Ahold Delhaize Bol.com Branded Voice by ReadSpeaker

Bol.com is the No.1 leading online retailer in the Netherlands and Belgium. Their steady growth has resulted in over 10 Million shoppers in 20 years.

They have always been in the forefront of innovation and they have decided to create their own branded voice. Bol.com needed a digital voice which set it apart from its competitors and embodied Bol.com’s specific sonic branding requirements.Their first foray into voice began with their Google Assistant action. However, issues with the robotic sounding voices which came standard became apparent immediately. The quality of voices affected user experience and even harbored vendor complaints.

Finding the RIght Voice
Bol.com took special care in researching and developing the right voice for the Google Assistant action. They, in collaboration with ReadSpeaker conducted in-depth consumer research and picked 4 voice actor candidates to base the synthetic voices from. This process allowed Bol.com’s custom voice to have the maximum amount of impact and resonance to their audience. ReadSpeaker’s 20+ years of experience in developing voice strategy enables brands in upgrading their custom voice by maximizing the reach by fine-tuning their voice.

Human-like Voices
ReadSpeaker voices are designed to be emotive and versatile. This fits Bol.com’s e-commerce use well as it needs to phrase a constantly changing catalog of products. Not only did the voice represent Bol.com but it also represented the vendors and partners which relied on Bol.com to market or sell their products. The Bol.com voice is human-like and plays its part of the cohesive voice strategy which includes traditional ad voice actors for TV.

• Leading e-commerce innovator deploys exclusive Dutch branded voice using ReadSpeaker
• The brand’s familiar core values are instantly communicated in interactions on Google Assistant
• Omnichannel strategy with enhanced voice commerce experience to serve and delight consumers

ReadSpeaker, the most trusted, independent digital text-to-speech voice partner for global businesses, proudly announces that bol.com (opens in a new tab), the number one innovation-driven online retailer in the Netherlands and Belgium, has used its technology to launch a Dutch custom branded voice.

Bol.com is committed to delivering highly personal and conversational e-commerce experiences. As part of this commitment, the company entrusted ReadSpeaker with the creation of its exclusive, lifelike text-to-speech voice for their Google Assistant. The voice answers customer queries, delivers daily offers and updates requested by consumers in the most natural way. Consumers can now use the wake sentence “Praat met bol.com” to talk to bol.com’s own voice assistant on Google Assistant. Deployment may subsequently be extended to all voice-enabled consumer touch points, such as customer service.

“We are extremely proud about working for such an innovative market leader,” said Roy Lindemann, CMO and CCO EMEA, at ReadSpeaker. “bol.com has embraced the voice economy as part of its commitment to guaranteeing a superlative user experience for its broad customer base. A company that considers its custom voice to be a key asset for the expression of their brand identity, and for improving user experiences and driving conversion, is an ideal customer for the ReadSpeaker VoiceLab.”

Vera Rensink, Business Developer, at bol.com: “At bol.com, we are constantly focusing on what we can do better for our customers. Experimenting with innovationsin voice helps us to better understandwhat our customers prefer and how we can make their lives a little biteasier.We chose ReadSpeaker to help us with that for the humanlike quality of its custom voices, its expertise and customer-oriented approach.”