SalesFuel announces the release of its 2017 AudienceSCAN survey results, delivering vital purchase intent and psychographic data for consumer marketers and sales forces across all industries. Now in its 8th year, this in-depth analysis of more than 18,000 U.S. adult (18+) consumers gives you the exclusive insight to better understand what’s in the hearts and minds of your account’s best customers.

One emerging category identified in this year’s survey is voice-activated assistants, such as Alexa, Cortana, Google Home/Assistant, or Apple’s Siri. Thirteen percent of American adults have used one of these in the past 30 days and SalesFuel has found that users of these devices tend to eat out more frequently and have different grocery habits than the average adult. In fact, SalesFuel forecasts that, “the growth of the voice-activated assistants category will change the way people eat from now on,” says SalesFuel CEO C. Lee Smith. “The rise in use and adoption of these new devices is playing out in this space.”

SalesFuel stresses the opportunity for grocers on the forefront to take advantage of this and change the space. “There seems to be a significant correlation between specialty grocery stores and voice-activated assistant users in particular,” says SalesFuel Vice President of Research Kathy Crosett. “Certain grocery brands are seeing more engagement from these customers.”

Some fresh statistics from the AudienceSCAN survey related to voice-activated assistant users include:

• Whole Foods is huge with voice-activated assistant users 15.4% have shopped there in the past month, compared with just 9% of average Americans (18+).
• Trader Joe’s also is popular with these users. 17.1% visited in the past month, compared to 11.1% of average Americans.
• In contrast, 22% of users shopped at Kroger in the past month vs. 18.9% of average Americans, showing a smaller gap between users and average Americans.
• 6% of voice-activated assistant users had groceries delivered to them in the past year, compared to 9.5% of average Americans.
• Voice-activated assistant users are 13% more likely than the average American to have eaten at a restaurant or ordered takeout 3 or more times per week.
• Users are 20% more likely to have eaten fast food 3 or more times per week than the average American.

“The growing use of grocery delivery services and the rise in frequent diners suggests an exciting opportunity between grocery stores and restaurants and ride-share services. Take for instance, McDonald’s partnership with UberEATS, showing the popularity of ride-share food delivery,” notes Smith.

The AudienceSCAN survey results report that 55.6% of Uber users and 57.4% Lyft passengers used their mobile devices to order food in the past 6 months. Smith adds, “Ride-sharing users are already ordering food online, so the next logical step is to deliver it to them.”

We can’t wait to see how voice-activated assistants super-size this behavior.

Be sure and check out these infographics on voice-activated assistant users’ demographic breakout and their grocery and restaurant habits.