A constant challenge for marketers has been how to bring consumers from their non-digital daily lives to the relevant website or social media presence. Traditionally, television and magazine posters and ads rely on their viewers Googling the brand name, typing in a URL, or finding them on Facebook. There have been numerous solutions that attempt to overcome this barrier, including: Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayShort URL Codes and QR CodesBlipparShazamBeaconsNCCMobile phone assistants like Siri, Google Assistant, and Microsoft CortinaDevices with dedicated "always on" speakers like Amazon Echo and Google Home. They all aim to help consumers easily find the information (and products) they're looking for online. “There are now tens of thousands of developers in more than 150 countries building new devices using the Alexa voice service, and the number of Alexa-enabled devices has more than tripled in the past year. Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, July 2018. In a recent release reporting sales of more than $50 billion, Jeff Bezos (recently declared the richest man in the world) focused much of the company's success on the company's virtual assistant, Alexa. So, who and what exactly is Alexa? I decided to go straight to the device itself and ask it right from the comfort of my living room! “I'm Alexa talking to you through an Amazon Echo… (the Echo) is a device designed around your voice capable of providing information, music, news, weather and more.” I then asked her what Google Home is and she replied “it is a voice-enabled wireless speaker developed by Google announced on May 18, 2016 at Google IO. First to market, Amazon has sold over 50 million Alexa devices worldwide and demand is increasing exponentially. While Amazon has double the smart speaker market share of Google, Google has shown aggressive growth in recent months with the Apple HomePod having a surprisingly only 6% market share. But, with the overall smart speaker market growing rapidly, all boats continue to rise in this expanding “voice recognition” bubble. Siri was the first to capture the world's imagination in the world of “voice recognition” on mobile devices but, for once, we have seen a reverse shift from mobile to inhome with the launch of voice-activated devices (VADs) . Broadly classified under the term “Internet of Things,” these home smart speakers can control Internet-enabled devices such as smart refrigerators, security alarms, and washing machines. So, beyond just being a fun gadget that summarizes the weather and plays music, it's actually useful to families, allowing the user to find answers to questions in seconds, create shopping lists, and order groceries and other products and services via voice commands.Amazon enabled the transition to digital through book sales in 1998 and has quickly expanded to sell almost anything through an online digital experience. How did they bring a mass consumer market with them into the digital world and off the high street? Why did VAD in-home start with this online retailer and not Microsoft, which tried to have a "PC in every home" or Samsung which has a TV in almost every home? Amazon's key strategy to bring customers into the digital age is to minimize the transition by allowing people to do the things they do!