ASOS has launched voice shopping via Google Assistant, becoming one of the first UK fashion retailers to do so.

The e-commerce brand has expanded the capabilities of ‘fashionbot’ Enki, which launched on Facebook Messenger earlier this year to help customers discover relevant products.

Now customers in the UK and the US can initiate a conversation by saying ‘hey Google, talk to ASOS’ to their Google Home smart speaker, giving access to the latest products across ASOS’ top womenswear and menswear categories, viewable on their smartphone.

“With 85,000 products on site at any one time, and on average 5,000 new items added each week, it’s more important than ever to make it easy for our customers to stay on top of what’s new on ASOS”, said senior product manager Jason Gregory.

“With the launch of Enki on Facebook Messenger and now Google Assistant, we’re exploring ways that conversational commerce can help us make the ASOS shopping experience as easy and intuitive as possible.”

Earlier this year, ASOS added features like curated item update ‘Your Edit’, image search capability ‘Style Match’ and machine learning navigation ‘You Might Also Like’ to its online channels.

Jonny Pennington, head of SEO at Visualsoft, called this a bold move that all e-retailers should be paying close attention to.

"Voice search may feel unnatural at first, but e-commerce was the same way in its formative years - businesses that opted not to sell online subsequently spent years playing catch-up, and the same could be true for voice commerce.

“Voice commerce could particularly benefit local, High Street retailers that are not bound by the strict tone-of-voice guidelines which restrict the messaging of larger corporates," he continued, adding: "It may also be a lifeline for retail brands looking to survive, innovate and grow amidst a volatile retail landscape."

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