Google Home now lets you shop at Target with just your voice

Next time you need an emergency order of LaCroix, you can just ask a Google Home to order a case from Target. Google announced today that Target will begin supporting its Google Express shopping service in the contiguous US. That also means Target will be supported through the Google Assistant’s voice ordering feature, which is so far only live on the Google Home and Android TV but is coming “soon” to iOS and Android as well.

Target has only been available through Google Express in New York City and California before now, so today’s announcement marks a major expansion and helps to fill out Google’s service in a big way. It also follows behind Walmart, which is available nationwide through Google Express and added voice ordering support last month.

The other thing that Target is doing, following Walmart’s lead, is adding the ability to link an existing Target account to Google Express. That won’t be available until next year, but when it is, customers will be able to more easily reorder products, because the service will know what exactly each person prefers to buy and in what quantities.

Google Express may be far from Google’s most successful service, but it’s an obvious and necessary one to continue expanding, particularly as the company continues to go up against Amazon. One of the core functions of the Echo is its ability to easily order and reorder products, so for the Google Home to be an equal competitor, it needs to be able to offer that same ability. It’s hard to beat Amazon’s tight integration, but by shopping with well-known brick-and-mortar stores, Google may be able to win over people who haven’t been wooed by Amazon Prime.