Colloquial searches: Flipkart's voice feature lets users converse with app

In the mood to eat sweets? Simply say, “Kuch meetha khaana hai”, and multiple options varying from chocolates to traditional mithai pop up on your screen. Ask for your preferred brands and they appear in no time. This is Flipkart’s voice feature, which lets users converse with the app without having to change their natural way of speaking.

Since its introduction, millions of consumers have used it to simplify their e-commerce journey — it allows online shoppers to make voice commands in Hindi, English and a mix of the two. Recent data from the online store throws up interesting facts on the use of this feature.

Queries galore

• Flipkart receives over 5 million voice search commands every day and has clocked over 500 million commands since the launch of the feature
• The English language interface of the app language gets 4 million queries daily, of which around 40% are in Hindi and “Hinglish”

• The Hindi language interface of the app gets 1.5mn queries daily, of which some 35% are in English and Hinglish

Colloquial searches

• From commands to show results for dresses for 16-year-old girls to products that can be delivered before a particular date, every voice search is unique. Among the interesting voice commands are:

Most popular product categories

• Lifestyle and beauty, general merchandise and home business constitute 55-60% of overall voice queries          
• Voice is also increasingly used for electronics and mobiles, which require more descriptive commands with longer unique attributes

Tier 3+ cities top the charts

• These cities contribute over 62% of total voice commands          
• Varanasi, Ranchi, Bhagalpur, Medinipur, Howrah and Ghaziabad are among the top 25 cities that use voice commands          
• Metro cities contribute over 19% of voice searches, with New Delhi at the top

Experimenting at weekends

• Use of voice commands is higher on weekends, when users are willing to explore newer methods of product discovery
• The peak period for use of voice commands is 7 pm to 8 pm