Amazon’s line of smart speakers, powered by the company’s virtual assistant Alexa, is widely considered a big success. Despite initial privacy concerns, the company sold millions of Echo devices in the United States and abroad, gaining a significant advantage on what many consider the next major battlefield in tech.
If the Seattle-based e-commerce giant hoped that its smart speakers would boost the company’s core business by increasing users’ online sales, those hopes have most likely been disappointed. As data from comScore illustrates, very few users of smart speakers use them to order goods or services online. The most common use case is asking basic questions, which according to a separate report is not Alexa’s strong suit.
This chart shows what smart speakers are used for by households owning such devices in the United States.