Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE:WMT) and Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG,NASDAQ:GOOGL) are partnering up to bring a plethora of voice-activated products to Walmart stores.
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) has been ahead of the pack in terms of smart gadgets and products that use its voice-activated digital assistant Alexa. Now, Walmart and Alphabet are hoping to challenge Amazon’s business with products that use Google Assistant.
The retailer announced on Wednesday that it would be adding to its stores hundreds of thousands of items that are compatible with Alphabet’s voice-activated assistant. The move will expand on the tech company’s smart-home suite that was launched earlier this year to improve Google Home’s capabilities.
While the company has already partnered up with other brick-and-mortar retailers, Walmart will hold the largest assortment of products that are compatible with Google Assistant. Additionally, Alphabet is making its voice-activated products more accessible to consumers by removing its membership free, and offering free shipping as long as they reach a certain order size, which is $35 in Walmart’s case.
“It makes sense for us to team up with Google. They’ve made significant investments in natural language processing and artificial intelligence to deliver a powerful voice shopping experience,” Walmart U.S. e-commerce CEO Marc Lore wrote in a blog post on hump day.
GOOG stock grew 0.3%, while GOOGL shares surged 0.2% Wednesday. WMT stock fell 0.1%.
