The CDO’s Guide To 2025 E-Commerce Trends | Ask An Expert
Join Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga in this dynamic episode of the Omni Talk Ask An Expert Series as they explore the future of retail with Jean-Denis Mariani, former Chief Digital Officer at Coty, and Kristi Vannatter, Head of Beauty at Firework.. Discover how video commerce, AI, and user-generated content are reshaping the shopping experience and hear practical advice for implementing these game-changing trends.
- 0:08 – Introduction and lead-up to NRF with Firework’s innovative offerings
- 2:03 – Jean-Denis highlights the critical role of content in retail strategy
- 5:00 – Top trends for 2025: personalization, influencers, and video commerce
- 7:10 – The impact of AI on product recommendations and customer service
- 11:01 – Firework’s tools for engaging customers through UGC and live streaming
- 16:45 – Building emotional connections with consumers through video content
- 23:00 – Scaling content creation and overcoming internal challenges
- 28:43 – Measuring the ROI of video content and adapting to consumer behavior
- 36:09 – Examples of video commerce across industries, from beauty to electronics
- 39:30 – Final takeaways and how to connect with today’s experts
Music by hooksounds.com
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#videocommerce #retailtrends #ecommerceinnovation #shoppablevideos #aiinretail #contentmarketing #microinfluencers #usergeneratedcontent #personalization
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Transcript
Welcome to another exciting and elucidating episode of the Omnitalk Ask an Expert series.
Chris Walton:I'm your host, Chris Walton.
Ann Mazinga:And I'm Ann Mazinga.
Chris Walton:And this is one of our.
Chris Walton:This is not one of.
Chris Walton:It is our final Ask an Expert Front Porch series with firework as a lead up to NRF where firework will be at booth number three nine four.
Chris Walton: That's: Chris Walton:IRL that's in real life.
Chris Walton:For those not of the parlance.
Ann Mazinga:Today we're going to invite the purpose of IRL that defeats the purpose.
Ann Mazinga:You sound cooler.
Ann Mazinga:I know.
Chris Walton:I and me trying to sound cool just never lands so I just couldn't even do it.
Ann Mazinga:I know, I know you know, but.
Chris Walton:Hey, glad you glad you get.
Chris Walton:Glad you gave me some much deserved grief there.
Chris Walton:I resemble that remark today.
Chris Walton:We're going to invite two more people to today's show.
Chris Walton:So please join me in welcoming former COTI Chief Digital officer Jean Denis Mariani and fireworks head of beauty Christie Van Etter.
Chris Walton:John Denis and Christy, welcome to omnitalk.
Jean Denis Mariani:Thank you.
Christie Van Etter:Hello.
Christie Van Etter:Thank you, Chris.
Ann Mazinga:We're excited to have you both for this final Front Porch series.
Ann Mazinga:Jean Denis, this is your first time on the show.
Ann Mazinga:Christy's been on with us before.
Ann Mazinga:What are you excited to talk about?
Ann Mazinga:Your former chief digital officer at coti.
Ann Mazinga:What are you most excited to tell people about today?
Ann Mazinga:If there was one thing we had.
Christie Van Etter:To ask you, probably content.
Christie Van Etter:How content is important to engage with people.
Christie Van Etter:I mean, it's definitely for the brands.
Christie Van Etter:The best way to stand out from the crowd on an average.
Christie Van Etter:I know that I read that recently that people are scrolling 300ft of content on a daily basis.
Christie Van Etter:So as a brand, how do you stand out from the crowd?
Christie Van Etter:And it's true, probably a immersive and relevant content.
Ann Mazinga:Well, we are so excited.
Ann Mazinga:I was so thrilled when we found out that we got to have you on.
Ann Mazinga:Christie, welcome back again.
Ann Mazinga:It's great to have you and we're excited to get your perspective as well on what Jean Denis just said, product content being so important.
Jean Denis Mariani:I just got off a phone call with A major Fortune 50 company who shall rename re name be nameless and they have this prop.
Jean Denis Mariani:They're like, we don't know what content.
Jean Denis Mariani:We don't know where to start.
Jean Denis Mariani:We don't know how to create it.
Jean Denis Mariani:Do we get ugc?
Jean Denis Mariani:Do we get branded content.
Jean Denis Mariani:So he's exactly right, Jean Denis.
Jean Denis Mariani:He normally is that it.
Jean Denis Mariani:Content is the number one problem, but this is where Firework really comes in to help solve that and bridge that gap.
Ann Mazinga:Amazing.
Ann Mazinga:Well, before we get into this conversation, just a quick reminder to those of you who are joining us live on LinkedIn right now.
Ann Mazinga:Christy and Jeanne Denis and the team at Firework are here to take any of your questions throughout this session.
Ann Mazinga:You can place them in the chat window to your right as we continue.
Ann Mazinga:At any point in time, we'll do our best to get to those.
Ann Mazinga:So, Jandini, I'd love to start off before we get into the conversation just by giving our audience a little bit of your background because it is vast.
Ann Mazinga:So go ahead.
Ann Mazinga:We'll kick it off with that.
Christie Van Etter:Thank you.
Christie Van Etter:I've been working almost 25 years in digital and in diverse industry from travel to gaming to utilities to luxury, and with a strong focus for the last 10 years in beauty.
Christie Van Etter:And I've had the privilege of working as a chief digital and e commerce officer for L'Oreal LVMH and more recently, Coty.
Ann Mazinga:Amazing.
Ann Mazinga:Christie, let's give everyone just a quick overview on your background as well as head of beauty and a little background on Firework for those who may be meeting the company for the first time.
Jean Denis Mariani:Absolutely.
Jean Denis Mariani:I have been in beauty for about 15 years and in beauty kind of tech for the past 10 years.
Jean Denis Mariani:In fact, in my former company, I got to work with Jean Denis when he was at Coty.
Jean Denis Mariani:So excited to have him here today.
Jean Denis Mariani:But before Firework really came along and a lot of e commerce brands were relying on traditional video players that were really heavy on the page.
Jean Denis Mariani:So if you think about the infrastructure of YouTube or Vimeo.
Jean Denis Mariani:Right.
Jean Denis Mariani:They all have very heavy load times.
Jean Denis Mariani:Right.
Jean Denis Mariani:So Firework really came in to change this narrative and we wanted it so that everybody, whether you're a Walmart or you're an up and coming cosmetic brand, to engage your customers with ultra low latency.
Jean Denis Mariani:And that means the video infrastructure that we have at Firework will load in less than 400 milliseconds.
Jean Denis Mariani:So that's our goal.
Jean Denis Mariani:We really want to bring to that to the everyday customer shopping experience.
Jean Denis Mariani:Experience in the digital store.
Ann Mazinga:Fantastic.
Chris Walton:All right, so let's get to today's interview.
Chris Walton:So Jaundi, I want to start with you.
Chris Walton:So, so you mentioned, you mentioned you, you're excited to talk about content.
Chris Walton:So my question for you to start out is what are the key trends that you think digital retailing and brand executives should have on their radar screen as they approach the upcoming year.
Christie Van Etter:Again at the core of it is about content.
Christie Van Etter:But I will give you some some insight on that.
Christie Van Etter:According to me, I think there is three main trends.
Christie Van Etter:The first one is about hyper personalization.
Christie Van Etter:I mean people are expecting more tailored experience and they know that brands are collecting more and more data about transaction behavior so they expect to get ultra personalization in terms of experience.
Christie Van Etter:So definitely I would say that personalization and AI driven experience is something that is going to be hot.
Christie Van Etter:The second thing is probably about influence marketing.
Christie Van Etter:There is a shift in influence marketing strategy and let's say that now brands are looking more and more into what we call micro and nano influencers.
Christie Van Etter:So people like you and me, probably the let's say the brand advocates with a small followings community but extremely engaged.
Christie Van Etter:So brands are looking to authentic post.
Christie Van Etter:That's why also user generating content in something very hot also.
Christie Van Etter:And the third probably trend, the most important one for me is about video commerce and shoppable video because we know that now video is totally overpricing picture in terms of experience and that the Gen Z and millennials now they are looking to this, let's say immersive, immersive experience.
Christie Van Etter:So, so and, and definitely with the video format the video content is, it's more engaging.
Chris Walton:So Denis, let me ask you a follow up question on there.
Chris Walton:So yeah, I mean video for sure.
Chris Walton:I mean we're seeing that in our business even like video is taking off relative to podcasting even for us now.
Chris Walton:And so that's just how people are consuming their content and it's consuming it in a very short form as well.
Chris Walton:And then you mentioned personalization and influencers too.
Chris Walton:The one word you said in the first one was AI.
Chris Walton: it to improve the business in: Christie Van Etter:I would say probably on two ways.
Christie Van Etter:The first one is through customer services and AI chatbot and thanks to any analysis of all your historical data, behaviors, et cetera.
Christie Van Etter:And the second one is product recommendation.
Christie Van Etter:So it's to be able, thanks to AI, to be extremely precise when it comes to product recommendation to meet your expectation in terms of product and services.
Chris Walton:Will it impact content generation in any way?
Chris Walton:What are your thoughts there?
Christie Van Etter:Yes, obviously.
Christie Van Etter:I mean also when it comes to AI driven experience, we know that now everybody is working on how AI could support efficiently all this content creation.
Christie Van Etter:And definitely we could imagine that personalization and content strategy is going to be completely mixed and that we're going to provide with very personalized content to, let's say, ultra segmented audiences.
Ann Mazinga:Well, Jean Denis, one other question that I have too is, you know, you talked about this rise of the micro influencer or the nano influencer.
Ann Mazinga:And that's something that Sarah Potempa, the CEO of beachwaver said on our last session was like they're going out to college campuses and they're sourcing, you know, people to speak on behalf of their brand in that way.
Ann Mazinga:How do you see that trend continuing from and kind of what are the things that companies need to have in place in order to have success when they're reaching out to, you know, someone who's, who's doing video commerce for the first time.
Christie Van Etter:The thing is how brands are going to engage with this, let's say, new prescription audience.
Christie Van Etter:So we know that now it's something that is fully integrated in marketing strategy to use this UGC and from our best customers, from nano influencers, etc.
Christie Van Etter:Because it's about authenticity and people are looking for authenticity now.
Christie Van Etter:So the next thing is going to be probably, why not include this nano influencer into our sales strategy, giving them the microphone to, let's say, organize live streaming and on our product.
Christie Van Etter:So that's why also we say about video content, you know, shoppable content, live streaming is gonna, is gonna boom for sure.
Christie Van Etter:But definitely we could, we took, we could take advantage of this authentic brand ambassadors and nano influencer to become the best brand advocate and to promote our product and services.
Christie Van Etter:Why not through live streaming session organized by the brand itself?
Ann Mazinga:Well, and Christy, that brings up a question for you then too, because I'm curious, like what does that mean from a infrastructure on the brand side too?
Ann Mazinga:And how are you like, I'm sure that's now an important thing for Firework to talk about with potential clients.
Ann Mazinga:But like, how do you approach answering that question as brands like John Denis talking about are trying to figure out how to find those smaller people and really equip them with the technology to do that at a quality level that's.
Jean Denis Mariani:There through the Firework platform.
Jean Denis Mariani:You can actually we have an Instagram and a TikTok importer that you can find through hashtags, you can find UGC content and then with a click of a button, you can actually reach out to that person and get their consent to utilize the video.
Jean Denis Mariani:And then also with regards to live streaming, we like to refer to it as digital showroom because we think even if it's done live it's great to live 24 7, you know, within your site.
Jean Denis Mariani:And a lot of our brands that don't have content will maybe film like an hour live stream, and then they'll cut that up into short shoppable videos.
Jean Denis Mariani:Right.
Jean Denis Mariani:So you can take 30 products, talk about them with a micro or nano influencer within an hour, and then edit those into short shoppable videos.
Jean Denis Mariani:And that's something you can do within the platform of Firework.
Jean Denis Mariani:So those are.
Jean Denis Mariani:Those are great ideas for brands that really just don't have the content or they don't know where to get started.
Jean Denis Mariani:You don't need fancy equipment.
Jean Denis Mariani:You literally can have a ring light and an iPhone and you can film a digital showroom.
Chris Walton:Christie, I want to get your thoughts on the question that we asked Jean Denis to start, too.
Chris Walton:So, like, you just mentioned at the outset that you were speaking to a top 54 top 50 fortune retailer here recently.
Ann Mazinga:What.
Chris Walton:What are you hearing them say?
Chris Walton:Are the trends that they're.
Chris Walton:That from your perspective, what are.
Chris Walton: they're looking at going into: Chris Walton:Is it the same that John Denis mentioned?
Chris Walton:Or is there any color you'd add there?
Jean Denis Mariani:I think they're still a little scared of ugc.
Chris Walton:Yeah, they're scared of it.
Chris Walton:Okay.
Jean Denis Mariani:They're scared of it because they're like.
Chris Walton:Yeah, I would see that.
Christie Van Etter:Yeah.
Jean Denis Mariani:Like, I don't know how to.
Jean Denis Mariani:Like, I lose control.
Jean Denis Mariani:And what we say is just at least find the UGC content out there because your customers are giving you the best content there is.
Jean Denis Mariani:Right.
Jean Denis Mariani:If you look at these videos, literally you can go down rabbit holes, right, of TikTok and Instagram, but wouldn't you rather have those videos on your own site?
Jean Denis Mariani:Right.
Jean Denis Mariani:And allow these Gen Z kids that want to watch, you know, 20 and 25 videos at a time, let them watch all from the same brand, versus being on Instagram and TikTok, where they're then get, you know, the algorithm knows they have an intent to purchase a specific product, and then they start getting fed your competitors.
Jean Denis Mariani:Right.
Jean Denis Mariani:So go ahead and utilize it within your own site.
Jean Denis Mariani:And I do agree with Shantini.
Jean Denis Mariani:You know, authenticity is key.
Jean Denis Mariani:We hear that a lot from brands.
Jean Denis Mariani:They don't really know where to get started.
Jean Denis Mariani:But I think if you start to search out that UGC content, you'll find that.
Jean Denis Mariani:Oh, my goodness.
Jean Denis Mariani:That the lighting in their bathrooms are amazing and they are your best.
Jean Denis Mariani:They're your customers, they're purchasing your products.
Jean Denis Mariani:Why wouldn't you want to utilize it So I do find that we have to talk to some of these bigger name companies about like UGC is okay.
Jean Denis Mariani:Like people want to see UGC content, but they're just, a lot of them have been, you know, in the space for a long time and they're just, they're a little, they're a little afraid of it.
Jean Denis Mariani:And that's okay.
Jean Denis Mariani:I think it's okay.
Chris Walton:And Christy, what, so, so are they, what are, what are they actually afraid of?
Chris Walton:I'm curious, I've never talked about this.
Chris Walton:So like, are they afraid of like the lighting not being right?
Chris Walton:Are they afraid the content's going to be presented in the wrong way?
Chris Walton:All of the above, all of the.
Jean Denis Mariani:Above, all of the above.
Jean Denis Mariani:They're just afraid that like somebody in the brand is going to say why do we have that one particular person?
Jean Denis Mariani:Right.
Jean Denis Mariani:Whereas if you just have a plethora of people, all colors, all shapes, all sizes, all ages.
Jean Denis Mariani:Right.
Jean Denis Mariani:Like I'm in my 50s, I want to see UGC content of women in their 50s and 60s.
Jean Denis Mariani:You know, I'm not going to buy a skincare brand from somebody who's 25 that doesn't have the problems that I have.
Jean Denis Mariani:Right.
Jean Denis Mariani:So I, I think it's just getting them to tip their toes in it a little bit.
Jean Denis Mariani:But I do.
Jean Denis Mariani:This is a conversation I have quite.
Chris Walton:Often and Jean Denis, I saw you raise you shaking your head vociferously as I asked her that question.
Chris Walton:So I know you want to jump in here but like what, what's, what's your take?
Chris Walton:What, what have you seen work or how do you combat that?
Christie Van Etter:It's, it's a difficult question because, because you know that the brands are really, let's say stressed about their ability to control, you know, the brand experience, the brand perception, etc.
Christie Van Etter:Etc.
Christie Van Etter:And now they discover that it was the case with, let's say with Facebook, with Instagram, we like almost top down communication, etc.
Christie Van Etter:But now they discover that, that the Gen Z and spend their life on TikTok and TikTok became the most important touch point within the consumer journey for aspirational inspiration and even then purchasing consideration.
Christie Van Etter:But then they are lost because consumers are speaking between them, you know, about the brand.
Christie Van Etter:So they don't need the brand to decide and they consume UGC content and live streaming of influencers, et cetera, et cetera.
Christie Van Etter:So I think that is going to change because many, many brands are afraid about, let's say this brand equity protection and that UGC content sometimes is not at the level of quality.
Christie Van Etter:They expect, they provide content.
Christie Van Etter:So it's a question of, let's say, standard, you know, where you put the content importance.
Christie Van Etter:But then they will have to, because the good thing is with shoppable video, with live streaming, et cetera, is that you get the opportunity to centralize all these actions and inspiration drivers into one single point of contact.
Christie Van Etter:So you could imagine that instead of letting your consumer going to YouTube, going to Instagram, to TikTok, to retail, etc.
Christie Van Etter:You could imagine that finally you get the opportunity to centralize all this kind of stuff and to inspire your consumer on a unique point of contact.
Christie Van Etter:Why not on your website, through live streaming, through shoppable video, etc.
Christie Van Etter:You put your product and services into context.
Christie Van Etter:And so people looking for that, in fact, so then they have no reason to move out from the website and to get their inspiration outside your, let's say, branded platform.
Christie Van Etter:So it's a unique way for brands to, let's say, capture the feeding attention of their consumer, trying to get inspired outside the brand and give them the ability to get all the information they are looking for and decide to purchase quickly.
Jean Denis Mariani:And it's about building community, right?
Jean Denis Mariani:Yeah, I mean, yeah, kind of, you know, in getting them emotionally connected.
Jean Denis Mariani:You know, a Harvard Business Review did a study that emotionally connected consumers will deliver a 52% higher lifetime value to your brand.
Jean Denis Mariani:And I don't think people talk about lifetime value.
Jean Denis Mariani:Right.
Jean Denis Mariani:Think about Gen Z.
Jean Denis Mariani:Right.
Jean Denis Mariani:As their purchasing power grows and begins to dominate, video will be the medium where the transaction will occur.
Jean Denis Mariani:Right.
Jean Denis Mariani:So you have to start now.
Jean Denis Mariani:I mean, the train has left the station later.
Christie Van Etter:Well, Christy, it's almost too late.
Christie Van Etter:It's almost too late.
Ann Mazinga:Yes.
Ann Mazinga:Well, Christy and John.
Ann Mazinga:Denise.
Jean Denis Mariani:Yeah.
Ann Mazinga:And John.
Ann Mazinga:Denis.
Ann Mazinga:I'm curious.
Ann Mazinga:You know, we're talking about this one thing that I think of when I hear about, like talking about UGC as a means of kind of engaging with your consumer, of creating this community.
Ann Mazinga:And that content's already out there.
Ann Mazinga:It already exists.
Ann Mazinga:So you could.
Ann Mazinga:You're pulling it in.
Ann Mazinga:Somebody's already doing that without you having to pay them yet or incentivize them or send product yet.
Ann Mazinga:Like, how do you then plan?
Ann Mazinga: As I'm putting my: Ann Mazinga:Christie, I'd love to get your perspective first because I'm sure you're working with a lot of retailers and brands on this like how do you advise that they kind of put that into their budget when they're, they've got content already.
Ann Mazinga:Now it's just a matter of how do I figure out how to manage it and get it out there in the right ways.
Jean Denis Mariani:Yeah, I'm working with a brand right now, a pretty big beauty brand.
Jean Denis Mariani:They're going to do it through, you know, they have a budget for free gratis products that they would normally give to influencers or agencies.
Jean Denis Mariani:Right.
Jean Denis Mariani:So they're going to keep a core of gratis so that when they find a UGC video and they get the consent for 30 day usage, they're sending that Nano influencer a free product.
Jean Denis Mariani:All right, so those are kind of already allocated.
Jean Denis Mariani:You might just, they just are kind of grabbing it away from like what they would normally give to desk sides or agencies and now they're kind of shifting those gratis products so it's not really costing them more money.
Jean Denis Mariani: of allocations of gratis for: Ann Mazinga:It's just who it's going to that's different.
Ann Mazinga:So John Denis, how does that work then from, I'm thinking from the brand side like that definitely changes then where budgets are being allocated.
Ann Mazinga:Maybe coming from a marketing budget in a different way or like even how you as a former chief digital officer might work in conjunction with your chief marketing officer.
Ann Mazinga:Like what does that look like and what does that relationship, you know, look.
Ann Mazinga: in the future as we head into: Christie Van Etter:I think it's, I would say that it's always the same story about breaking the silos within companies.
Christie Van Etter:And to do that, let's say the, the key success factor is to be extremely consumer centric.
Christie Van Etter:So by being consumer centric you break the silos between the, let's say the audience you're going to target your customer knowledge, the kind of content you're going to put in their interaction.
Christie Van Etter:Because each audience normally they have like dedicated content that meet their expectation with the right media mix depending on their consumer journey.
Christie Van Etter:So it's to be, is to give this ability to, let's say a sales director or marketing director, a digital director, etc.
Christie Van Etter:To all work together being consumer centric and breaking the silos.
Christie Van Etter:And then the second step is to spend the required time to do all this social listening to better understand how consumers are talking about the brand, the strengths, the weaknesses, then to adjust the message in the interaction.
Christie Van Etter:And when it comes to content creation, to fully embrace video content, video again is totally overpassing picture.
Christie Van Etter:People are looking for rich content, immersive interaction.
Christie Van Etter:So meaning that now you have to create more and more video content and to identify also your nano influencer brand advocates on network and social networks and engage with them to integrate them into the content strategy.
Ann Mazinga:So John Denis, I'm curious what tactics you would use because this is, this is an investment that you know is coming from like a CIO or a chief digital officer like you were.
Ann Mazinga:How do you position this as like no marketing team or you know, personalization or loyalty team.
Ann Mazinga:Like this is something that we're, this is a technology that we should all invest in that will be important as trends like video commerce, you know, come into the fore a little bit more.
Ann Mazinga:Like what, what do you suggest that people listening do to kind of make that that happen or to impress upon them the importance of these kinds of tech investments.
Christie Van Etter:So I know that sometimes when you disrupt too much, the, you know, the way you operate, et cetera, it's going to be difficult to move forward.
Christie Van Etter:So the best way to move forward, to be honest, is to start with a pilot.
Christie Van Etter:You start with one country, one touch point, one audience, you know, one use case.
Christie Van Etter:It could be for example, using video for video consultation with retail, you know, to through online and through your platform to get a video consultation to get some advices and recommendation on the product.
Christie Van Etter:Instead of going in retail, it could be just to add on a specific product a shoppable video.
Christie Van Etter:And then from a very, let's say being very pragmatic, you just demonstrate that it works thanks to the right indicator of performance and showing by the results are there thanks to engagement, sales impact, et cetera.
Christie Van Etter:Then you're able to scale.
Christie Van Etter:So you're not, I mean it's not a priority to go big very quickly.
Christie Van Etter:The thing is probably fewer but bigger.
Christie Van Etter:Launch this pilot, make optimize it and then scale once you're going to demonstrate that it works.
Christie Van Etter:And it works very well.
Chris Walton:Got it.
Chris Walton:Okay, so I want to put your chief digital officer, put your chief digital officer background to the test here.
Chris Walton:Jean Denis.
Chris Walton:So I'm curious too, like when you talk about the development of the tech tac stack, excuse me, tech tack tech stack to support an online store that is, you know, is heavily invested in video componentry and video commerce, what what are the critical things that you know, come into play to make that happen?
Chris Walton:So like, especially as so many brands and retailers are dealing with legacy systems as well, what are some of the success steps that you would recommend those watching take to make sure their tech stack is up to stack, so to speak?
Christie Van Etter:I think that probably the, the core topic is about agility.
Christie Van Etter:So finding partners that will give you the required agility you sometimes don't have internally, you know, so, so that's why instead of trying to reinvent by yourself capabilities or going with big partners, etc.
Christie Van Etter:And create more complexity, I've always looked to, let's say very agile partner that will provide me with this agility.
Christie Van Etter:You know, just through, let's say very almost simple plug and play and outsourcing these capabilities going fast, sometimes even on the, on the content creation because you know, sometimes you have the willingness to move forward, but internally you don't have the bandwidth, you don't have the skills to make it happen, you don't have the budget to create content, etc.
Christie Van Etter:And it takes time.
Christie Van Etter:So if you would like to demonstrate very quickly that it works, organize a pilot, outsource, let's say almost everything, but by controlling, you know, through a frame.
Christie Van Etter:But then it's freedom within the frame with the partner, but you define the frame and then you go on this pilot.
Christie Van Etter:And so that's why I had the privilege to work already with Firework at Kochi and I really appreciate that, this agility to demonstrate that it works.
Christie Van Etter:And they took the lead on many, many topics of the pilot.
Chris Walton:Got it.
Chris Walton:So it goes back to how you answered Anne's question, which is start small, bite off what you got, you find the right partner that enables you to go fast, to learn quickly.
Chris Walton:And that's basically what you're saying.
Chris Walton:Christy, is there any color?
Christie Van Etter:Oh, go ahead.
Christie Van Etter:Yeah.
Christie Van Etter:And especially to get the buy in because you could imagine that if you go and speak with a marketing director or communication director and say, oh guys, video is overpassing picture, so let's move forward and shift to video.
Christie Van Etter:Obviously I'm not sure that it's going to be very smooth as a discussion, you know, so.
Christie Van Etter:Meaning that when I say start with the pilot, you have to engage, convince people, you know, influence people being pragmatic and consumer centric.
Christie Van Etter:So probably the most complex thing is to ask people to be really, really consumer centric.
Christie Van Etter:So instead of thinking about what could be the customer expectation in schedule, just ask them, ask the consumer, you know, what are your consumer expectations?
Christie Van Etter:You're looking for more rich content.
Christie Van Etter:Video content.
Christie Van Etter:Okay.
Christie Van Etter:You consume now only video content.
Christie Van Etter:So we're going to equip ourselves to meet your expectations.
Christie Van Etter:That's the point.
Christie Van Etter:You know, and sometimes from the cultural standpoint, it's complex to make it happen.
Christie Van Etter:And you're losing time because you try to convince consumers that they have to continue to consume picture, you know, but we know that it's not the story, you know.
Chris Walton:Yeah.
Chris Walton:And follow the data through lots of small experiments.
Chris Walton:That's the other thing, too.
Chris Walton:Especially in video commerce.
Chris Walton:I have to think, Christy, you're shaking your head yes.
Jean Denis Mariani:Oh, my gosh.
Jean Denis Mariani:It's all about the data.
Jean Denis Mariani:It's all about the data.
Jean Denis Mariani:The data does not lie.
Jean Denis Mariani:And he's absolutely right.
Jean Denis Mariani:I mean, I, you know, we work with companies of all size at Firework, which is.
Jean Denis Mariani:That's what's really great about us.
Jean Denis Mariani:But I typically work with the Cody's, the l'oreals, the unilevers of the world.
Jean Denis Mariani:And he's right.
Jean Denis Mariani:They always start with a PoC.
Jean Denis Mariani:Right.
Jean Denis Mariani:Let's test it on even one PDP page and let's do AB testing.
Jean Denis Mariani:Let's split the audience 50, 50, and let's see the interaction with the Firework video player versus those who don't have it.
Jean Denis Mariani:And you can very quickly see the engagement time triple.
Jean Denis Mariani:The conversions go up 30 to 40%.
Jean Denis Mariani:The AOV goes up.
Jean Denis Mariani:Because if somebody goes, let's say Ann just needs to go replenish her shampoo and then she starts watching videos of, oh, you need this Shine product.
Jean Denis Mariani:She's like, oh, my gosh, I need this product.
Jean Denis Mariani:This is.
Jean Denis Mariani:Sounds right.
Chris Walton:Sounds like something Ann would do, right?
Jean Denis Mariani:I need this to my cart.
Jean Denis Mariani:I need my hair to be shiny.
Jean Denis Mariani:I'm on camera, right?
Jean Denis Mariani:So all of a sudden you start to see the aov.
Jean Denis Mariani:So when you start to show these internal key stakeholders that maybe weren't so sure about video commerce, you start to show them conversions going up, AOV going up, engagement time doubling and tripling.
Jean Denis Mariani:They start to go, why do we just have this on a PDP page?
Jean Denis Mariani:This should be on a category page.
Jean Denis Mariani:This should be on the homepage for product discovery.
Jean Denis Mariani:Top of funnel, bottom of funnel, right?
Jean Denis Mariani:Then they start realizing.
Jean Denis Mariani:So that's exactly what happens.
Jean Denis Mariani:We start to work with brands and they test it in one location, and then they end up putting it everywhere.
Ann Mazinga:Well, you know, I want to talk to you both about the measurement of this.
Ann Mazinga:I want to dive deeper like we talked about, doing a proof of concepts.
Ann Mazinga:But I think one of the most important things that We' learned through this Front Porch series with Firework is really understanding the new ways of measuring success.
Ann Mazinga:Christie, one thing I want to ask you about that I've been thinking about since you said it at the beginning of this discussion, was this like the engagement or the feeling or emotional connection that people have I that imagine like the rest of the stuff.
Ann Mazinga:I think we can get to AOV going up, like, you know, increased engagement time on site, like that makes sense to me.
Ann Mazinga:But how do you quantify or how do you explain something like that when you're justifying an investment?
Ann Mazinga:How do you recommend that people do that?
Jean Denis Mariani:Well, you can tie, you can tie the actual conversion through our purchasing pixel to what people actually consumed before they put the item in their cart.
Jean Denis Mariani:So you can tie down like if somebody has a carousel of, let's say 10 videos, we can see that they watched like two videos in full screen mode.
Jean Denis Mariani:We can tie down to the actual videos and we can attribute the revenue to what they actually interacted with.
Ann Mazinga:So what that content was like, I mean, you can start to gather that specific level of information of like, well, when she shared this, you know, vulnerable moment that she had and this product came in, like those are the stories that are hitting with our audience.
Jean Denis Mariani:That's when they added it to their cart.
Chris Walton:Interesting.
Jean Denis Mariani:So you can really get granular with the data.
Jean Denis Mariani:We're kind of data geeks over here.
Jean Denis Mariani:But it's really cool when you can really start to tie those conversions or the average order value to specific things they actually watched within a video or a digital showroom.
Chris Walton:That's really interesting because the question I want to ask you in this, in this section too was like, you know, in our business particularly like there's almost no such thing as not enough content, right?
Chris Walton:Like, you can always benefit from more and more content, but yet retailers and brands, they're resource constrained.
Chris Walton:And so you're playing that battle of how much content do I put on the site?
Chris Walton:Then you get page load times and all those factors come into play too.
Chris Walton:So how, like, as you're using this data and analyze things, I guess John Denis, my question for you is like, how do you, how do you balance how much content to actually make in this manner?
Christie Van Etter:So I think it's, it's, it's not a question of balance probably, it's a question of how brands and companies will organize themselves to be in a position to deliver the required content.
Christie Van Etter:So, you know, there is, there is three main topics when it comes to content strategy.
Christie Van Etter:Content management is about content readiness.
Christie Van Etter:So the ability, you know, of the brand to, to provide the content at the right timing, to be, you know, to play it, to distribute it.
Christie Van Etter:The second one is about relevancy for sure, to be extremely relevant regarding the audience you can address with relevant content.
Christie Van Etter:And the third one is about volume.
Christie Van Etter:And all companies know that to perform, to stand out from the crowd, they need the three of these.
Christie Van Etter:And volume is very important.
Christie Van Etter:It's not about creating like say 10 piece of content.
Christie Van Etter:It's creating, you know, hundred thousand pieces of content and assets.
Christie Van Etter:So, and so that's, that's why now companies are pushing, trying to organize, organize themselves about content creation with this kind of different model.
Christie Van Etter:You know, having an internal studio with, why not an internal live streaming studio having, working also to work with, with external partners specializing content for digital in video content, etc.
Christie Van Etter:So you have to shift and to organize ourselves to provide more content.
Christie Van Etter:I mean all the touch point, all the interaction we have with our consumer, whatever the touch point is on the consumer journey, it's about content at the core of it, it's about the content, a piece of content.
Christie Van Etter:So, so is this something which is extremely important and we've increased drastically the volume of required content in that.
Chris Walton:So I want to, so I want to keep going on this.
Chris Walton:So Chrissy, let me go back to you.
Chris Walton:So your example, based on what Jean Denis has said, you said like maybe 2 out of the 10 videos had the click on the page, right?
Chris Walton:That's what you, some, you said something to that degree.
Chris Walton:So, then, so then what do you recommend the retailer, brand do?
Chris Walton:Do they keep the other eight up?
Chris Walton:Do they, do they reposition it?
Chris Walton:Like how should they think about that as executives are new to evaluating the performance of their video assets on their website.
Jean Denis Mariani:So that's where we really come in.
Jean Denis Mariani:We meet with our clients and we really.
Jean Denis Mariani:Every brand has a client leader who's really looking at the data.
Jean Denis Mariani:So it really isn't cookie cutter.
Jean Denis Mariani:It's like a recipe, a little of this, little that.
Jean Denis Mariani:Right.
Jean Denis Mariani:You have to kind of look at each video.
Jean Denis Mariani:We had one client that had this video that was doing really well on social, but when she put it on her website, it didn't, it wasn't the one that was performing the most.
Jean Denis Mariani:And the girl wasn't smiling at the beginning and she noticed that the videos were.
Jean Denis Mariani:The person was smiling at the beginning had more sales attributed to those videos.
Jean Denis Mariani:Right.
Jean Denis Mariani:So it's really just, it's a lot of testing and learning, moving placements, you can easily drop and drag.
Jean Denis Mariani:You don't have to recode once, once we're, once we are like onto your site.
Jean Denis Mariani:You don't have to recode or anything.
Jean Denis Mariani:You can change, you can take a video out, you can add a new video and also just aligning it with your marketing calendar.
Jean Denis Mariani:Calendar.
Jean Denis Mariani:What product launches do you have coming up?
Jean Denis Mariani:What.
Jean Denis Mariani:So right as you're shooting, you know, pack shots, make sure that your social content and your video content also aligns with your marketing calendar.
Jean Denis Mariani:Makes perfect sense, right?
Chris Walton:Are you increasing your assets towards what you want to be promoting at this time of the year?
Chris Walton:Imagine too, there's so much content out there.
Chris Walton:Right too.
Chris Walton:You have to imagine this to exception too as part of this weekly process, right?
Chris Walton:Like absolutely.
Jean Denis Mariani:But we're in trenches with you.
Jean Denis Mariani:So that's what's really fun.
Jean Denis Mariani:You're not on your, you're not on an island by yourself.
Ann Mazinga:How do you think about this?
Ann Mazinga:I think one thing that is hard for say an electronics retailer for example to think about is like this makes sense in the beauty space and we've talked about it in the beauty space because it is such an emotional category.
Ann Mazinga:But Shandini, as you think about some of the trends that we've been talking about today, like what, what is consistent about where retailers and brands who not in the beauty space, like what is consistent about what you've learned that you would impart on them as they're kind of putting together their strategy for the right resources and measurement to be successful with video commerce?
Ann Mazinga:What advice would you have for them?
Christie Van Etter:So I think just for sure, when it comes to beauty, it's about inspirational content, is lifestyle content.
Christie Van Etter:So it, it's the ability to put product and services into real life so into context, you know.
Christie Van Etter:So obviously it's something that is more engaging when it comes to other industry, e.g.
Christie Van Etter:electronics, etc.
Christie Van Etter:It could definitely help because it's about education and relevant support to make the right choice.
Christie Van Etter:And so I've been very impressed about some use cases shared with me by the firework team.
Christie Van Etter:But definitely when you have like so many choices, you know, on the platform, it gives you the ability instead of losing your time going to, you know, each product, each brand, etc.
Christie Van Etter:Making comparison, etc.
Christie Van Etter:Again to make your choice quicker.
Christie Van Etter:So it's probably definitely a good way to move forward is to put focus on this content video strategy to help the consumer to make a choice within the big, big, you know, let's say big options of choosing the right product.
Jean Denis Mariani:Let me, yeah, I was just gonna say let me give a non beauty Example.
Jean Denis Mariani:Yeah.
Ann Mazinga:Somebody that.
Jean Denis Mariani:Not my client, because it's outside of beauty.
Jean Denis Mariani:But do you know green pan?
Christie Van Etter:Yeah.
Jean Denis Mariani:Okay.
Jean Denis Mariani:So we just started working with them a few months ago and you have to take a quiz, like, you know, what kind of pans are you looking for?
Jean Denis Mariani:And you go through the quiz and as you're answering the questions, it serves up another video.
Jean Denis Mariani:So we launched like two months ago and I was like, go try the green pan thing.
Jean Denis Mariani:I ended up buying two new pans.
Jean Denis Mariani:I didn't even know I needed them, but I was so excited about like what they were showing and how it worked and how you could.
Jean Denis Mariani:You didn't have to use soap and water to clean it.
Jean Denis Mariani:You didn't need any oil in your pan when you were making your salmon.
Jean Denis Mariani:Right.
Jean Denis Mariani:There was like this whole cooking thing.
Jean Denis Mariani:That's why I'm fascinated with the Food Network.
Jean Denis Mariani:Right.
Jean Denis Mariani:Like my husband's like.
Chris Walton:Right.
Jean Denis Mariani:And another Food Network show.
Jean Denis Mariani:But I got so excited watching the green pan videos.
Jean Denis Mariani:Ended up buying the products.
Jean Denis Mariani:Right.
Jean Denis Mariani:So.
Jean Denis Mariani:So that's what's great about this.
Jean Denis Mariani:It's really vertical agnostic.
Jean Denis Mariani:I mean, wouldn't you love for somebody to show you the refrigerator that you're thinking about buying?
Jean Denis Mariani:But you can't.
Jean Denis Mariani:You don't live near a Home Depot or a Lowe's.
Jean Denis Mariani:Wouldn't you love a digital showroom where somebody could like open up the refrigerator and show you how this ice machine works and how you can change the.
Jean Denis Mariani:You know, it's just, it works in any industry.
Jean Denis Mariani:That's what's so exciting about video commerce.
Jean Denis Mariani:Yeah.
Ann Mazinga:And I wonder, like Jon Denis, you got me thinking of something.
Ann Mazinga:And Chrissy, with that green pan example too, like, as we see retailers start to invest more in like language based search and these kinds of things.
Ann Mazinga:I mean, these other trends that we're seeing as people are shopping, like John Denis, how do you think about that and the role that video commerce plays alongside something like that to really get to do what you're saying, which is get people the answers they're looking for and the confidence in their purchase more quickly.
Christie Van Etter:I think it's a huge link between video content and personalization.
Christie Van Etter:So they will use data to be sure that at the end the product recommendation they're going to do is going to be extremely relevant for the consumer.
Christie Van Etter:So it's about building consumer knowledge at the level where we were not able to today thanks to data and AI and as a result to be extremely relevant in the product recommendation and experience.
Ann Mazinga:And Christie, how, how are people measuring that?
Ann Mazinga:Like, I'm I'm wondering if you have, like, is that a new metric that we're putting into place where it's like, okay, now that, you know, they've gotten so far down this video path and now we're serving up the video that confirms the question that they were answering that we've had this back and forth with, like, is there new ways or are there new ways that retailers need to be thinking about?
Ann Mazinga:Like, okay, how do we decide?
Ann Mazinga:Or how do we determine, like, like, whether or not this is successful?
Ann Mazinga:We're going to continue to push maybe the AI Chatbot on this part and then video commerce on that part.
Ann Mazinga:Like, how do you think about that?
Ann Mazinga:Or make recommendations for your clients at Firework.
Jean Denis Mariani:Yeah.
Jean Denis Mariani:And you.
Jean Denis Mariani:A lot of the times through our personalization, the customer is able to give a little what they liked about it.
Jean Denis Mariani:Right.
Jean Denis Mariani:They can.
Jean Denis Mariani:Oh, my God, this is amazing.
Jean Denis Mariani:Right?
Jean Denis Mariani:So it's getting, again, it's getting that content, getting the feedback from the customers themselves.
Jean Denis Mariani:And again, ultimately, at the end of the day, we are here in E commerce to sell products.
Jean Denis Mariani:Right.
Jean Denis Mariani:So if the sales are coming through and it's working, then it's just, it just gives those internal key stakeholders the ability to keep saying, yes, let's be all in.
Jean Denis Mariani:Let's play in our next three years of video commerce.
Jean Denis Mariani:Right.
Jean Denis Mariani:Let's really blow it up.
Jean Denis Mariani:So it just gets really, really exciting.
Jean Denis Mariani:Yeah.
Chris Walton:I mean, my takeaway from the question you asked Anne and listening to both of our guests today that I didn't know coming into this is really like, it goes back to what Sean Denise said about personalization.
Chris Walton:It's like, you know, this, this, this concept is applicable to any category because that's the beauty of digital commerce, that it gets down into the niches of who we are as individuals.
Chris Walton:And so any of us can, by way of these new tools, have our own personalized kind of QVC shopping experience or our own personalized, you know, natural language model search experience that serves up video content in this way.
Chris Walton:And, and that's really, really powerful if you kind of think about or put yourself in that perspective as the consumer, but more importantly as the retailer, the brand trying to serve up content in that space.
Ann Mazinga: should be watching out for in: Ann Mazinga:Jean Denis, if people want to follow you, they want to ask you questions about other trends that are coming up for the year ahead and just about your experience.
Ann Mazinga:Rolling out video commerce at Cody and other beauty brands.
Ann Mazinga:What's the best way for them to get in contact with you?
Christie Van Etter:They can do that anytime they want.
Christie Van Etter:Probably the most convenient way is through linking.
Ann Mazinga:Okay, perfect.
Ann Mazinga: e going to be at NRF at Booth: Ann Mazinga:You've got prime real estate at nrf.
Ann Mazinga:But if people want to connect with you while they're there at NRF or beforehand, what's the best way for them to get in contact with you?
Jean Denis Mariani:Yep.
Jean Denis Mariani:Link, same.
Jean Denis Mariani:LinkedIn is the best way.
Jean Denis Mariani:Just connect.
Jean Denis Mariani:Send me a LinkedIn request and we can set up a chat.
Ann Mazinga:Amazing.
Ann Mazinga:Well, that wraps us up today.
Ann Mazinga:Thanks so much to Jean Denis Mariani and Christie Van Nader of Firework for sitting down with us today.
Ann Mazinga:And as always, on behalf of all of us here at omnietalk, be careful out there.
