been seeking ways for users to engage more with video. Earlier this year, we covered these efforts when it announced a host of new native features to make live videos more interactive, like real-time polling and game-show-style Q&A filters.

Source: Facebook

Some have speculated that these features are Facebook’s attempt to mimic the success of HQ Trivia (which yesterday announced a new partnership with Apple TV). That app offers interactive Q&A features similar to the ones slated to be incorporated into Facebook’s video platforms. TechCrunch‘s Josh Constine has more. Read full story >>

3. YouTube Rolls out New Incentives for “Stars”

YouTube is reportedly offering to pay its most popular creators to make use of and promote such new features as premium memberships and live chat. The compensation, allegedly, falls somewhere between tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

It’s one of the ways YouTube is responding to Creator demand for more diversified ways to monetize beyond advertising. The new options also include a built-in platform for merchandise sales, and “Super Chat,” which allows followers to pay the Creator to give their messages a shout-out during live broadcasts. Bloomberg‘s Lucas Shaw has more. Read full story >>

4. You Can Expect Group FaceTime, but Not Next Month

One of the many new items unveiled at WWDC — Apple’s annual developer conference — was Group FaceTime: a new feature within Apple’s built-in video call platform that would allow numerous parties to join the conversation at once.

But according to the beta release of iOS 12 — the latest iPhone operating system, expected to launch in full in September — Group FaceTime isn’t included. It also won’t be included in the latest MacBook operating system, macOS Mojave, according to 9to5Mac.

Source: Apple

Apple is one of the later players in the Big Tech realm to offer a group chat platform. Instagram, for example, offers four-way video messaging, while Facebook offers group calls and video chats within Messenger. For the later, the maximum is 50 people — whereas Group FaceTime would cap participants at 32. Read full story >>

More News You May Have Missed

5. Facebook Page Engagement Has Dropped 50%, According to New Data

Spoiler alert: Page engagement is still down. Read full story >>

6. YouTube Poised to Unseat Facebook as #2 Website in the U.S.

A new study shows YouTube might soon dethrone the social media giant. Read full story >>

7. I Looked at Everything Google Is Tracking on Me. Here’s What I Found.

New research shows that Google may know exactly where you are and where you’re going — even with location history turned off. Read full story >>

8. 65% of People Think Social Media Sites Should Remove This Content

Are social media networks responsible for the factually incorrect content shared and published on their platforms? Nearly two-thirds of internet users think so. Read full story >>

That’s all for today. Until next week, feel free to weigh in on Twitter to ask us your tech news questions, or to let us know what kind of events and topics you’d like us to cover.

Featured image credit: Samsung