The joy of shopping -- and how to recapture it online | Nimisha Jain

39,738 views ・ 2021-02-11

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Transcriber: Leslie Gauthier Reviewer: Joanna Pietrulewicz
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Growing up, one of my fondest memories
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was of going to a local market with my mom every month
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in the small town in India where we lived.
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We would spend the morning walking through an intricate maze
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of small stores and street vendors,
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stopping at her favorite spots where everyone knew her,
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discovering what fruits were in season
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and what kitchenware was in stock.
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She would spend hours examining things from all angles,
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quizzing sellers on their quality and where they came from.
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They would show her the latest tools and gadgets,
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picking the ones that they knew she would like.
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And we always walked back happy and satisfied,
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our arms overflowing with dozens of shopping bags
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having bought so much more than what we originally intended.
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A decade later,
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as a college student in the bustling city of Delhi,
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my friends and I would spend a similar few hours every month
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on "Fashion Street,"
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a euphemism for the row of small stores
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with the latest clothes at great prices.
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We would spend hours rummaging through piles of clothes,
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trying on dozens of trinkets,
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getting advice from each other on what looked good
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and what was on trend.
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We would then combine everything we had bought
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to negotiate a big discount.
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Each of us had different roles.
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One was great at putting the look together.
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Another one was better at negotiating the discount.
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And a third was always the timekeeper
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to make sure that we got back to school on time.
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Shopping is so much more than what you buy.
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It's a treasure hunt to discover something new,
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a personalized recommendation from someone you trust.
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It's a negotiation to get that great deal
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and a time spent catching up with friends and family.
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It's social, it's interactive,
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it's conversational.
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Over the last two decades,
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I have been researching consumers in emerging markets around the world,
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digging beneath the surface to truly understand who they are,
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how they live
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and what they want when they go shopping.
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Shopping, like everything else, has moved online.
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Shopping online is great.
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It's convenient -- at the click of a button,
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delivered to your doorstep.
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It has everything.
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It has great prices.
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But it's also static and impersonal.
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You sit alone in front of a computer or a mobile phone
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scrolling through hundreds of choices identified by an algorithm,
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delivered by a machine.
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When you do have a query,
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you interact with another machine or a bot --
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rarely an actual human being.
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What puzzles me about this
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is when you speak to a successful salesperson,
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they will always tell you
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that the secret to closing a sale is the conversation.
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People want to buy from other people.
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So why do we forget this most crucial ingredient
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when we shop online?
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This impersonal, anonymous experience is leaving many of us less satisfied.
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Returns are at an all-time high,
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and we're left feeling --
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did I buy too much?
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Did I buy too little?
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Does it really look good on me?
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Did I even need this?
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And for the one billion consumers who are new to the internet
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in emerging markets,
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shopping online can be overwhelming.
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They are unsure whether they'll get what they can see,
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unsure whether they can trust the seller.
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What if their money gets lost in cyberspace?
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The question is:
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can we create authentic, real, human conversation at scale?
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Can we create online marketplaces that are convenient and abundant
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and human?
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The good news is that the answer is yes.
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Companies in emerging markets around the world,
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in China, India and Southeast Asia,
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are doing just this,
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using a model that I call conversational commerce.
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It's hard to believe, isn't it?
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But let me give you a few examples.
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First: Meesho,
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an Indian company where you can build a trusted and authentic relationship
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with a seller online.
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The best part about shopping with my mom
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was that the sellers knew who she was
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and she knew that she could trust them.
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They would scroll through the hundreds of choices in the store
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and pick and make personalized recommendations just for her,
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knowing what she would like and what would work for her.
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It's hard to imagine such a thing happening online on that scale,
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but that's exactly what Meesho is doing.
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On Meesho, you can shop over and over and over again,
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but instead of interacting with a stranger or a bot,
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you interact with the same person:
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a representative of Meesho who is a real human being
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that you interact with via social media.
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Over time, she gets to know you better.
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She knows your likes,
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your dislikes,
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what you buy and when you buy it.
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And you learn to trust her.
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For example, she will message my sister right before Diwali
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with a new range of hand-loomed saris.
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She knows my sister loves saris --
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I mean, she has two cupboards full of them --
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but she also knows that my sister always buys a sari right before Diwali
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for the Indian festive season.
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And she also knows the kind of saris she would like.
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So instead of sending her hundreds of choices,
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she picks and chooses the colors and styles
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that she knows my sister would like.
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And then she answers her relentless questions.
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How does the silk feel? How does the fabric fall?
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Will this color look nice on me?
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And so many more.
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It truly is a hybrid model,
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combining the convenience and scale of a large company
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with the trusted personal relationship
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that you would expect from the shop around the corner.
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My next example is LazLive.
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On LazLive in Thailand,
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you can watch real sellers describing products to you
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via a live video stream.
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Now, I love handbags.
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And when I am in a store,
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I like to examine a handbag from all angles before I buy it.
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I need to feel the texture on my skin,
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hang it on my shoulder and see how it looks,
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see how long the strap is,
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open it up and look at the pockets inside
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to make sure that there is enough space for all the millions of things
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I need to put into my handbag.
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But when I try and buy a handbag online,
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I just see a few pictures:
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the basic shape and color and size.
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But that's not enough, is it?
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To solve this problem,
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LazLive has developed a platform where actual sellers --
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real people can share information about clothes,
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handbags, gadgets,
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cosmetics --
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describing the products to you,
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showing you what they are from the outside and the inside,
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explaining what they like and what they don't like.
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You can ask them questions and get instant responses
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so that you are much more comfortable with what you buy before you buy it.
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Over time,
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you can watch more videos from the same seller
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and they start to feel more like a friend than a faceless machine.
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And they help you understand what you're going to buy,
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stay abreast of the latest trends
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and often discover things that you didn't even know existed.
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And finally, my favorite example:
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Pinduoduo,
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one of the fastest-growing Chinese platforms,
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where you can actually shop with your friends online.
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You remember the fun I had
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shopping with my friends on Fashion Street,
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rummaging through stores,
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finding that perfect sandal,
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negotiating that great deal?
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Well, on Pinduoduo,
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you can do just that.
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It's lonely to shop online,
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and I miss hanging out with my friends.
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But on Pinduoduo,
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when I find a product,
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I can either buy it myself at the regular price
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or I can share it with my friends via social media,
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discuss it with them,
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get their advice,
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and if we all choose to buy it together,
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we get a great deal.
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These deals last only for a short time,
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just like in the real world.
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And there are lotteries and games and flash sales
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to keep all the excitement going.
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It's a fascinating model,
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really helping you rediscover the joy and connection
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of shopping with your friends and family in the bazaars of yore.
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What's important to note
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is that these are not stray experiments.
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In markets like China, India and Southeast Asia,
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over 500 million consumers engage in conversational commerce,
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and these models are growing much faster
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than the traditional, more static e-commerce platforms.
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Conversational commerce emerged
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to solve the needs of first-time online shoppers,
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but my research shows
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that it is equally compelling for more experienced shoppers,
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not just in emerging markets but around the world.
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In fact, when we tested conversational commerce
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with consumers in the US,
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they found it more compelling for the same reasons as consumers in Asia.
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Consumers who engage in conversational commerce
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spend 40 percent more
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with higher satisfaction and lower returns.
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I strongly believe that in the not-so-distant future,
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conversational commerce will become the norm,
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revolutionizing shopping around the world,
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and traditional e-commerce platforms like Amazon will need to adapt
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or risk becoming irrelevant.
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For brands,
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this is a crucial next step
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and an unprecedented opportunity,
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moving on from mass marketing in the 20th century
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and analytics-based hyperpersonalization in the last two decades,
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to building a truly authentic and deep personal connection
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with their consumers.
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And for us shoppers,
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it brings back the magic,
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making online shopping finally feel human again.
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Thank you.
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