This week, we highlight one fashion brand that’s trying its hand at livestream shopping, and the luxury resale brand that’s changing the game with AI technology. Plus, could fruit be the route for Gen Zs looking to find their perfect match? Some food for thought.
Forever 21’s livestream shopping app
Having already explored the metaverse at the end of 2021 when the fashion brand partnered with Virtual Brand Group to build ‘Forever 21 Shop City’ on the Roblox gaming platform, Forever 21, is now exploring the innovation behind shoppable livestream events.
Just last month, the fashion retailer took part in a live demonstration of the Open4Sale Technology O4S video and payment shopping app – a tech platform comprising live chat, video, streaming, and instant payments that integrate to existing retail POS and ecommerce backend systems. During the pilot livestream, Forever 21 virtually brought together attendees in Manhattan, New York, to its store all the way across the country in the city of Costa Mesa, California. Those in attendance were able to observe, interact and purchase products digitally through the live call.
Meanwhile, the app would display more information on the products featured in the livestream, just as they would on the store’s website.
14% of UK Gen Zs have attended a livestream shopping event – this rises to 18% in the US. With formats like this growing in other parts of the world – particularly in China – it could pay for Forever 21 to be an early adopter.
Clair AI by Rebag
Luxury resale brand, Rebag, has created the first image recognition technology for luxury resale – called Clair AI.
The brand, which allows customers to buy, sell, and trade luxury accessories like handbags, jewelry, watches, and small leather goods, launched the technology earlier this month as part of its efforts to further distinguish itself in a fast-growing market.
Clair AI works by instantly recognizing and delivering the resale value of handbags across a list of over 50 brands and 15,000 Clair Codes, backed by six years of data and millions of image references. The technology works on desktop and mobile, but, as noted by Rebag, provides the smoothest experience on mobile via the app. With the app, users can simply scan a handbag and find out instantly the designer, the model, style and the offer that Rebag is willing to pay for that specific item.
Currently, Clair AI can recognize around 15,000 bags with over 90% success rate, which is constantly improving. You can catch them talking about ecommerce innovation in March at YMS:NYC.
Bumble acquires French dating app, Fruitz
It was announced last week that fast-growing French dating app, Fruitz, has been acquired by Bumble – an app that helps people ‘date, meet and network better’.
As the parent company of dating-focused social network, Badoo, which is especially popular in Europe, Bumble already has a decent level of exposure across international territories. However, the move to acquire Fruitz is primarily down to the company wanting to increase its engagement with Gen Z consumers who are entering the dating scene – something that Fruitz is reported to be doing extremely well in.
Fruitz uses a similar swipe-based interface and freemium experience that are seen on other dating apps, like Bumble and Tinder. Its unconventional stance is presented in how it helps it’s 5.6 million global users find matches – by assigning a fruit to each relationship type (watermelon for those looking for friends with benefits, for example). Relationships range from those wanting long-term commitments to those who are looking for a casual hook-up, and allows users to filter out the fruits that don’t tickle their taste buds. The app also encourages users to answer icebreaker questions before messaging their match.
Already, dating apps and ecommerce are inextricably linked – there’s a transactional element to swiping left and right. As a generation that is redefining how they view and approach relationships, could Fruitz become their TikTok, in a digital dating sense?
Which one of these ecommerce moments do you think will have the biggest impact on Gen Z shopping? Vote for your favorite!
