Now users can browse Flipkart's catalogue by voice recognition mechanism.
India’s e-commerce giant Flipkart.com has added voice search feature to its platform. Similar to Google’s voice search, the new feature on Flipkart allows users to speak and search for the items, rather typing out the name. The new feature is based on HTML speech input API, which enables a tweak to search code allowing speech based search.
To use Flipkart’s voice search feature, tap on the mic icon placed in the search bar. Users can use the feature to search for any product on the portal, including books and gadgets. The voice search facility is currently available for desktop users, but will be available on mobile versions of the portal very soon.
“The voice search feature on Flipkart.com is another step towards enhancing the user experience. Our goal is to strengthen and improve the overall search capabilities by providing users with multiple options – be it text or voice. This feature will be even more useful on mobile devices,” yourstory.in quotes Saranagati Chatterjee, VP – Products, Flipkart as saying.
“The current version of voice search will also help us gather a lot of data in terms of usage, user’s preference and its overall accuracy – which in turn will be used to make enhancements to improve the overall experience,” TechCircle quotes Chatterjee as saying.
Flipkart, however, isn’t the first online retailer in India to incorporate voice search. HomeShop18 has already enabled the feature for its site.
Voice search is relatively a new concept in the online shopping space. It’ll be really interesting to see how online shoppers adopt the new feature.
Flipkart has of late made quite a few changes to the site to improve users experience. Among the recent efforts include the new e-book reader and store app for iOS and Windows Phone as well as a web interface. Also read Amazon.in versus Flipkart.com: Deals Compared!