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Asos teams up with Google to launch a shopping skill for Google Assistant

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Asos is expanding into voice-assistant technology in a partnership with Google, making it one of the first UK fashion retailers to debut on Google Assistant.

Customers in the UK and US will be able to engage with Asos' fashion chatbot Enki, starting a conversation using the phrase "Hey Google, talk to Asos" on a smartphone or Google Home smart speaker.

Enki, which was first released on Facebook Messenger earlier this year, will then help the user discover and shop new products from Asos' top six womenswear and menswear categories.

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"With 85,000 products on site at any one time, and on average 5,000 new items added each week, it’s more important than ever to make it easy for our customers to stay on top of what’s new on Asos," said Asos senior product manager Jason Gregory.

"With the launch of Enki on Facebook Messenger and now Google Assistant, we’re exploring ways that conversational commerce can help us make the Asos shopping experience as easy and intuitive as possible."

The use of voice in digital shopping experiences is rapidly increasing, with the amount spent using voice shopping expected to rise from $2bn (£1.5bn) today to $40bn by 2022, according to research from OC&C.