Five retail tech startups to watch in 2020
Covering such spaces as artificial intelligence and livestreaming, these tech-driven companies should be on your radar right now.
1. Spin
“Online shopping and livestreaming had a baby, and it’s Spin,” the venture’s CEO Brian Wiegand recently told RTIH.
To date, e-commerce has been dominated by search and intent-based purchase experiences. People go online already knowing what they want, and basically turning it into an all out research project, Wiegand argued.
“We’re on a mission to reinvent traditional window shopping and make buying things online less boring. We’ve created a live social shopping experience that brings back the impulse buy and makes it fun,” he said.
2. Better1
Better1 is an e-commerce startup that launched in late June. The aim is to offer consumers innovative products that help them live better.
“Our uniqueness is based on a few key elements, but we are especially proud of our immersive shopping experience, where people can view our rooms and see and buy our products. What we do is combine online shopping accessibility with the visual benefit of seeing our products in realistic room settings,” says Mohammad Darab Ali, Founder and CEO, Better1.
3. Shnap
Shnap aims to be the Shazam for fashion, a visual search tool that finds and compares any piece of clothing you're looking for in seconds, says founder Cayley Ostrin.
One click on the Shnap button hovering over any product on a store's website, and it will instantly find you which store is selling it at the best price, plus similar options available for purchase. It uses AI-powered image recognition technology to identify styles, patterns, colours and other product characteristics to then match this to products sold by retailers.
Shnap is available for download on the Chrome extension store with mobile apps coming soon.
4. StarStock
StarStock is an e-commerce and marketplace business, built to disrupt the food and drinks industry.
Most recently, in response to the coronavirus lockdown, it launched a new platform mypubshop, enabling pubs to transform into Click and Collect stores.
It has also partnered with Asda to power the grocery giant’s recent food box initiative to help vulnerable and shielded customers receive food and essential items.
5. Mamamade
Mamamade is an AI-driven plant-based baby food brand, delivered online via subscription.
“We create bespoke nutrient-dense meals for children aged 6-36 months. We’re very technology-focused, capturing feedback and data from our customer base regularly to help shape the business,” says founder Sophie Baron.
“Recent events have changed the retail landscape dramatically. For us, it has been a positive thing, driving emphasis on everything we’re set-up to facilitate: tech-driven, online deliveries,” she adds.
