Solutions & Innovations (January-February 2023)
In November, eBay opened “Luxury Exchange,” a New York storefront that appraised and assigned a “currency” value to pre-owned items such as designer watches, handbags and jewelry. Shoppers could then look through the store’s inventory of authenticated goods from brands such as Gucci and Rolex. If they found an item within their currency range, they could exchange it. If nothing in-store appealed to them, shoppers could visit an on-site photo studio and list their items online via eBay itself.
Mid-December saw the launch of Trendio, a video shopping app that lets customers engage with personalized content and purchase beauty products with a single click. Founded by former Amazon and CVS executives, the platform lets users interact with creators via live or prerecorded videos and pin favorite products to a dashboard. “Video-AI” capabilities will be introduced in 2023 that will enable the site to automatically edit videos to suit each user’s unique preferences.
Instacart recently launched Community Carts, an app feature that lets users donate groceries to their local food bank throughout the month of December. The app listed a “wish list” of needs from more than 100 Feeding America member food banks. Users simply selected and paid for items for donation, which Instacart’s staffers then delivered, with all service fees waived.
Kellogg Co. is incorporating NaviLens into the packaging of Corn Flakes, Special K, Rice Krispies and Crispix. The boxes have an optical smart code that enables blind/low-vision consumers using a NaviLens app to locate the products from up to 40 feet away, navigate to them, and hear the product names, sizes and nutritional information in 36 different languages. Unlike with QR codes, users don’t need to know exactly where a tag is or focus in on it to be able to read it.
Foundation is the most-searched category within makeup, but the range of shades traditionally shown online and on packaging doesn’t reflect the diversity of shoppers. In December, Google announced an AR shopping feature to help shoppers better match a product to their skin tone. Google worked with beauty brands to develop a photo library with 148 models representing a wide spectrum of skin tones, ages, genders, face shapes, ethnicities and skin types. Once a shopper finds a match with a model, they simply have to select a retailer.
Bold Metrics, an AI body modeling company, has introduced a redesigned Smart Size Chart interface that guides online clothes shoppers on how a given style will fit. The company claims its machine-learning system outperforms standard size charts, camera-based technologies and other question-based fit recommenders. Once integrated into a retailer’s site, the AI can predict — based on a shopper’s height, weight, age and shoe size — 90 other body measurements and create a realistic-looking avatar to “try on” styles.
Last fall, Jane Technologies launched a “first-of-its-kind” iOS app that lets users discover cannabis products based on local inventory, verified reviews and “feelings and effects.” The app allows users to discover products based on personal interests as well as curated lists for everything from sleeping to socializing. Jane powers more than 2,800 dispensaries and brands across 38 states.
Experify is an interesting shopper-oriented startup seen at CES 2023’s Swisstech Pavilion. Online reviews can often be a mixed bag, forcing shoppers to wade through fake purchasers, paid-for influencers and camouflaged ads. Experify, which launched in 2020, is a platform that places an interactive window on a brand’s site. A shopper can use it to connect online to a genuine person who is a verified owner of the product, pose questions and, if geographically feasible, even test out the product during an in-person meetup.
In celebration of Macy’s 96th annual Thanksgiving Day Parade, the retailer presented it as a virtual parade using OnCyber’s metaverse, which was accessible via both desktop and mobile apps. It also included virtual galleries from five major NFT collections (Boss Beauties, Cool Cats, gmoney, SupDucks and VeeFriends); viewers voted to turn one of them — Cool Cats — into an IRL (“in real life”) balloon to be carried in the actual 2023 parade.
In mid-December, Searchspring, a merchandising and personalization platform, joined “Yotpo Grow,” Yotpo’s yearlong program to help Black-owned e-commerce brands. Yotpo selected eight Black-owned brands to join the 2022 accelerator class (which ends in May 2023). They are offered personalized events, a network of mentors, training with a dedicated “Customer Success Manager,” and free access to all platform tools, including data, insights and best practices.
In late December, Seattle-based CasaWire launched an Apple/Android app version of its digital B2B2C platform for home decor. The app has a “dating-esque” swipe feature that lets interior designers and consumers examine products from brands, artisans and artists. The app’s AI feature “learns” customer preferences based on swipes, purchases and other interactions, and then recommends products of interest. While letting users discover trending products, it also gives the brands data on how users are responding to their offerings.
Heard of Temu yet? This online marketplace of consumer goods went live in the U.S. in September 2022. Within weeks it was the most downloaded free app on both the App Store and Google Play. Temu is a U.S. subsidiary of Pinduoduo, a social commerce platform from China. Temu has 730 million monthly active users, offers 10-day delivery on everything from clothing to electronics to car parts, and boasts a “Next-Gen Manufacturing” program that uses real-time consumer insights to quickly create products.
Sustainability-tech platform Clarity AI recently announced that Klarna will use its data to promote environmentally conscious brands to 150 million shoppers. The initial 2023 rollout will focus on electronics in 22 countries, telling shoppers via “brand badges” about a company’s greenhouse gas emissions, its use of energy from renewable sources, its climate change policies, and its transparency in reporting of climate-related information. Clarity AI’s platform can analyze data on 50,000 companies, 320,000 funds, 198 countries and 188 local governments.