@mux/ai

Bertold: One of our customers,

actually our first customer

Douglas in Germany, and

they are Europe's number

one beauty retailer.

The chief digital officer

was at a conference talking

about the impact that video

and live shopping had inside

the Douglas store and shared

that they see conversion

rates improved by 50 percent

and they see that users are

spending more, that users

are coming back to the

online shop more frequently.

I think that's very

plausible, especially

when we look at something

like this app feed that

makes the app more sticky.

Lamia: We're so excited

today to be chatting with

Bertold from Livebuy.

Livebuy builds live and

on demand shoppable video

experiences for some of the

biggest brands in Europe.

Bertold is going to share

with us some great insider

tips about building video into

your e-commerce experiences,

including how they built

their own TikTok-like

feed of shoppable content.

Let's get into it.

Bertold: The way we came

together with Douglas was when

their brick and mortar stores

closed down, they wanted to

keep this premium experience

for their customers and offer

them more than just a text

and image based webshop.

So they put a Youtube

player into their website

and put like a couple

of products below that.

And when I saw that I called

Douglas, I knew somebody

there, and said like, "Hey,

great what you're doing.

I think we can help

you make it better.

Truth be told, we didn't have

a product at that point, but

it was more about convincing

them that there is a vision

we hit it off right away.

When I showed the Douglas

people, our idea and like the

first initial screenshots.

And then I did a demo at

home, painting my face

with Douglas products.

And they were sitting

on the other end of the

experience, adding the

products to their cart.

Once we had the demo working.

Um, they loved it and now

that we've done our job and

we've developed a system

that is similarly simple to

embed like a Youtube video.

It's a bit more complex,

admittedly, because you

have to connect the add to

cart to the video and things

like that, but it's not

rocket science by any means.

That gives the online shop

more options to implement

content into their page.

And yeah, that's

fundamentally our mission.

Make that as simple as

possible and help the

online shop differentiate

themselves, make shopping fun

inside their own experience.

Lamia: Uh, maybe tell us a

little bit, maybe you can

show us, you are, you are

the chief demo officer.

So can you show us a little

bit of how does Livebuy

work for your customers?

What is, what does

that look like?

Um, we'd love to see what

you're building there.

Bertold: Yeah, sure.

Happy to do that.

So what you see here is

Douglas in Germany, they have

more than a billion euros

in revenue just from their

online stores, a couple of

hundred brick and mortar

stores throughout Germany.

And one thing that we

discovered customers

or a typical buyer

journey usually starts

outside the online shop.

So they might see an

Instagram ad or something

in a movie that they like.

And then they started

searching for that

in a search engine.

And eventually at some

point, if the online shop

has done their job, right,

the potential buyer ideally

finds his or her way into

the online shop, right?

Sometimes people think

that the homepage kind

of like as the starting

point to an online shops,

but that's not the case.

Usually the journey

begins directly on the

product detail page.

So now we're on the

product page and Douglas

is doing their best to

give a lot of information

about this product.

Of course, you have

many different images.

You have a product

description, but let's be

honest, how many people really

read the product description?

Um, usually they're more

optimized for a search engines

that they're for humans.

So nobody really reads that.

And so it's difficult for

somebody who is curious

about the product to make the

purchase decision right now.

And we can see that in

the data too, right?

There is this usually

two to three percent

conversion rate that

online shops usually have.

Which means that 97 to 98

percent of visitors inside

the online shop don't purchase

something when they're

there, but they leave.

And where do they leave?

Usually they go to Youtube

or to TikTok or to Instagram

to get some more information

about the products or

even to Amazon because

Amazon still has the most

reviews, user-generated

reviews inside their

store, just to get another

opinion, to get validation,

to get social proof.

And all these things are

what's typically lacking

in an online store.

And we thought with

video, we can fix that.

So with video, and this

is what we did here on

the Douglas page, we are

integrating videos that

contain exactly that product

that the user is looking at

on the product detail page.

And if a user wants to

get more information, see

the product in use, um,

on some different skin

tones, you can swipe from,

uh, from video to video.

Um, you can, um, have

the product and edit to

your card immediately.

So like the different

variant, that's what you need.

There is also sort of a

cross-sell/upsell effect

because I can not just see

a product, but actually see

the product used together

with other products to

create a certain look.

And then I can visit the

cart immediately here.

Or if I close the video,

I see a little accident

and that reminds me that I

have products in my cart.

And when I click on that,

as you can see, the products

are now added to my cart

and I can simply add them

or check them out and

purchase them in the store.

We are integrated at

various points throughout

the online shop.

What I just showed you

was our product detail

page integration.

Douglas is also using

us on kind of like a

landing page for the

users that are interested

mostly in the videos.

So it's a little bit like

Douglas's own Netflix, if

you want, um, where you

can see the live streams

that are announced.

Um, you see all the various

clips here, categorized

in different categories.

Um, you see, um, the

recordings of past live

streams, even international

superstars like Billie

Eilish have been live on

Douglas to present, um, her

new fragrance collection.

Um, yeah, so we are integrated

in, in many different parts.

And as you might see

there's various different

creators that are attached

to those individual videos.

Creators get their own

kind of profiles inside

the Douglas online store.

Um, it's very very similar

to Amazon storefronts, if

you're familiar with that,

where the creators have

their little page where you

can see all the content from

one specific creator and

the live streams that are

happening in the future,

you can follow the creator

and that way never miss when

they upload new content.

Some of the creators

even feature their

Douglas storefronts in on

their Instagram profiles or

on their TikTok profiles.

Um, and that way engage their

audience that is outside of

the online store and lead

them into the online store

to make those purchases.

We knew from the beginning

that in order to make

this successful, it's

not enough just to

give online shops the ability

to put videos into their site.

The difficulties in

this come from scaling

the content platform.

If the online shop

were to produce all the

content by themselves,

that would be impossible.

Creators are much

better at doing this.

So from the beginning, we

built our software in a

way that the online shop

becomes a content platform.

It's curated, it's controlled.

The online shop at all stages

can make sure to only allow

the content that they want

on their platform, but they

can democratize the content

creation and leverage all the

different kinds of creators

that they are partnering

with, whether it's their

own employees or whether

it's, um, international

superstars, influencer, and

even their own customers.

Douglas has started a program

where they allow their

own customers to apply to

become a Douglas creator.

And then once they are

verified and Douglas gives

them the rights to upload

content, they can publish

clips on how they use products

to help other people make

better purchase decisions.

Lamia: So this is a

great desktop experience.

How is this also translated

into the mobile world where

there's competing apps like

TikTok and Instagram and

social social media platforms?

How are, are your brands

that you're working with able

to, to create capitalize on

mobile experiences as well?

Bertold: Great question.

Um, so what Douglas has done

together with us, um, and

I'm showing the mobile app

view now, um, in addition

to the regular mobile app

experience where you have the

banners and the advertisements

and the products here, they

have introduced a button

here at the very top of

their app that says "clips."

And when you click that.

A TikTok-esque experience

opens up that allows users to

discover products in a new,

interactive, engaging way.

As you can see there

is more content here.

So once I start swiping I

can enter this new kind of

experience and be inspired

by products and find the

right products for me.

So the way Mux comes into

play with our software is

literally in the background,

um, because we have the video

player that plays a video and

then on top of that, we put

our software with the product

selection and in live streams,

you can chat and um, swipe

to the next video and, um,

we display the player or the

the widgets inside the product

detail pages depending on

which product the user is on.

So that's coming from us.

But as soon as the player is

open, the video running in

the background comes from Mux.

And that's very convenient for

us because building a video

streaming software or like

the infrastructure behind that

is not our core competency.

We're good at the

e-commerce stuff.

We are good at connecting the

e-commerce with the video.

And Partnering with Mux

allows us to focus on

exactly that and make sure

that we do our job well and

Mux does their job well and

together, this is a great

solution for online shops.

Lamia: In using Mux, you're

obviously using our on-demand

video, but can you tell us

a little bit about the live

infrastructure, how you're

using live and, and how that

works with interactivity?

Bertold: Yeah, sure.

Um, so when it comes to live,

we are using Mux's low latency

streaming capabilities, um,

to make sure that there is

as little latency between

the broadcast of the video,

um, and the user receiving

the video as possible.

Multidirectional communication

is a big part of the live

events, and when you ask

a question and you get

the answer five minutes

later, that doesn't work.

So the lower the

latency, the better for

the whole experience.

Kudos to Mux for low

latency streaming.

Lamia: You obviously you're

in, you're based in Europe

and you work with a lot of

European brands, but you were

telling us you and your co

founders have been watching

trends regionally, right?

Especially in China and in

the implementation of video

in shopping experiences.

What are some of the trends

that you're seeing in

the e-commerce landscape?

Um, regional trends,

global trends?

How are, how are some of the

things that you're seeing

coming to life today in 2024?

Bertold: Yeah.

Um, so I mean live shopping

especially, even today

is still huge in China.

Um, there was this video

that went viral recently

of, um, a seller that was

showing products like for

three seconds, and then

the next product, and then

the next product, and it

works fabulously over there.

I don't know if something like

that would work in Germany

or in Europe or in the US.

Um, I'd be curious to see.

So if there are online

shops that would

like to try something

like that, hit us up.

We can, uh, help you with

the software and then you

can experiment with that.

Uh, but we do see some

cultural differences.

As mentioned before, live

shopping is what we started

with, but we discovered that

there is kind of a glass

ceiling because the live

show makes most sense live.

And it's very, very difficult

to get people into the

same kind of experience at

a certain point in time.

Um, so you have to kind

of offer them something

special, like a special

discount or something.

That's how it works mostly in

China, in the Western world.

And I'm generalizing a

lot, obviously there is

like nuances to this, but,

um, having this freedom

to decide when you want to

consume content and what

to watch plays a huge role.

So this asynchronous

clips oriented experience

that we've now built

seems to be fitting better

to what users expect and

want from an online shop.

That's, that's my answer.

Lamia: Um, and that in, I

think we, we mentioned that

a little bit before, but

that seems to be in line

with what we're seeing with

social media trends, right?

TikTok and Instagram both

stepping a little bit away

from their live shopping

experiences into more

of that creator based

click through on clips.

It's nice though, that

when an e-commerce brand

themselves are building

out their own experiences

and aren't relying on what

social media has to offer,

they can integrate both.

Right.

So we're seeing that

with Douglas, right?

They're integrating both

that live shopping and

those clips into, into one

experience, which is, that's

Bertold: a very good point

that you're raising because

I think that's very important

for online shops to do that.

Um, at the end of the day,

people like to spend time

and experiences that they

enjoy and Instagram and

Tik-Tok, um, deliver those

experience, some might say

even to a fault online shops,

relying on social media

and being present there.

I mean, they should be present

there, of course, that's

where people spend their time.

Um, online shops relying too

much on social media and even

going so far as to sell over

social media, what TikTok and

Instagram are experimenting

with, Facebook as well, does

come with a risk because for

the typical user, for the

typical customer, it will

not be clear that they are

actually purchasing something

from a specific shop.

They will feel like they

purchased something on

TikTok or on Facebook.

And the online shop goes

into the background and takes

kind of like the second row

in the whole transaction.

Losing the direct access

to their own customers

and becoming kind of

like a fulfillment

service for social media.

And eventually this

could lead to the online

shops losing power and

social media becoming

more and more powerful.

And I believe that cannot

be in the strategic

interest of online shops.

They have to protect their

access to their own customers.

So, approaching this from

the other end and introducing

content inside their own

experience, making sure that

the customer has everything

they need to make the purchase

decision inside the store,

will help them and also will

build this community and

um, increase loyalty of their

customers to their own stores.

Again, not saying

don't do social media.

That would be a mistake.

But be mindful that if you

rely on social media too

much, it could backfire.

Lamia: That's, uh, some

really great insight there,

uh, knowing where does

outline happen and, and

not just sitting back and

allowing external forces

like social media to drive

your engagement and

audience, but engaging in

both and which is important.

Let's say I am a brand

new e-commerce brand.

I'm ready to go.

I'm ready to - or just an

existing e commerce brand,

but I'm ready to start

dabbling into video and

start getting my feet wet

with video experiences.

Outside of calling Livebuy

and saying, "Bertold,

hey, help us out!"

which is a great thing to do.

But what kind of video would

you recommend as a first

start for and where in their

world should they first

start implementing video?

Bertold: Yeah, great question.

So if I had an online shop

and this is very important I

want to also be transparent

about this It doesn't it

probably doesn't make sense

to implement shoppable videos

in online shops if you don't

have the traffic already.

So if you are just starting

out on Shopify and you don't

have traffic yet, you should

focus first on getting the

traffic into your store.

But once you have that

traffic and you want to

optimize your conversion

rate, you want to make

sure that all the marketing

dollars that you spend are

as effective as possible.

You should think about how

can you improve the experience

to help the potential buyer

make that purchase decision.

And that's where

video comes into play.

So if I were to start with

video and I'm already an

established retailer, um, then

I would start on my product

detail pages, create videos.

I can use if I have an

omni channel business.

So if I also have brick and

mortar stores, I can use that.

I can ask my

employees for help.

Usually I have the product

expertise in-house already

because that's what my

offline employees do when they

um help customers in

the stores as well and

you would be surprised.

Sometimes when customers

start with us they ask

themselves themselves the

same question like how

will I produce the content?

And actually that is

one of the bottlenecks.

The software is just the

vehicle for the content.

And they are surprised by

how many creative and like

really, really good creators

they have in their own

ranks that now have an

opportunity to live out

that kind of expertise

and provide more value to

their customers digitally.

And then when I have, when

I organically kind of grow

my pool of creators and I

have this constant influx

of new content, that's

when I can think about

implementing something like

this app feed that I showed

before into my mobile app.

To increase the stickiness

of my app, um, to make

sure that users have a

reason to come back again

and again and again.

Um, so that's probably

how I'd do it.

Lamia: That's awesome

advice for anyone who's

thinking about video and,

and approaching that in,

in their in their plans

and content plans and

infrastructure plans.

That's awesome.

Um, if you were to put

on magical goggles,

thinking ahead, looking

ahead to what's coming up

in e-commerce from your

conversations, what do you

see coming up on the horizon?

What's coming up on the

horizon for Livebuy?

How do you see worlds

integrating and

technology evolving?

Bertold: So as mentioned

before, um, our software

is a vehicle for content

and content and producing

content is a big bottleneck.

And, um, I was personally

very, very excited um, when

I saw the advancements in

generative AI, especially

the recent announcement from

OpenAI with Sora and there's

probably also other platforms

that are experimenting

with generative video.

We have started looking

into how we can use

generative AI capabilities

to, um, create content

without the human need.

Now, this doesn't mean that we

want to replace human content.

In fact, I'm a very big

proponent of human content.

And I think having this

experience of similar people,

same body shapes, same um,

skin complexions, things

like that will be very, very

helpful and very important,

um, in online shops to help

make purchase decisions.

But there is also some like.

generic information about

products that can be found

on the product detail

page, but we've already

established that nobody

reads that stuff anyway.

And if you can package that

in a more engaging format,

um, in a short 10 to 15 second

clip, that gives you the most

important information about

a product or how it compares

to other products that are

similar to that one, just

based on the product data.

Um, I think this could be a

very, very exciting format

again to supplement the

human content creation and

make sure that not just the

highlight products get a

video, but also the less loved

products, um, get some sort

of video that helps users,

um, have a better experience

inside the online store.

So that's what

we're looking at.

And we're very excited about,

um, the whole development in

AI and what's coming out of

San Francisco, especially and

out of the rest of the world.

Um, and yeah, very

excited about that.

Lamia: Yeah.

I'm glad you said

supplement and not replace.

Cause I think that in

everything you're saying,

there's authenticity, right

to the experiences you're

creating and helping enabling

these brands to create.

And so pairing that

authentic experience with

informational experiences

is also, it's, it's a

good pairing of the two.

This is fantastic.

Thank you so much Bertold

for spending time with us,

for lending your expertise

in e-commerce and, and

everything that you've

learned, putting your chief

demo officer experience to

work as well, and showing us,

showing us Livebuy in action.

Um, we really appreciate the

time that you spent today.

Bertold: Thank you so

much for having me.

It was great fun.

Thanks.