Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Tim
Speaker 1: Stenebek on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 2: Clearly, when you think about the world's largest online e
Speaker 2: comm is a retailer that's coming. But who better to
Speaker 2: chat with us and break it down as far as
Speaker 2: the landscape of what's happening in the retail space than
Speaker 2: Leah Wu, founder and CEO of Shop Shop. She's on
Speaker 2: zoom joining us from Vancouver. Thank you so much, Leah
Speaker 2: for chatting with us late on a Friday as well.
Speaker 2: We appreciate it. First off, before we get into the
Speaker 2: retail landscape, tell us about shop shops and what you do.
Speaker 1: Hi, nice to meet you both. Shop Shops is the
Speaker 1: live streaming platform that brings offline shopping experience, the fun,
Speaker 1: the discovery to the palm of your hand. Our viewers
Speaker 1: and shoppers are able to turn on their phone at
Speaker 1: eight in the morning or eight at night, or even
Speaker 1: all over to midnight shop with local shopping experts, who
Speaker 1: we call hosts. They're in Paris, New York, Milan, Tokyo,
Speaker 1: many other fashion shopping destinations. Our hosts walk into local
Speaker 1: batique stores, shopping centers, outlets, and sometimes even sleep markets
Speaker 1: with their phone and go live stream. They curate and
Speaker 1: sell product that they found, often with their customers or
Speaker 1: audience together, and that's what we do. We believe shopping
Speaker 1: is not just such a keyword or transaction. It's actually
Speaker 1: treasure hunting. It's about building connections, creating memories about people
Speaker 1: who share similar interest So throughout the years, we've always
Speaker 1: sort of our vision has always been mimicking that offline
Speaker 1: destination shopping where you discover products with a friend. So
Speaker 1: this is the interactive and immersive online version of shopping
Speaker 1: via live and detail.
Speaker 2: Something Maddie and I were excited to talk about was
Speaker 2: this nineties vintage and Maddie, we wanted to hear more
Speaker 2: about that. As far as the consumer nostalgia, we were
Speaker 2: just talking about these polarids, but what about what it
Speaker 2: comes to on your front, it comes to this nineties
Speaker 2: sort of crazier.
Speaker 1: Well, we definitely are seeing what we call the nineties
Speaker 1: vintage fever. I think it's really the trend that's formed
Speaker 1: because the generation who grew up in the nineties are
Speaker 1: not so touched by media or Instagram. And while we
Speaker 1: were growing up and that there was a lot of magazine,
Speaker 1: popular TV shows I think those are the trends that
Speaker 1: we're seeing. Audiences are turning back their TVs of friends,
Speaker 1: rewatching them Sex and the City and really looking at
Speaker 1: fashion then and starting this sort of hunting experience. It
Speaker 1: became more like what I said, trigger hunting, where you're
Speaker 1: looking for a product nylon bag that you wanted but
Speaker 1: they didn't get them. Now it's the perfect time to
Speaker 1: have it. Leave a tongue Fanni peg. Those were like
Speaker 1: where you see models. Now they're all coming back. So
Speaker 1: we're definitely seeing that it's not only for a piece
Speaker 1: of item, it's more of like a memory that you
Speaker 1: can carry forward as well.
Speaker 3: So is it a situation on the app and this
Speaker 3: is an app that individual users are going to have
Speaker 3: to download, right, so they have to download the shop
Speaker 3: Shops app?
Speaker 1: Okay?
Speaker 3: And is it a situation where the kind of buyer
Speaker 3: influencer on camera is as you said, literally walking the
Speaker 3: user through a vintage store and getting comments in live
Speaker 3: and getting to say like, oh, I'll buy this one
Speaker 3: and ship it.
Speaker 1: Off to you.
Speaker 3: Or is it a little bit more like they batch
Speaker 3: buy things and then show off all of the products.
Speaker 1: And well, most of our shows are really what we
Speaker 1: call host sellers. They're local shopping experts that knows the
Speaker 1: loco stores. They take you on the journey walking into
Speaker 1: the stores, presenting items that are inside the store in
Speaker 1: real time. So you're literally sitting at home and fighting
Speaker 1: for the same bag in Tokyo. Yeah, some local travelers
Speaker 1: or tourists are walking in and looking at and buying
Speaker 1: up as well. Wow, but you get to see that
Speaker 1: in real time. So when I was giving examples earlier
Speaker 1: at midnight, that's where Japan has shows on. If you
Speaker 1: are at home, you will be watching live hosts in
Speaker 1: the stores featuring interesting product all the way from Japan. Yeah.
Speaker 3: So that's amazing because I am not a good vintage shopper.
Speaker 3: I want to be. I want to get vintage closed.
Speaker 3: I know it's cooler than the clothes I buy, but
Speaker 3: I'm not good at it and I'm not patient enough
Speaker 3: to sift through items in a store. So I can
Speaker 3: see how this would be the perfect product for someone
Speaker 3: like me. But I do wonder if one of the
Speaker 3: challenges or opportunities for you is getting people to download
Speaker 3: the app itself and just that awareness. How do you
Speaker 3: deal with that and what is your kind of strategy
Speaker 3: around that.
Speaker 1: Well, very good question. We definitely see that as one
Speaker 1: of the challenges because I think live shopping itself is
Speaker 1: you at very early stage for US consumers to actually
Speaker 1: astapt this concept and fully adopt. So the messaging of
Speaker 1: live commerce, live tream selling, it's super hard, like how
Speaker 1: do you describe it so that users or viewers can
Speaker 1: actually understand what to expect. What we've seen that really
Speaker 1: resonate is leveraging products or items that are highly searched
Speaker 1: by existing users. So if you're looking for a Y
Speaker 1: cell Lulu, if you're looking for door or Settle, that's
Speaker 1: what you go for. And when that's sort of how
Speaker 1: we position ourselves online to get eyeballs so that people
Speaker 1: know that you can actually shop and find these products
Speaker 1: via live this way.
Speaker 2: Break down the demographics, is this more gen z that's
Speaker 2: using the app?
Speaker 1: Well, currently we're definitely seeing gen z as well, surprisingly
Speaker 1: millennial and millennial moms as well, so really a range
Speaker 1: group from I would say twenty five ish all the
Speaker 1: way to sixty five ish.
Speaker 3: That's so interesting. And when you look at the items
Speaker 3: that are popular amongst those customers, are you able to
Speaker 3: tell us the differences and what the millennial moms are
Speaker 3: buying versus what the gen Zers are buying and what
Speaker 3: are kind of the big trends that Jess and I
Speaker 3: need to know about heading into the fall of next year.
Speaker 1: Well, I think I will be able to show what
Speaker 1: ever we are able to see on the gen Z front.
Speaker 1: I do think that a lot of the items are
Speaker 1: more bright in colors, uh Mini bags like also obviously
Speaker 1: two thousand uh Creed loved Nylon product is like an
Speaker 1: IT bag, but gen Z's right now, so.
Speaker 3: The coach bags that Jess and I had when we
Speaker 3: were in middle school, or like.
Speaker 1: The IT bag, they're definitely back. So basically, if you
Speaker 1: can go back into your garage and find that bag
Speaker 1: and then carry start carrying them, you're definitely hitting the trend.
Speaker 1: So that's sort of what we're seeing with gen Z's
Speaker 1: and with millennial millenniums. I think we're we're seeing them
Speaker 1: buying more of the classic channels, classic deors investment pieces
Speaker 1: in the sense that it's a good item to have
Speaker 1: as well as investment to have over time.
Speaker 2: So if I can go back and find some of
Speaker 2: these items, I can try to make some money off
Speaker 2: of this.
Speaker 1: Definitely, I think that's what's fun and also interesting about
Speaker 1: circular economy. It's not just about making money, it's not
Speaker 1: just about resell product yourself, and it's not just about sustainability.
Speaker 1: It's almost everything in one where we're both where we're
Speaker 1: selling a piece of item but also bringing back memories
Speaker 1: and trend at the same time.
Speaker 3: I'm curious when you look at kind of the landscape
Speaker 3: of reselling platforms. Something that comes to mind for me
Speaker 3: is a poshmark. For example, Deepop, who would you say
Speaker 3: is your biggest competitor in the space and how are
Speaker 3: you kind of planning and strategizing around that.
Speaker 1: Oh, we see ourselves as a live commerce pioneer in
Speaker 1: the live commerce space. I believe that the real real
Speaker 1: posh mark these are circular economy platforms that sell multiple
Speaker 1: products or resells. I think our biggest competitors right now
Speaker 1: would be the TikTok of the world or Instagram Life Powers. Interesting. Yes,
Speaker 1: obviously we see ourselves more from virtual shopping front, so
Speaker 1: the virtual shopping mall perspective. Pretty Love is the initial
Speaker 1: category for entry category that we've found to enter the
Speaker 1: US market to first stage of early adoption for the
Speaker 1: consumers in the US, but as we expand or grow
Speaker 1: in the next few years, we believe that we would
Speaker 1: be able to bring the real offline shopping experience in
Speaker 1: multi categories to the consumers, not just pre love but
Speaker 1: also designer deals, walking an outlets or tagameg for that. Say, sure,
Speaker 1: so that's sort of how we imagine ourselves to be.
Speaker 3: So you mentioned TikTok and Instagram live streaming as a
Speaker 3: form of competition. I wonder, then, because you rely on
Speaker 3: host sellers creating content on your platform obviously, is there
Speaker 3: a concern for you that these sellers might say I'm
Speaker 3: just gonna do my own thing on TikTok and sell
Speaker 3: content on a TikTok live stream as opposed to using
Speaker 3: your platform, And how do you strategize against that.
Speaker 1: I think we positioned quite differently than TikTok and Instagram.
Speaker 1: To me, I will always say, are you going to
Speaker 1: a playground or are you going to shopping? Because I
Speaker 1: do believe that's a very too different approach of this market.
Speaker 1: When you're going to playground, which in the sense is
Speaker 1: TikTok looking really for content, you accidentally make a purchase.
Speaker 1: But when you're actually going going for shopping, going to
Speaker 1: the shopping mall itselves. The intention to buy is really
Speaker 1: to shop, and for our audiences or the users that
Speaker 1: we are attracting, the intention for them is to come
Speaker 1: here to shop, and the entertainment piece itself is shopping,
Speaker 1: and the fun itself is really discovering different merchandise, different stores,
Speaker 1: finding the right persona or hosts that are locally based
Speaker 1: to give you feedbacks on things to buy and what
Speaker 1: not to buy. I believe that is the way that
Speaker 1: we see ourselves positioned very differently, more from a commerce
Speaker 1: end goal than just entertainment itself. Talk to us.
Speaker 2: About the trends you're seeing with shoppers and what you
Speaker 2: think this means for the economy.
Speaker 1: We definitely is seeing you as users as early stage
Speaker 1: adopting to this behavior. We've seen the same similar behavior
Speaker 1: in Asia, where live commerce is much more penetrated in
Speaker 1: the market itself. We believe that the adoption will happen
Speaker 1: fairly quickly in the next few years. I think it's
Speaker 1: estimated to be around sixty eight billion dollars of a
Speaker 1: market sized by twenty twenty six in the US. That's
Speaker 1: only about five percent of e commerce penetration, but comparing
Speaker 1: to the Asia market that's probably around above twenty percent
Speaker 1: of market penetration that are generated by live commerce. I
Speaker 1: think there's a long way to build, and we also
Speaker 1: see that currently what we call hostellers will become a
Speaker 1: job description in a few years, you know, four years,
Speaker 1: where it's going to be where you brands, retailers looking
Speaker 1: for or people who are experts live selling and that
Speaker 1: could be a daytime job or a full time job
Speaker 1: or a part time job. So that's sort of how
Speaker 1: we see the market trend to be.
Speaker 2: You're talking about e commerce, we do have Amazon coming
Speaker 2: up next week. How do you view some of these
Speaker 2: bigger retailers and how does your company fit into this
Speaker 2: type of space.
Speaker 1: I think we try to build the connectors or between
Speaker 1: offline shopping to online, so the retailers, the brands that
Speaker 1: have offline present presence, We truly believe that offline is
Speaker 1: not going to go away. There to serve a purpose,
Speaker 1: and people still believe that there's a synergy between the
Speaker 1: break and Mortal and the live commerce where the physical
Speaker 1: retail stores means trust means discovery, read means connections where
Speaker 1: you can be physically in store and then also shop Online.
Speaker 1: I can give you an example. We currently work with
Speaker 1: Bloomingdale outlets. Our hosts those to Bloomingdale outlets and feature
Speaker 1: products that are physically in the stores but not necessarily
Speaker 1: online and the same price, the same deal. You're able
Speaker 1: to sit at your own home and watch someone that
Speaker 1: you trust, maybe have your size, maybe have your maybe
Speaker 1: have your taste right, be able to find products for
Speaker 1: you and then drop ship direct to you by Bloomingdale.
Speaker 1: So I think that's where we see the connection that's
Speaker 1: going to happen.
Speaker 3: Lea, we got to leave it there, but thank you
Speaker 3: so much. This was great. Leo Wu, founder and CEO
Speaker 3: of Shop Shops with over two million active users. I
Speaker 3: gotta be honest, I'm going to download it right now.
Speaker 3: Thank you all so much for joining us.