tired: add to cart
wired: I shop therefore I am
You are cordially invited to this week’s brew of High Tea, your dispatch of 🔥internet culture served piping hot. This week: shopping goes local, drive-thru strippers give us Big Pandemic Energy and QVC makes a comeback...kinda.
Drink up 🐸☕
Untitled (I shop therefore I am), Barbara Kruger x High Tea
We’ve always supported the underdogs on High Tea and now is no different. With lockdowns hitting our beloved independents the hardest [just 30 percent of them believe they will be able to survive beyond four months], this week we’d like to give credit where it’s due, to the initiatives that are lifting up our locals and also, you know, changing the face of ecommerce as they go, NBD.
get in loser, we’re going shopping
It’s been a busy week for Shopify.
So busy in fact, that you might have missed the launch of Shop - a new app to enhance DTC product discovery. Well, when we say new, allow us a little artistic license here: the ultimate hack of Shop is, in part, the fact that it was built off the back of Shopify’s existing Arrival customer base (all 16M of them), which certainly makes for a convenient head start when it comes to launching an app in the middle of a disrupted ecommerce landscape. But is Shop worth adding to the High Tea cart? We find out.
show me what you workin with
Built on the foundations of its parent app, Arrive, a package tracking service launched in 2017, Shop includes the same capabilities, but extends its consumer offering to a digital shopping assistant - allowing consumers to browse a feed of recommended products and discover merchants local to them. Shopify says this “marks a significant step forward in closing the distance between buyer and seller”, while minimising the journey from discovery to delivery.
The user experience of browsing Shop’s inventory feels as familiar as scrolling through online menu items - a win for securing new customers and retaining old ones. Shop’s carbon tracking feature [for community and personal] , which shows low impact and ethically sourced products, is another highlight which taps into consumer interests du jour.
shop local hits home
They say: “One way Shop helps small businesses is by showing customers if your business is nearby and if you offer in-store or curbside pick up”.
We say: if the pandemic has shown us one thing for sure, it’s that people are motivated more than ever to care about local retailers. After all, retail outlets with fewer than ten employees are the most vulnerable to closure, as a result of the covid acceleration of existing high street decimation. Hopefully this timely moment will be catapulted into an emerging, more permanent trend of supporting independent, locally based retailers. But is Shop poised to take the W on this?
“The app seems most useful for digitally native brands that have a robust online presence” - Elizabeth Sergan, Fast Company.
While the app charges no additional fee or sales commission to its 1 million existing Shopify merchants, it is unclear how many mom-and-pop businesses are already on the platform 🐸☕. And that isn’t the only question hanging over Shop’s head, with criticism emerging on product thinking around discovery:
reading the the room (and the tea leaves)
The extension of Shopify into an SaaS based marketplace represents a development worth exploring for the third-party moving from a preferred destination for merchants, to attempting to create the best buying experience for consumers. More so than an instant lockdown hit, Shop represents the first iteration of Shopify’s expansion into local ecommerce. As Web Smith said, “this is eCom in 2020, the job is to iterate as fast as humanly possible because things are changing by the day.”
Only time will tell if Shopify can turn Shop’s brand recognition from delivery tracker to localized shopping platform. We’ll certainly be keeping our eyes peeled for 2.0.
TikTok sets up shop
You might remember when TikTok hinted it was exploring the shopping cart back in 2019 [which we covered here], but it’s been real quiet on the #fyp - until now. This week, we got a taster of the final results of a TikTok influencer campaign with Levis: one of the initial partnerships the social app is exploring.
With Sensor Tower reporting TikTok hitting 2B downloads, it’s no surprise that the campaign led to results to write home about. As well as reporting a significantly higher watch-time than the in-app average, Levis also reported product views to Levi.com’s “Future Finish” pages more than doubled for every product included in the experience. ICYMI: bleaching clothes is a quarantine vibe, everyone who’s anyone is doing it. By partnering with the likes of abstract artist Callen Schaub and lifestyle sensation Cosette, to create their own custom designs, both Levi and TikTok are jumping on the bandwagon with impeccable timing and prowess.
The new ad format is also noteworthy. Rather than ‘link in bio’, the call-to-action is a prominent button in their videos, linking advertisers and influencers. As such TikTok is **splitting** the ad revenue between itself and the influencer. Instagram, take note: TikTok is building an in house influencer advertising platform that actually pays!
QVC, but cool
You thought live streaming was *just* for gamers, well, think again. Enter: Popshop a mobile-first, mash-up between QVC x Snapchat where individuals can create and host their own shopping channel.
With the affinity for lifestyle-streaming accelerated as the world warms up to virtual communities and staying connected while apart, we think Popshop is a product-zeitgeist fit for several reasons: (1) eCommerce is crying out for an ‘add to cart’ shake up, as online brands seek out new ways to increase visibility and cement loyalty with customers (2) raw personality is the self-declared king (TikTok > Quibi) and (3) live-streaming commerce is inherently monetizable. Popshop amalgamates these ideas and more to influence ecommerce with the cult of personality.
Not only will viewers be actively engaged while entering (by invite-only), the nature of the platform almost guarantees conversions. Viewers are buying from a person they follow and relate to, not just a brand or a distributor, and that shit sells. Shopping online is now a social experience for the consumer: a niche community of highly engaged individuals with $$ to burn and temptations to tickle.
I was in the 212
Calling all New Yorkers! With NYC home to some of our favorite DTC brands, digital asset manager platform Air, has blessed us with a beautifully designed map, detailing the many independents that make up the multi-layered, diverse fabric of the city. Go on, have a browse as you would normally do on a Sunday: window shopping in Manhattan while sipping on your hot cup of joe (we sure do miss those anthora cups).
kettle’s on: ones to watch
😷I’m in love with a (drive-thru) stripper. Blade Runner called, it wants it’s holograms back. In the most 2020 move of 2020 yet, we did a dystopian double take at the adaption of the business model at Lucky Devil Lounge- a strip club in Portland, Oregon (where else?!). Partnering with a local event company to create a new experience in the club’s parking lot (to enforce strict social distancing measures, ofc), the dancers - wearing gloves and face masks - perform for the duration of a song while customers wait for their order. The club even throws in a free roll of toilet paper, which is just *chefs kiss* to quarantine culture at this stage. The club’s owner, Shon Boulden said, “the dancers are happy to be working and labeled as essential workers”. We couldn’t agree more.
🐎Savage, Classy, Bougie, Yoncé. Megan Thee Stallion’s ‘Savage’ cemented itself into the internet lexicon by the powers that be (it’s...TikTok’s account), appearing in a staggering 19.7M videos on the platform, popularised by choreography from Keara Wilson (@keke.janajah). We didn’t think this bop could get any better, but let’s just say Yoncé sneezed on the beat and the beat got sicker. With Bey referencing TikTok, the strip clubs of Instagram and OnlyFans in a single breath, it’s no surprise that the remix secured the #1 spot on Apple Music and even had OnlyFans reaching out to the queen 🐝 herself. If that wasn’t enough, all proceeds from the certified banger will go to Bread of Life Inc, a disaster relief organization from their hometown, Houston. What’s not to love?
Okay, you made it. We’ve loved having you these past 30 dispatches, and this is a quick note to say that next week we’ll be on our virtual holibobs from our respective sofas [wish you were here 😌]. We’ll be back on May 17th!
ttyl,