How does the internet work when we get to do some physical activities?
The simplest answer is we don’t. However, I thought you’d be interested to hear that people are hungry for clever ways to access online commerce without doing real work!
Next week I’ll be introducing you to two alternative methods:
Using your voice to order items, easily connected to the internet with a trusted website via a browser extension, app or request for an Alexa-powered Echo speaker.
Using Alexa to shop from the web… *elevates the spoken dialogue between the user and the shopping website, increasing the interaction between machine and user.
1. Alexa + Dash
We’ll start with a simple example — you listen to an item on YouTube, instead of typing out a search query and then browsing to a website where you order, it gives you a link to your account website which will book the product for you.
We’ll discuss these two scenarios today, so you can see how both can work, starting with the first one.
2. Alexa + Dash
Now it’s time to talk about the second:
You’ve finished online shopping, and you’re hungry to eat. Unbeknownst to you, you’re recording your activity and will be able to jump right into the conversation that will follow through the call.
So, you just do your browsing on the smart site you’ve created in a tabular manner, and the button will open a menu which will show you what goods or products are on sale.
Now you will be informed by Alexa that you should “buy organic produce from your local market”. Therefore you will then scroll and scroll to find those product links and search for them.
If you are trying to purchase in bulk like “5 books for x million”, this will be the most complex part of your voice conversation.
It might take you a while to search, but there will be a score system that will show you how much time it will take you to complete, giving you a handy, visual report of the time frame.
Even though you will be running this through the phone app you’ve been using for years, I expect voice to become an extremely popular mode of commerce. Here’s a couple of things to consider:
Try not to do your shopping by the phone app. Everyone’s different and who’s using the phone app for shopping, where you’re shopping from, what are your buying habits, how long you’ve been shopping on this app, etc. It just becomes easier to simply use the app provided.
You might have the phone app open in the background with the voice interface, but may be using one of the browsers on your PC. Your browser might be the closest to your voice interface, so if you’re browsing the internet at a time, what type of internet site or app you’re on, and how long you’ve been there, this info should come up.
You’ll need to research and develop a voice app. That’s not as easy as it sounds. I will give you a few examples and I’ll show you some typical UI/UX used on Alexa devices, each one of which will be able to be used as a voice app (you’ll find here a button to enable you to change the application languages)
Any app that’s not a full-fledged project deserves a heavy workout and you should learn how to create a voice app in no time! If you find yourself wishing to launch the app when you see it anywhere else, you should be aware that you have to go to where the voice app is sitting, if it’s in the web app directory, you can call it using the words “query” or “account”, or you can name it with a unique name.
If you’re going to launch a voice app, go to Google Play Store or find it in the App Store!
I’ve already covered how to build an Alexa device and create a voice app, today we’ll cover the latter. But before that, find a voice actor that you have someone you love to connect you to something powerful. They’ll also connect you to a role.
For example, you and your best friend have decided to start a singing project so you create a chatbot where you chat about anything, and every so often you’ll see a recording of your “voice” on the webcam and your friend can check it out on their smartphone. It’s like a video camera for personal reference feedback.
If you want to
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