Walmart customers will be able to order groceries with voice commands through Google‘s smart-home assistant, the retail giant announced on Tuesday in its latest effort to compete with Amazon.
Starting this month, shoppers will be to add items directly to their Walmart Grocery cart using Google Assistant by saying “Hey Google, talk to Walmart.” In a blog post published early Tuesday, Walmart hinted that voice shopping might be available with other partners in the future.
“We’re kicking off the work with Google, adding others to the mix as time goes on,” Walmart U.S. senior vice president Tom Ward said in the statement.
The voice commands work on any device with Google Assistant, including Google’s Home Hub, Android phones and iPhones, Ward said.
Walmart’s announcement ramps up the competition with Amazon, which offers grocery shopping through its Alexa voice assistant. Amazon currently dominates the U.S. smart speaker market, capturing 67 percent of market share in 2018 according to research firm eMarketer.
Walmart and Amazon are also competing heavily in the grocery space. Yesterday Whole Foods announced it will slash prices on hundreds of items, offering special discounts to Amazon Prime members. Amazon acquired whole foods for nearly $14 billion in 2017.
Walmart shares closed slightly higher in trading on Monday ahead of the announcement, while shares of Google parent company Alphabet ended the day up 2 percent.
