Walmart and Google Team Up to Face-Off with Amazon

The list of things you can do using a Google Home has expanded yet again.

The tech giant announced it’s joining forces with Walmart to make hundreds of thousands of products available for purchase and home delivery through Google Express, the company’s online marketplace.

Starting in late September, Walmart customers can buy what they need through the Google Express website or app or Google Home by reading their shopping list out loud. The voice-enabled shopping puts the newly partnered duo is direct competition with Amazon and its Alexa-powered Echo.

Although online shopping via Google Express was already available for Costco, Walgreens and Target customers, Walmart said its product offering is the largest number of any retailer through the platform.

Walmart chose to partner with Google to make shopping as “easy as possible” for their customers.

“[Google has] made significant investments in natural language processing and artificial intelligence to deliver a powerful voice shopping experience. We know this means being compared side-by-side with other retailers, and we think that’s the way it should be,” said Marc Lore, Walmart’s CEO of ecommerce, in a blog post. “An open and transparent shopping universe is good for customers.”

Existing Walmart shoppers can link their account with Google to receive personalized recommendations—from Google’s AI-powered assistant—based on past in-store and online purchases, the tech giant explained in a blog post.

“For example, if you order Tide PODS or Gatorade, your Google Assistant will let you know which size and type you previously ordered from Walmart, making it easy for you to buy the right product again,” wrote Sridhar Ramaswamy, Google’s senior vice president for ads and commerce.

Walmart also announced plans to expand Google voice shopping next year to include the ability to pick up order in-store and order fresh groceries.