Startup interview: Rosie Bailey, Founder and CEO, Nibble

RTIH gets the lowdown on UK-based e-commerce technology startup Nibble.

RTIH: Tell us about Nibble

RB: Nibble is an AI powered negotiation e-commerce chatbot creating a fun, personalised and engaging connection between consumers and retailers.

It empowers customers to confidently shop on their terms. For retailers it can be deployed to improve on-website conversion, increase AOV and mitigate cart abandonment. Importantly, it makes your customers smile.

Nibble was created by myself, Jamie Ettedgui and Leonida Alfieri. We met at London Business School and are currently part of the 2021 LBS Incubator Programme.

We launched our Shopify app in February and are now live on multiple websites, including Cru Kafe and Lucky Voice.

RTIH: What was the inspiration behind setting the company up?

RB: Whilst haggling in a Turkish bazaar for a pair of trainers, Jamie realised that negotiating a price was fun and engaging. Both customer and retailer left with a smile on their face and a price that worked for them.

The next step was bringing this fast and engaging experience to online shopping and making it a win-win for both customer and retailer, via a smart chatbot with an unmistakable cheeky personality.

RTIH: What has been the industry reaction thus far?

RB: We recently had some exciting news. Nibble was awarded best Startup and best Personalisation Technology of the Year at the 2021 Retail System Awards.

We are working with our pilot customers to develop the Nibble tools which deliver measurable results for them. Orient Knives and Lucky Voice are seeing strong conversion, longer website dwell time and are uncovering opportunities to increase AOV through bundles designed specifically for each customer.

Perhaps the most material discovery is that customers really want to talk! Phrases like “can I get a better deal if I am a loyal customer?” “I would like to buy the sharpener as well as the knife set for $xx?” and (our favourite) simply “Love that!” when Nibble wittily countered a particularly cheeky offer, really show the positive engagement.

On Cru Kafe we have developed custom copy to reiterate this premium coffee company’s commitment to Fairtrade and they are using Nibble to onboard new loyal customers.

Our clients are pleased that Nibble is 10 minutes to install via the Shopify App and is simple to set up and. In terms of measurable outcomes, we see about one minute engagement for each negotiation and 30% of the conversations resulting in add to basket; overall impact on engagement, conversion and margins is very promising.

“Fantastic app, has improved our conversion, and having read through conversations our users have had with the Nibble app, it has created some really great engagement. Would definitely recommend.” said one of our clients in their five star review on the Shopify App store.

RTIH: What has been your biggest challenge/setback?

RB: We aim to show our clients and customers that negotiation can be a win-win but, for many people, negotiation or haggling has negative connotations and retailers are anxious not to undermine their own pricing strategy.

To try and understand this better, we have conducted a survey with Nibble users. Although 46% stated that they did not like negotiating in real life, 83% of them felt comfortable negotiating with a chatbot.

To us, this is a game changer: the experience you get from negotiating with a bot is very different and actually fun and engaging. People love it and we continual emphasise that Nibble is light-hearted and empowering for consumers.

From a retailer’s perspective, we expect Nibble to be deployed in selected places, as you would a special offer, loyal customer discount or end of season sale – possibly replacing an alternative planned promotional strategy.

The advantages for the retailer are in the AI driven pricing and unparalleled customer insights, which can only be achieved through the natural language chat underpinning each Nibble negotiation.

Moreover, the retailer sees increased dwell time and better engagement from the gamified experience, rooted in fundamental behavioural science.

A good customer experience triggers:
1. Customer retention
2. Customer satisfaction
3. Cross-selling and up-selling opportunities
Easier said than done…At Nibble we believe in innovation and fun and see a lot of future in allowing customers to negotiate the price! pic.twitter.com/Vi0TC0hp6q
— Nibble (@nibblenow) June 24, 2021

RTIH: What are the biggest challenges facing the online retail sector right now?

RB: With people spending more time everyday behind their screens, individuals lose emotional connectivity with brands. We believe there is a fight for attention on the customer’s side and online retail should shift towards a more personalised approach to shopping.

With an e-commerce average conversion rate of less than 3%, retailers need to find a way to reduce the 97% of their potential customers who walk away.

Another challenge for companies is to match their e-commerce team’s creativity and desire to innovate with the limited capabilities and flexibility of creaky old tech platforms for online retail.

A lot of great ideas are flying around but it is sometimes hard to get them up to speed, or even change the customer’s habits fast enough to adopt them.

RTIH: What's the best question about your company or the market asked of you recently by an investor and/or a customer?

RB: We recently received some scepticism around the value added for retailers.

Although the benefit for the consumer is clear, Nibble is offering a discount and being open to negotiation may harm the perceived value of the product or the retailers’ brand.

However, we work with retailers to deploy Nibble to address a problem or for a specific purpose, e.g. to increase website engagement or to tackle abandoned baskets.

On CRU Kafe we worked with the CEO, Tom Greensmith, to build Nibble seamlessly into their messaging, complete with coffee related dad jokes (!) and Nibble reiterates their fair trade messaging to justify the product value.

Overall we think Nibble is a great alternative to discounting and tackling impersonal relationships with brands.

There are obviously trade-offs when it comes to what we can give to customers versus what it does to the brand and margins, but we definitely don’t think that negotiating is necessarily bad for the brand or product image if it’s done in the right way.

If you think about it, this has happened since the dawn of retail in face to face environments, so why not online too?

RTIH: What can we expect to see from Nibble over the next 12 months?

RB: Gen Z are already negotiating all the time via Depop on prices and free shipping. Nibble allows all retailers to offer this type of personalised experience at the click of a button, delivering low data integration and AI pricing.

What’s next? We believe the days of the boring voucher code are numbered; soon Nibble will be a verb.

We will Nibble in five years' time, like you Google today… online, on social media, on mobile and at home with our voices, through our smart speakers.

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