Consumers can now tell their iPhone to order an item

BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Walmart shoppers can now ask Siri, the virtual assistant on their iPhone or iPad, to add items to their online grocery cart.

“Earlier this year we announced a new way to make online grocery shopping even easier for customers – Walmart Voice Order – a service that gives customers the option to add items to their Walmart online grocery cart by simply saying the words,” the executives Tom Ward (senior vice president of digital operations for Walmart U.S.), Ashley Hubka (SVP of corporate strategy and development) and Janey Whiteside (chief customer officer) noted in a post on the retailer’s web site on Monday.

Walmart is now offering a Siri shortcut for the Walmart Voice Order, making the service easier to use with Apple devices.

“Customers simply ask Siri to start adding items directly to their Walmart Online Grocery cart after they’ve paired their accounts,” the blog post states. “It feels a little like magic on an iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Mac, HomePod or in the car with CarPlay.”

Customers build out their basket by just saying “Add to Walmart” and then naming the product they want to add to their cart. After that, customers can place their order and Walmart personal shoppers get to work gathering the items for the customer, who can pick the order up on the way home or have it delivered right to their door.

“We built Walmart Voice Order with customers in mind. We designed the entire experience for voice shopping to help save time in the kitchen, in the car, or on the go. We know customers are busy and we’re here to help.

“The more customers use it, the better the experience will be. Customers can trust that we can quickly and accurately identify the items they are asking for, thanks to information from their purchase history with us. For example, if a customer says, “add orange juice to my cart,” we’ll make sure to add the specific orange juice the customer buys regularly. Instead of saying “Great Value organic orange juice with no pulp,” they’ll simply say: “orange juice” and we’ll add the right one.”

Walmart said its Voice Order service now works across the leading voice assistants, including Google Assistant. That, together with the expansion of the retailer’s online grocery pickup and delivery capabilities, means that nearly 80% of the country can order groceries by just saying what items they need, the company said.