Consumer habits have changed, most notably online, due to the increased time people are at their homes. Retail tech is the solution to accelerate digitalization and meet these new needs. There are now more than 23,000 retail start-ups in the world, according to StartupCorner. Let’s look at 10 of them and see how they are transforming the retail sector.
Live shopping: Reetags, the expert in video customer reviews
The recommendation is key in the act of buying. The word of a customer is golden. And more and more of them are expressing themselves. According to the YouGov/RealTime study, 69% of French people have already left a customer review on the Internet, which is increasing among 25 to 34 year olds (78%).
Reetags offers to put it in video format on brand websites. This is an excellent way to make the customer experience more dynamic and human. And by doing so, the client becomes a real ambassador for the brand. Concretely, the young start-up integrates customer reviews in live shopping. Based on a commission system, the start-up remunerates participants according to their performance.
Thanks to its visual detector, the application can also be used to find the products that attract them in their favorite videos. This technology was used last summer to find out where the T-shirt worn by Emmanuel Macron in one of his social media videos came from.
AI: create a ultra-personalized conversational shopping experience with Wizard
Retailers are facing significant challenges, and adaptation is vital for them to better understand their customers’ behaviors, personalize their marketing campaigns, better manage their stocks, and improve their customer relations…
Artificial intelligence allows them to face all these challenges. From there, it is only a step to say that AI will be the next wave of digital disruption… a step that retailers are quickly taking. In fact, nearly all of them (98%) believe that AI could improve their e-commerce platform, 62.5% of them significantly (Artificial Intelligence & e-commerce, Open Studio study, September 2021).
Wizard, an artificial intelligence-based commerce platform, illustrates this point. It will launch in 2022. Marc Lore (former head of e-commerce at Walmart) is on the board. She is convinced that conversational commerce is the future of retail. The Wizard service will allow brands and retailers to conduct transactions with consumers via SMS.
It’s positioned as an end-to-end shopping experience on mobile, from registration to search, payment, shipping and even re-ordering. The technology goal here is to make it feel like the customer is talking to a human when everything is enabled by artificial intelligence. The firm claims a conversion rate of 35%, 10 times better than online shopping.
App: Bandi, the online goods exchange service
For more sustainable fashion, there is only one solution: consume less. This is the purpose of Bandi, which is a clothing exchange application. Introduced this fall, it is beginning to reach an ever-growing audience.
In concrete terms, Bandi puts users in contact with people with similar tastes and silhouettes. It’s easy to send them. A Bandi bag is available. Just order it via the application. Naturally, it is reusable.
A report by GlobalData and ThredUp predicts that the global second-hand market will double in the next five years to $77 billion and grow eleven times faster than the retail sector by 2025. When second-hand goods are in high demand, the service should logically continue to grow in power. One can predict a long life for Bandi…
NFT: Automated distribution with Neon!
Buying NFT in the middle of the street is possible today in New York, thanks to the Neon platform and its automatic distributor. Indeed, this machine allows acquiring NFT easily 24h a day. Numerical works ranging from 5.99 dollars to 420.69 dollars are offered. Credit and debit cards are accepted.
This means there is no need to use cryptocurrencies! After picking up your box from the vending machine, you can pick up your NFT with the unique code provided, but only from the Neon platform. And after scanning the code, the purchaser can view their new artwork on any smartphone, notebook or tablet.
With the automatic distribution, neon intends to make online art easier to access for everyone. What’s even more interesting is that in recent months, this technology has been deployed by several brands and retailers: Adidas, Nissan, Nike, Vuitton… already launched NFTs for collection.
Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten has also launched its own NFT platform for buying, trading and selling digital assets. In contrast, Printemps has launched NFTs on its e-commerce site Printemps.com. Without a doubt, NFT adoption should rapidly increase and offer completely new experiences in retail.
Social commerce: “Join” tells the story of retail sites!
Retail innovation also arrives on social networks. The French start-up Join, for instance, proposes a Stories-like format for retail websites. It promises to improve the conversion rate and strengthen brand authenticity. In concrete terms, these web stories allow brands to replicate on their e-shop the experience they offer on social media. This makes browsing the site more enjoyable and improves the online customer experience.
Started in 2018 by Jonathan Szwarc and Nicolas Goudemant, join has thus developed a turnkey solution for creating, broadcasting and monetizing stories on all communication channels (website, mobile application, email…). What is the nickname of this new generation communication tool? The Canva of web stories.
In the era of the mobile-first, story format is on the rise. Hubspot reports that 60% of millennials watch or post stories every week. A promising context for Join that should quickly seduce a large number of professionals. The company Sephora is one of the first retailers to adopt this tool.
Social Retail Marketing: Fast-forward your business!
Creating Social Retail Marketing (SRM) channels in any social and messaging application to reach and engage 100% of your potential customers, cultivating a relationship with them and driving your digital business: this is the pitch of the start-up FastForward.ai.
Specifically, this start-up allows you to buy directly from social networks or instant messengers, bypassing a third-party site or application. Its speech says that the SRM brings together storytelling and conversion in the same social network.
The latest Accenture study found that 64% of social network users surveyed said they had made a purchase via social commerce in 2021, which according to the consultancy firm, would represent 2 billion buyers worldwide.
Therefore, the interest in facilitating the transition to the act is precisely what FastForward proposes. Merchants have heard the message, as social networks are now a new sales channel to be activated, naturally inserted into the heart of consumers’ social lives.
Using data, Gold Circle becomes a consumer coach!
Gold Circle is a young start-up that will officially launch on April 25. What is its concept? To analyze consumers’ purchasing behavior (payment and receipt data) and recommend offers adapted to their desires.
That’s interesting in a world that will soon be cookieless! Indeed, in 2023, then Google will remove third-party cookies on its Chrome browser. Hence the interest in an alternative to target Internet users.
Practically speaking, the client downloads the application, signs up and sets consumption objectives. For instance, he chooses to consume only responsible products. The app will then only present him with offers that meet his expectations. Consumers can also join their favourite brands’ exclusive benefits programs. They will then have direct access to their information, including bank accounts. The client will then be able to have offers credited directly to his account.
The economic advantage is obvious for the consumer. However, the brands or chains are not left out because, thanks to Gold Circle, they can create a community of consumers, which can be activated in various ways.
Robot: Reachy, the point-of-sale assistant
Reachy is an interactive robot capable of interacting with people and manipulating objects. This friendly humanoid robot is developed by the Bordeaux start-up Pollen Robotics. He can be operated remotely, but more importantly, he is mobile. It can move in all directions. Due to its waving antennas, it can interact with the customer while its eyes analyze the environment.
Conceived for 3 main types of applications, Reachy is currently used in retail (to welcome customers), catering (to serve drinks, for example), and healthcare. Marketed since 2020, Reachy has been available in its augmented version since the beginning of the year. The innovation capacities of robotics suggest that soon, robots will no longer be simple objects of curiosity but real assistants at the customer’s service.
Vera, the virtual dressing room app that recommends outfits based on the weather
Alexa, how is the weather today? No need to ask anymore to know what to wear. Vera, the Virtual Dressing Room app, recommends three outfits daily based on the weather. To make it work, users must take pictures of all the pieces in their closets beforehand. And artificial intelligence does the rest!
The app is complete and allows users to share their silhouettes with their community or take a photo in a store and get an outfit recommendation from their wardrobe. It is practical but also very trendy, in phase with the sustainable values of the moment.
Indeed, it allows you to capitalize on the clothes you own to optimize your wardrobe and thus consume differently. Nada Bargachi, who created the concept and co-founded it, is a specialist in fashion: she graduated from the IFM and has worked for New Look, Eram Group and Moa Paris.
3D technology: more immersive online experiences with Threekit
Customers today have higher visual expectations than ever. Threekit has received this message by offering an unparalleled customer experience through its advanced 3D product visualization. Specifically, Threekit enables online customization of materials, characteristics, color and more through 3D configuration, photo-realistic virtual photography or augmented reality.
More sales are the result. The start-up claims a 40% increase in conversion rate when the brand replaces the traditional product photograph with a 3D configuration.
Threekit was founded by Ben Houston, a developer of special effects software whose technology is widely used in Hollywood’s biggest movies, such as Harry Potter, Stargate Wars and The Avengers. The quality of the experiences generated by Threekit is impressive!
