Solutions & Innovations (November-December 2023)
In mid-October, Klarna unveiled "Shopping Lens," an AI search-and-compare tool that lets shoppers take pictures of items, find out where to buy them and identify the best deal. Klarna says the tool can visually identify more than 10 million items, ranging from clothing to home decor and electronics. A related feature gives in-store shoppers access to detailed product information by scanning an item's bar code for customer reviews, prices and style variations online.
In mid-October, Los Angeles-based TalkShopLive, a live commerce platform, launched a "broadcast-quality" mobile app called TalkShopLive Studio. The app lets brands, retailers and publishers live-stream their own shopping shows from their mobile devices in HD quality. The app has a built-in studio with a behind-the-scenes producer who can manage up to four remote participants simultaneously during a live show. This technology lets brands connect to an existing Shopify store, track and view orders and monitor the show’s metrics in real time, and connect it all to a Facebook account.
In mid-October The Mars Agency integrated AdAdapted's first-party, pre-shop intent data into "Marilyn," its predictive commerce-intelligence platform. The goal is to help brands understand the performance of shoppable ads and content in real-time. The integration combines AdAdapted's pre-shop/intent data (which is gathered from a network of recipe, meal planning, health & diet, grocery list and couponing apps) with Marilyn's ability to organize multiple data sources into a single view. The Mars Agency says that brands using the platform have achieved 21% increases in commerce-marketing program performance.
In September, Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions announced a new security suite called ELERA that coordinates computer-vision cameras with AI to monitor consumer behavior at checkouts in real time. The system notifies shoppers of potential errors through proactive alerts, enabling them to correct issues themselves and minimizing employee intervention. It also accurately identifies produce, eliminating the need to input any codes manually, which the company claims will save shoppers as much as five seconds per item during checkout.
In October, Meijer announced that its customers have diverted 10 million pounds of potential food waste by using the Flashfood app. Customers can purchase meat, produce, seafood, deli, dairy and bakery items that are nearing their sell-by dates at up to 50% off. Shoppers pay through the app, collect their orders at the "Flashfood zone" inside the store and confirm the transaction with customer service on their way out. Meijer ran a pilot in 2019 that reduced in-store food waste by 10%, and within two years the program was expanded to all 264 stores.
In late September, an investment group launched Yaysay, a "first-of-its-kind" app with an AI-powered tool for shoppers looking for off-priced goods. The app is designed with a gamification element, giving a shopper a personalized fashion feed that refreshes constantly, challenging the shopper to decide quickly — swiping yes or no, like a dating app — and either “get it or it’s gone” for good. The company claims that the off-price market is a $100 billion business with only 3% of sales transacted online.
A start-up named Ergo recently secured $1.5 million in pre-seed funding to develop pricing software that let’s online retailers entertain price negotiations. This software plugin places a button on a website’s product pages, replacing the standard “add to cart” section with the words “Make an offer with Ergo.” The shopper clicks it to enter their data, how much they're willing to pay and how long they're willing to wait for the item. The retailer then decides whether to accept or reject the offer —- there's no back-and-forth.
A year ago, this column noted the launch of Temu, a shopping app from China. Months later a Super Bowl ad spurred an estimated 50 million Americans to download it. Now Congress is proposing H.R.1153, the "Deterring America’s Technological Adversaries" (DATA) Act. The concern is that Temu and its sister app, Pinduoduo, can access a shopper's name, address, phone number, contacts, calendars, photo albums, social media accounts, chats, texts, GPS location and browsing data while bypassing and changing security settings. If you choose to delete these apps, do a full factory reset to erase all of the code.
PublicSq., a year-old shopping app for "patriotic Americans" who want to "shop their values,” is partnering with Tucker Carlson’s media company, Last Country Inc. Beginning in November, Carlson’s shows on X (formerly Twitter) and other platforms will air “collaborative content segments” pitching products available on the PublicSq. app. Presumably, these items will be positioned as alternatives to products from brands with so-called "woke" policies, typically involving environmental, social and governance-investment issues. PublicSq. claims its platform hosts products from more than 70,000 businesses and serves 1.6 million consumer members.
In late August, Walmart announced an expansion to its drone delivery capabilities (currently 36 stores in seven states). Working with Wing Aviation and Google’s parent Alphabet, expanded service will be offered from two stores in the north Dallas metro area sometime this fall. Promising deliveries in under 30 minutes, Wing’s drones cruise at 65 mph and, using a tether, can deliver fragile items like a carton of eggs to very precise locations outside customer homes.
In June, Los Angeles-based Geenee AR launched a virtual try-on (VTO) solution for brands and retailers. This web-based AR platform uses image and video recognition, 3D processing, vision-based body-tracking algorithms and advanced image processing that improves realism and personalization. The platform supports size-inclusivity and is compatible across devices, e-commerce sites and ad publishers. In addition to full-body VTO for everything from jackets to dresses and pants, Geenee enables try-on for beauty products and even small accessories.
In July, Fanatics entered the livestream commerce business with “Fanatics Live,” an iOS app for North America. Users can purchase sports collectibles (primarily trading cards, as Fanatics owns the Topps trading cards) during exclusive content that’s curated towards their interests. MLB is a partner, and the app made its formal debut during All-Star Weekend in Seattle. Fanatics estimates that the sports-trading-cards business is a $44 billion market. The company recently launched a live events company and is moving into sports betting.
This spring, Austin, Texas-based Grocery TV (GTV) upgraded its "Retail Marketing Platform," enabling retailers to plan, manage and track campaigns at different touch points, display types and merchandising formats throughout a store. The platform offers an ability to re-target a campaign from the hyperlocal to the national as well as analytics tracking in real-time. GTV is the largest digital advertising network in U.S. grocery stores with more than 19,000 displays.