Walmart and Google team up to enter voice-shopping market

Walmart and Google have announced a new partnership that will enable voice shopping through Google Assistant, Google’s virtual assistant that lives on devices like its smart speaker, Google Home.
The world’s largest retailer said Wednesday it’s working with Google to offer hundreds of thousands of items from laundry detergent to Legos for voice shopping through Google Assistant. The capability will be available in late September.
Walmart is also integrating its quick reordering tool into Google’s same-day delivery service. Walmart has bigger plans for voice shopping next year that will involve capitalizing on its 4,700 US stores to create customer experiences that don’t currently exist within voice shopping anywhere else.
Customers might be able to use voice shopping to pick up a discounted order in-store or buy fresh groceries across the country.
The partnership adds to Google’s effort to catch up in the market for voice-based assistant devices, and by extension protect its dominant Internet search engine, which many consumers use for online shopping.
For Walmart, the partnership is the latest step in the retailer’s aggressive effort to close the gap with Amazon in e-commerce.