TrueLife - Eitan Koter - The Death of Amazon

Episode Date: September 30, 2024

One on One Video Call W/George https://tidycal.com/georgepmonty/60-minute-meetingSupport the show:https://www.paypal.me/Truelifepodcast?locale.x=en_US🚨🚨Curious about the future of psychedelics? Imagine if Alan Watts started a secret society with Ram Dass and Hunter S. Thompson… now open the door. Use Promocode TRUELIFE for Get 25% off monthly or 30% off the annual plan For the first yearhttps://www.district216.com/Aloha and welcome to a transformative episode where we dive deep into the crossroads of technology, commerce, and human connection. Today, we have the privilege of sitting down with Eitan, a visionary with over two decades of experience navigating the ever-evolving landscapes of media, entertainment, eCommerce, and telecom. As a seasoned founder and CEO who has led startups to NASDAQ IPOs, Eitan embodies the intersection of innovation and leadership, having mastered the art of go-to-market strategies, international sales, and SaaS solutions.Currently serving as Co-CEO of Vimmi, a groundbreaking video commerce SaaS platform, Eitan is redefining how brands connect with their audiences by transforming video experiences into interactive, shoppable moments that bring the magic of commerce to life across social media, marketplaces, and websites. Through his podcast “eCom Pulse,” Eitan shines a light on the future of eCommerce, distilling insights from industry leaders, tech visionaries, and forward-thinking brands to guide us through this brave new world of digital commerce.Today, we’ll explore the philosophy that drives Eitan’s vision – one that’s rooted in customer-centric innovation, data-driven insights, and the ethical practices that ground the technology shaping millions of global interactions daily. We’ll delve into how Vimmi isn’t just a platform but a revolution in e-commerce, bridging the gap between human curiosity and the instant gratification of online shopping. Join us as we journey into the mind of a true pioneer, and uncover how video can be more than a medium; it can be a pathway to connection, storytelling, and redefining commerce itself.Eitan Koter Bio: Eitan Koter is the Co-founder and Co-CEO of Vimmi, a leading video commerce SaaS company providing multi-channel shoppable video and live shopping solutions to brands and retailers. With two decades of experience in startups and public companies, including a NASDAQ IPO, Eitan is a thought leader in video commerce, digital marketing, social commerce, and startup bootstrapping. He frequently speaks about futuristic immersive digital experiences and the convergence of media and commerce.About Vimmi: Vimmi works with brands and retailers to accelerate sales through the power of shoppable video. We offer a multichannel video commerce platform that connects with customers where they prefer to shop. Vimmi helps turn passive viewers into real buyers by making videos shoppable on major platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Amazon, Twitch, and websites, transforming content into revenue.Below are Eitan’s social media profile links and other important links to include in the show notes:LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/eitankoter/YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@VimmiCommunicationsTikTok:https://www.tiktok.com/@vimmi_comInstagram:https://www.instagram.com/vimmi_insta/Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/vimmicomVimmi's website: https://vimmi.net/Eitan's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eitankoter/Mastering eCommerce Marketing Podcast: https://vimmi.net/mastering-ecommerce-marketing/Mastering eCommerce Marketing LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/mastering-ecommerce-marketing/ One on One Video call W/George https://tidycal.com/georgepmonty/60-minute-meetingSupport the show:https://www.paypal.me/Truelifepodcast?locale.x=en_USCheck out our YouTube:https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPzfOaFtA1hF8UhnuvOQnTgKcIYPI9Ni9&si=Jgg9ATGwzhzdmjkg

Darkness struck, a gut-punched theft, Sun ripped away, her health bereft. I roar at the void. This ain't just fate, a cosmic scam I spit my hate. The games rigged tight, shadows deal, blood on their hands, I'll never kneel. Yet in the rage, a crack ignites, occulted sparks cut through the nights. The scars my key, hermetic and stark. To see, to rise, I hunt in the dark, fumbling, fear. The spirit through ruins maze lights my war cry, born from the blaze.

The poem is Angels with Rifles. The track, I Am Sorrow, I Am Lust by Codex Seraphini. Check out the entire song at the end of the cast. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the True Live podcast. I hope everybody is having a beautiful day. I hope the sun is shining. I hope that the birds are singing, and I hope that the wind is at your back. I got a great show for you today.

We're going to explore some fascinating topics. I want to welcome to a transformative episode where we dive deep into the crossroads of technology, commerce, and human connection. Today we have the privilege of sitting down with Aiton Kotar, a visionary with over two decades of experience navigating the ever-evolving landscapes of media, entertainment, e-commerce, and telecom. As a seasoned founder and CEO who has led startups to NASDAQ IPOs, Aton embodies the intersection of innovation and leadership, having mastered the art of go-to-market strategies, international sales, and SaaS solutions. Currently serving as the co-CEO of VIME, a groundbreaking

video commerce SaaS platform, Aeton is redefining how brands connect with their audiences by transforming video experiences into interactive, shoppable moments that bring the magic of e-commerce. to life across social media, marketplaces and websites. Through his podcast, E-ComPulse, he shines a light on the future of e-commerce, distilling insights from industry leaders to visionaries,

excuse me, and forward-thinking brands to guide us through the brave new world of digital. Are you? Hey, I'm great. Thank you for having me. It's great to be here. It's a pleasure. Super excited about this episode.

Yeah, me too. You have your finger on the pulse. of a lot of what seems to be transitioning in the creator economy. I'm kind of wondering if you can give us a little bit more of a backstory on how you got started there. Look, I've started in video when the first company transitioned from analog to digital. Remember those cable companies, Comcast, right? And also the satellite companies like DirecTV, Ecostar, right?

So I've started in 99 already in the video, and my boss back then said, look, are you sure you want to join us because that's the, you'll never, you'll never go out of this industry. You're just going to stay here. So think, take another day. Think again. And I said, okay, fine. Let's do that.

And yeah, this was an amazing journey. And I saw the evolution of video, you know, from the early days where we just work with companies, transition them from analog video to digital video and pick two, and pick four. Whoever knows what these terms of stands. for it in video compression side. And eventually we saw that video can be carried over the like IP connectivity, like IP connection. It started with like a point to point link from a venue to the broadcast station, right?

So instead of just bringing this OBVAN with satellite that costs probably $50,000 per hour, you can now just lease one IP link by the local operator and just deliver video over IP. We were quite pioneering this. And then, you know, this is before the iPhone, right? And then the iPhone was launched. And suddenly we do those video player and flash. And suddenly video can be carried out also on the distribution side for the users. And CDN, like on the delivery networks has evolved.

And we saw that public internet, actually unmanaged networks, can be used also for delivering professional video. Obviously, standard definition is started, but then it evolved to high definition in 4K. and we know that Netflix actually, you know, was launched globally and then Disney and all the other online video platforms. And that was an amazing transition and see how it evolved. It's really, really crazy. So video is like everywhere, video is like 82% of the world right internet is video, right? According to Cisco and it keeps growing. And obviously it has many, many use cases. So I started in media entertainment.

We work with cable companies, with mobile operators, with content providers, media houses. And during the last, I think, probably four years ago, we realized that something is happening in China with live shopping. So, you know, in China, they have these super apps, right? You can, like, it's an app that you do everything on these apps, right? You buy products. It's your digital wallet. You do everything there.

And suddenly people started. to go live in China and promoting products. And it was very successful type of experience. And some of them sold billions of dollars just from live shopping. It's their daily job. Right. So just the volume of live shopping in China is probably bigger, larger than probably the top three European country, their entire e-commerce business, right?

GMV of the entire country. So it's a big, big, big thing in China. And we saw that there is a process or an. evolution of this technology towards the Western world, to the developed countries. And four years ago, we already served a lot of customers and millions of users all around the world. So we took our technology, which is kind of a built-on variety of microservices, because video is kind of a workflow thing.

And we said, okay, let's productize this type of microservices towards retail, brands, and the commerce use case. And we saw the rise of video being used for marketing activities by brands and retailers and any business, right? And then because of that interactivity layers of the ability to purchase from within the video, whether it's a live event or non-live event, we knew it's going to be a big thing also in the US and in Europe. And we launched our video commerce SaaS platform. And this is what we do for the last four years. It's actually a new business unit for us.

And what we see is that obviously brands and retailers are using it almost on every side. But we saw the evolution of that creator economy. And I'm going back to your question. And what we see is that the biggest brands of the future will come from those influencers and solopreneurs, though content creators. Because they have followers and they can now introduce products. know like the Kardashians and many other use cases of influencers becoming big players in terms of owning their business, owning their brand and launching products.

What they actually need from the tech side is the platform to manage their products, to merchandise their products, helping them with Drop Ship, helping them with content creation, with video distribution. And you know some of the things that we do. So today we work with brands of all sizes. We work with solopreneurs and content creators and influencers. and they are all stakeholders, you know, in our platform. It's mind-blowing to me to see the evolution.

And I love that you use that term evolution of marketing. This is a big question, but how do you think that the video and live shopping influences behavior? Like, we're seeing this shift into that. Like, why is that, Aetown? Like, what is, is there something between imagery and behavior that we're having this new state of awareness? or what's your thoughts on that? I think there are a few spheres probably that are combining together like in this like 2024-25, right?

So one thing is that it's difficult, it's very very difficult to acquire new customers to your amazing brand.com website, right? It's become very, very difficult. Like three years, four years ago, you would have spent $1 in Facebook, you know that you have between five to 10 X. It was guaranteed, right?

Same in Amazon. But today, nothing is guaranteed, right? It's very crowded, very, very, competitive, you know, CPCs are very, very high advertising cost is so high. It's very difficult to break through, right? Again, if you are a big player, fine. But if you are just a new brand or not launching a new product, it's very difficult to do the traction like it used to be a few years ago.

So a lot of companies are looking for more ways to differentiate and breakthrough, and they found the root of the video because video is a very emotional way because you can see the people. it's very authentic. You can tell your own true story. And this is one of the probably, you know, last areas where you can really grow and grow with just organically without this huge investment in paid media, right? And if you go organically with video and you're consistent and creating all those videos,

you know from analytics what's working and what's not. And you can then obviously invest in advertising, but in order to return on that expense is going to be very, very good. So this is one sphere. The other sphere is the new generation of shoppers that are coming into the industry, Gen Z, right? Yep. Like they don't like this over-polished, you know, videos and pictures.

They are looking for the authenticity, right? They can, like, you know, the attention span is 1.7 second today. Like if you go to a website, if you just swipe up on TikTok or Instagram Reels or YouTube shorts, it's like 1.7 second and people are making decision whether to stay or just to swipe up. Okay, by the way, like three years ago, it was seven seconds, right?

So it just crashed completely. TikTok is obviously helping us positive or negative. It's a different discussion, but that TikTokification effect just taught us about authenticity, consistency, and no one cares about the background

and all these, you know, you don't have your, don't trend studios, don't spend two months on just creating a video, just shoot it on your iPhone and that's it, right? Few of my, you know, best successful viral videos that had zero editing on the video. Nothing. Maybe just adding subtitles in one button, right? In one of the tools, just go out there, 59 second maximum, okay? Yep. Very important.

Even 30 seconds is going to be even better. but so that's another trend. The Gen Zs that came over, TikTokification effect, right? And the ability for video to create more of an emotional connection between sellers and buyers, the whole thing with marketing is changing. We're moving from like one to many to just these one-to-one engagement that is very possible, you know, with technology and AI. So the ability to create, to build a relationship first.

and then promote a product. People are more opening to be being offered something once they gain some credibility or some kind of a rapper, you know, with a seller. So a lot of things has merged together to help radio become like a very like the cornerstone of a lot of activities. And another opportunity,

because of that difficulties to bring customer to your own website, is the opportunity with social commerce. So that's like a mega business trend right now, just to give it the numbers, right? Social Commerce, 2030, $6.2 trillion, right? It's like one, it was like one trillion last year. It's going to like six times increase, right, in the next five years. So that's a mega opportunity because it's okay.

I mean, if you're spending 40% of your revenues on advertising, right? Why not reduce it to 8%, 6% or 11% depending on which niche? revenue share with TikTok, right? So it's okay. You don't have to bring all your users to buy on your platform. Of course, there are other advantages in terms of data are reaching out to them directly, but there is a more and more tendency to open up.

Social commerce is another mega opportunity. And video is like the vehicle, the engine of all these megatrans that we just, did I just share? It's mind-blowing to me to see in real time the landscape changing as quickly as it is. It's almost like you're watching a video, seeing how fast strategies change and are implemented on some levels. Maybe you could help redefine live shopping. Maybe can you present like a linguistic image for people who may not thoroughly understand

what live shopping is? Yeah. So live, I think it's very clear, right? I mean, in the big screen, it's live is probably today only relevant for maybe sports events, music or news, right? That's it. And of course, we have a lot of live events, scenarios also on over the internet, on the digital fronts, let's say.

So social media actually. So all the social platforms are providing the ability to go live, right? We're going live right now in multiple channels, right? So that live experience is more of an emotional experience, which is dramatically, you know, sets apart than a regular video that you see, which is pretty recorded and edited. This is happening just now. It's live. And it's a special event that is more emotionally triggered and involved. And the live shopping use case of the live is the ability for a seller.

or for a host to showcase a product, whether it's unboxing or describe the product in terms of its functionality. During those live events, there is also the ability for sellers to ask questions through a chat system. So for example, in the VIM platform, also in other platform,

there's a studio where you go live and there is a moderation aspect of it in terms of the chat. Someone can, the host or another seller can respond to questions over the chat in order to answer quickly and maximize conversion rates. And in terms of the shopping experience,

there is a button, like a buy now button. You can actually click on a button within the video player that will pop up a checkout page. Right, we can during the video experience, you can complete a full checkout checkout experience, meaning add to cart, pay with your query card, and define shipments and that's it, right, while the video continues to play.

And this is for that, we call it video checkup, right? So this whole experience, experience is based on the psychological effect that we all know in e-commerce that it's called the impulse purchase, right? And just the life shopping aspect of it, just take the impulse purchase to the next level, right? Because if you do market in advance those events as a brand or as a seller, just increasing the formal fear of missing out, whether there is an extensive substantial discount or some kind of a variety of coupon codes or a lot of gamification involved in these events like trivia games and trying to push people to be more interactive

and more engaged so they can get more discounts or more more benefits and if you market these events in a correct way all the viewers of these live events they are like super super highly intense potential shoppers right and we see that the conversion rates are like 10x from a regular web page. We know that regular brands.com websites, probably there are somewhere between 2%, 3%, 4% conversion rates. Amazon are like probably 8%. But in the live shopping events,

we can see like data of 20%, 30% conversion rates of the people that are actually participating in the event are really buying that product. So this is a very, very powerful type of, a sales opportunity or sales event within the overall marketing activities of any brands today. It's exciting to me. And it brings up this idea of maybe genetics versus culture. And I'm curious about the idea of what may work in China.

Like is, is there something that is, you know, genetic about getting a coupon at a discounted rate and bringing in some fomo? You know what I mean? Is there a strategy for culture versus genetics there? Yes. I mean, the things that are not working, for example, in the U.S., that are working very well in China, right? So I think eventually we are very much influenced. I mean, we talked about social commerce,

like the opportunity of brands selling on social media. But there's another definition for social commerce is we are buying because our friends also bought that product. Right, right. And we like to buy together. We feel more confident. And like, I think the number one criteria for anyone to buy is because one of his friends already purchased that product and they gave a recommendation, some kind of a review that

is happy with. And this is like by far the number one trigger for making that purchase. So, I mean, if you see that the other people are purchasing or buying, then you're mostly going to buy that product. That's a very, very important, you know, aspect of this whole use case. And this is why we see such a huge explosion in this creator economy or there. the importance of influence of marketing, just influence of marketing.

I mean, just the market size is, you know, it's hundreds of billions of the room and the exact number of businesses is generated by influencers because, you know,

the way that, for example, you know, people are, you know, buying and let's say Gen Z slash millennials are buying on TikTok as they go to the search

in TikTok, search for the product and see recommendation and reviews videos from other shoppers or already purchase the product. And if they're happy with, they will go to TikTok shopping. that we go ahead and purchase that product.

So it's kind of a, you do a search, you're influenced by a previous shoppers, you see an influencer content, and you make a purchase, right? They're just bypassing everything that we know, Facebook, Google, right, everything. So that's the future of commerce, right? Which is very, very social, very influencer-based. No one cares about features and functionalities anymore because there are so many alternatives out there. But if I want to see like re-result testimonials, these are the very, very powerful things that,

that influencer can deliver. And those authentic influencers, let's call them micro, right? Not those mega-influencer. Everyone knows that are getting paid, right? So it's not authentic. And the new generation of shoppers, they're really less. They are very, very, they have like radars. They know, like, within milliseconds that it's paid.

sponsored video, right? And they just swipe up. They don't care about that, right? So they're looking for those authentic reviews. They know how to find those authentic reviews, and they are making decisions accordingly. This is why communities are very very important. And like YouTube just launched another community,

a lot of community functionalities. Just building a community around the brand is just one of the important thing that you can do. So online sales, online marketing, all these new trends, you see the small medium businesses are quickly adopting these new trends. Big brands are mostly winning on the big advertising budgets on meta, big SEO budgets with content on Google search, right? And all these new TikTok-based, short-form, influencer-based is a new generation of shoppers

that are mostly targeting the smaller niche type of brands. and they don't like to buy from the big guys, right? So that's something we need to understand and it will just keep growing. I mean, that these type of trends. I mean, it's, it really makes me think, you know, it's so weird to think about the behavior of it. Like as someone who may be an upcoming influencer,

you have these ideas of making it big. But in some ways, as soon as you make it big, you've sold out all your credibility to sell to a community on some level. And you're already, you're already swiped up by the time you make it. Exactly. But then, exactly. Absolutely right. You just nailed it. This is why they're looking for their next. They didn't have anything. So how much, okay, you sell a sponsor picture, fine, a video, fine. But now those, this is why we see the creators and the influencers, they are becoming like brands. And they're starting small with drop shipping and some merchandising,

but they're starting to build their own name, their own brand. And this is their evolution. And we see a lot of, this is going to be huge category within commerce, right? Brands that are led by solopreneur, by influencers, right? That's the biggest opportunity right now. Because they own the community, right? And that's so powerful. This is the real moat, right, of future of business. Yeah.

What do you think that means for the future of, let's go a little further into the weeds a little bit. when we start seeing community be the very foundation of what's important in life, that has real social ramifications. And we're actually seeing it happen in the world of advertising. That's kind of an interesting dichotomy there, right? Yes. I mean, it's very, very powerful. As a human species, I think the number is like we can absorb 200 people as friends, right?

Dunbar's number, right? Something like that, yeah. That's about, right. I mean, like 200, I think, right? 200 is a good number. If any of these 200 bring his own friends, then you're also building a community, right? And community is a different type of expertise.

I mean, it needs to be maintained, managed, influence. It needs to be done in a correct way. You can't push too many products. You need to be smart, try to bring value. And even a micro community with, you know, a few hundreds of people is a huge asset that anyone can. I mean, you can be very, very successful with this type of number. if you've been able to, you know,

glue those people into some kind of a cause, right? And that's very, very powerful. I think it's a foundation. Now, the challenge is that from the brand's perspective, that you have a lot of communities that you need to serve, right? You have the YouTube community and you have the Instagram community and, of course, now the TikTok and you have the Amazon and the Walmart. And CMOs, you know, and head of marketing,

it's very difficult. It's becoming so fragmented and it's very, very difficult to maintain. So obviously you can't win them all, but you need to pick your battles and see where you can leverage and grow from like more of a serial approach than rather than a parallel approach. But it's getting more and more complex, more complicated, of course. Yeah. And with that complexity comes opportunities for someone like we spoke about earlier, like you don't necessarily need to have a studio. You don't need to have the best equipment. You just need to have a good idea and the courage to jump out there and take that leap, right?

Yes. So we always encourage, you know, businesses to just put themselves out there, right? Just in an iPhone. It's so easy. I mean, if you're as a business owner, spend 30 minutes and create a list of 50 customer pains that you're aware of. Go to your customer support database, do some surveys. I mean, if you don't know to create a list of 50 customer pains, you're definitely in the wrong business, right? And just create 30 seconds video for each one of those customer pain.

How do you suggest to overcome them, right? It doesn't have to be perfect. It doesn't have to be 100% polished. Do that on your iPhone. You need to have that nice lightning, good mic. Good mic can be just, you know, very basic mic. You can buy on Amazon. And then you can start creating content.

and just repurpose this content and just post it on the relevant social network that you think that most of your potential shoppers are spending time on, right? If you're in product to consumer, obviously TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. So if you're on B2B, I guess, it's probably LinkedIn and YouTube long form. But the idea is to be consistent for at least two, three months.

And also having the ability to run analytics to understand what's going on. And what's winning today is not the, how, you know, the quality of your production, the length of the video. What's winning is authenticity and consistency. This just beats everything. Because if you put yourself out there, no one expect you to be perfect. We're all human being.

We are social creatures. With the rise of AI, there are also rise of, you know, the human cuddle and human hug. People want, we are social creatures. Right? We need this oxytocin just, you know, flowing in our blood and it feels good. This is why people want to meet people and feel connected. And we all understand people are people and they are looking for this type of authenticity just to know you better. Right. And if they see that you are there on a daily basis really consistent, it means that you are able, they're happy even to get proposed from you from your and actually make a purchase. So and it's also very important.

We teach a lot and we recommend to create the right content for the specific stage of the marketing funnel that you are currently at. So if we just try to simplify that, let's talk about awareness, consideration and decision in the marketing funnel, right? I mean, if you're just in awareness stage, probably a new brand or new product you're launching, don't pitch your product, features and prices. No one cares. No one knows you, right? So how people knows you by providing value of educational content, market information,

micro-micro trends, checklist, provide a lot of good value in data as part of your content. And when you are currently, you think that your shoppers are in a consideration phase, meaning they are evaluating various options. They are probably looking to purchase. Yes, provide these compromise and tables, but don't be afraid to provide the information. also on your competition. What we saw, you know, since the probably the last 10 years, is that all these comparison versus, you know, blogs were produced by the affiliates,

not by the providers themselves. And what we see now probably the last 18 months is all these comparison tables are produced by the providers themselves, by the software companies or by the brands. They are happy to share all the information and even providing the links to their competition website. So think about the brand that is providing competitive information on his own website, right, and providing the links to his competitor, right? This, I mean, Google likes that a lot, right?

Because they know that you are creating good, valuable content, and they will favor you in terms of their SEO priorities. So don't be afraid to, because the customers, they know everything, right? 85% of the sales process is done without talking or without gathering, any pushed advertising from the brands. I mean, they go to the internet, they go to TikTok, they go to the community, they ask questions, and when they have all the information, they may go to the website, check prices, stuff like that, right?

But most of the decision has been done without discussing or without getting information from the brands in terms of push or advertising. And this is very, very important to understand. So during consideration, don't be afraid to provide these. versus case studies, information, share case studies, how-toes. And when people are in the decision mode, yes, provide the product information,

like reviews, testimonials, provide the prices, and just write, create content around that. So it's very important not to pitch your product too early, right? Because you need to build relationship first, build a foundation of trust, before you are able to pitch a product. So that's very very important in terms of the content that you are planning according to your

marketing lifecycle. It seems so counterintuitive to business strategies just 10 years ago. Like we're talking about almost a radical transparency where before it was just like this fire hose of concentrated, we're the best. You know, like a horse, you know, it is a blanking in his eyes, right? So now everything is open today. Everyone knows everything. So don't be afraid to talk about that.

What about in generational trends? Like we had mentioned earlier in the conversation. It seems like the younger generation has been anesthetized to propaganda in some ways where they're just like brand swipe up, swipe up, bullshit, bullshit. You know, you still have like maybe some people in the boomer generation or even some of the other generations that have still grown up on that traditional media where you are, you know, you're less. are you seeing generational influencers influence different generations or how does it work on a generation basis? Yes, on a generation basis. I mean, brands need to understand who their customers is, right? So, you know, we work with brands that, for example, they are working with, you know, let's say genics and above, right? Yep. So it's just useless to go to TikTok, for example,

because TikTok is like Gen Z and millennials, right? That's it. It changes very, very, very fast but I mean if you are like genics plus then you know what's they're successful the most successful marketing channels advertising on on tv on linear tv right it's like we are 2025 almost right and tv is the best return on that span right across all channels digital media included right so they're they're so they are very focused to understand where the what the information is what the customers is. I mean, if you're targeting Gen Zs and targeting millennials, obviously, you need to be, you know, on those small screens, right? So social media, right, TikTok, Instagram, Reels, YouTube shorts, right? These are the type of platform you want to work with. And we, I see now a lot of

we're in a phase of experimentation of trying to sell products on big screen as well, right? And I just want to highlight one important topic of I mean we always talk about kind of the intersection of entertainment and commerce right because it's video based yeah video can be very entertaining yeah but it needs to be also to create some kind of a conversion right that's to trigger you to make that impulse purchase and I want to help you know to just differentiate between small screen and big screen because in in video we have two type of experiences we have the lean back that of experience and the lean forward type of experience. The lean back is, you know, what we, you know, we come home after a long day.

We sit on the living room, two clicks on the remote, drink something, and we just want to, you know, absorb content. We are in reptilian mode. Totally. Yeah. All our brains are shut off just, you know, our reptilian brain, the old part of our brain, the old part of our brain, the back side of our brain is active, right? We don't care. We are not engaged. There's no way to sell us anything. Right. So and by the way,

CTV like big screens like Netflix are launching advertising packages and Disney and all. They try to find the use case, right, to make this to make this work. Right. So they were probably just putting in QR code, not in the middle of the episode, just in the show notes, probably. Just you click on a QR code. You just send you an email with a reminder maybe to click the purchase later. Right. So they are trying to find the best way to create this type of experience. experiences and we know that the big screen are targeting like probably Millennials Plus, right, in terms of generation, right? And so that's the lean back type of experience. And when we are leaning forward, which is the mobile phone primarily and also our desktop, we are engaged, our prefrontal cortex is engaged, right? The front side of our brain is engaged and we are ready to accept and our nervous system is engaged.

for impulse purchase, right? So there is a lot of psychological involvement in this entertainment, commerce type of thing. Not everything is like setting stone and still we are learning what works best, trying to find the best use case for everything and what's working. And it's very difficult to find like common denominators. I see like two brands with the same product, competing with the same customer base, shoppers. They have like completely different marketing channels.

that are working for them. Like with the same product, same price, everything is the same. But the difference is the potential shoppers sentiment and the emotional and the mental thought process about that specific brand. What people think about that brand is different than what they think about.

The other brands, although they both serve them the same type of products. So we always say, start creating that content, go live, creating those short phone videos, be there. And just through analytics, you will know what's working and what's not, and you will find the sweet spot of you and you know how to operate. Video is one of those only marketing efforts or marketing channels that you can grow organically and create trust and create customer loyalty, build a community, like with zero budget. Okay, just spend time on creating the right amount of content according to those stages on the marketing funnel. And you will break through. Don't spend time analyzing the algorithms.

Okay, this will not work. The term virality is completely not relevant. By the way, I heard if you go, like I heard the interviews of like also the head of marketing for TikTok for LinkedIn and meta, none of them wants you to go viral. That era has finished. They said on purpose, we don't favor and we don't promote virality. Okay.

That's not the issue. The issue is that they need to see that you are serving in a very, very good way, providing value that that specific community that you are serving. And they know better than you, who is that community. I hear a lot.

And also interviewed on my podcast, like agencies or like experts, in, for example, you know, meta advertising. I mean, they used to spend hours just making sure all these, you know, checkbox are clicked correctly and the menus and the submenus, just defining the audience very very specifically. And today, you know what's working today in Facebook? Open targeting.

Imagine that. Just put a product description price. That's it. Facebook know better than you how to reach your target market. It's really amazing. So so many things are changing. And yeah, that's a. think some of the generational differences and but that Janix type of approach their share in terms

of overall business is increasing right dramatically it will increase more more and more and it will definitely change the way and it will open a huge opportunity for small medium businesses who are struggling on the traditional networks as CEO meta advertising and just adopting all these new ways of marketing, that's a huge opportunity. I mean, move fast. Don't be afraid to put yourself out there. By the way, one of the most successful things today is founder-led content. People want to see the founder of the business. Why? Why you started this business? What's the story behind it? It's very powerful. EGC, not UGC, not user-generated content, employee-generated content. Think about the company. They're executive.

you know, even the warehouse employee, the marketing expert, if they share content and people feel that they know what's going on within this company, it's very, very powerful in terms of conversion, in terms of expanding the reach and always increasing sales. So EGC is very important, founder-led content. These are like some of the most effective ways to do marketing these days. I love it. I love it. It's such an intricate and wonderful way to see the way in which commerce is being led

by the people that not only buy the product, but work at the companies. In some Fortune 500 companies, I used to work at one. And the last thing that these guys wanted was employees making videos. That's the last thing these guys wanted. Don't ever put your stuff up there. You can't. You know? And the thing is like, why?

Oh, because these guys don't like the company they work for. It's just, it's flipping on its head, man. It's so mesmerizing in some ways. And you see those, those CMOs with like 20 years of experience, they are not relevant because they don't understand that. Yeah. I mean, you see, they don't understand why they've been replaced, right? I just been replaced by a 27 years old guy just went out from college.

I mean, he knows much better than you how to market to their targeted market. That's a fact. And I said, yes, it's absolutely correct. So that's about it. We got a comment here from our friend Vickering that says, are you leveraging Gen AI at your SaaS, if yes, how? Yes, for sure, for sure, Vikran. So thank you for the question.

And we use AI in variety of places. So when we describe, for example, I mean, we gather analytics. Video is very, very rich in terms of the amount of data we collect compared to probably a blog or. a picture, right? We know so much from which device they're consuming, when they start watching, when they stop, why this data is being used very effectively.

We take this data to a data lake, where we enrich this data, and then we activate AI to create segmentation of audiences and provide recommendation for messaging, for example, for that specific audience, just to provide recommendation on products, on marketing content, providing data about scripting, about how to improve probably the time of the video, the length of the video, a lot of parameters that are video related, but also KPIs that are ready to product.

So that recommendation system is a very powerful engine that helps customers improve targeting, improve campaigns and the effectiveness of those campaigns. The other aspect of the AI is all about the content planning and content creation. So just all the whole scripting process, the whole recommendation about content ideas and topics, what's trending. So both in the content preparation and also in the content analytics and insights, this is a very foundational. Now, we also see a lot of improvement in terms of AI avatars and AI. Yeah, yeah. As I mean, you can clone yourself today and you can create content, right? It's probably, I mean, it's nice.

I think everyone realized that it's a machine, right? And it fits maybe a category in the market, not big, right? But we know it will improve, right? Right. And we talked a lot about authenticity. And in parallel, the other side of the spectrum is this, you know, huge progress in AI-generated avatars and just cloning yourself and being able to, you know, to speak with the right tone and everything, just look alike. And so I think there is a mix. There's a market for both of these use cases.

The live shows are primarily needs to be authentic. They needs to be brand and founder led. You know, we saw like live shows where mega celebrities hosted and it was like a complete disaster, right? Think about like 20 minutes, right? Yeah. 20 minutes, you need to kind of entertain or put the audience in a certain place. that it's very interesting to stay here and just keep watching. It's not easy.

It's not easy, right? And if you're not an expert and if you don't know how to do that, then better not do that. What do we see that the most successful events are done by the employees or by the founders or the executives themselves. Because they know immediately to answer the questions. They know exactly how to deliver the product. And it's working very, very well for them.

And again, doesn't have to be too polished. Don't need to plan for months for that. Just click on the button. go live, bring the right products and good discounts, make sure you put yourself out there that's very, very powerful. Yeah, it's one thing I've kind of noticed that I kind of see on the cusp is people that maybe they have like their own micro community or a community, but I'm beginning to see people have their podcast translated into multiple languages and put in different countries, whether they

use an avatar or themselves where the AI language models are just done. dubbed in and then they can speak. That's just reaching across a huge bridge right there and bringing in people that may love you, may love your content that you never knew you could even have. That's pretty amazing, right? Yes, yes. As long as they, I mean, once they figure out, I always think, once they figure it's a machine. Yeah.

I mean, is it an insult? Is it an insult what you do or I respect what you do? You know, we don't know. We need to wait and see. I think there is a market for all these use cases. And it says something that is definitely evolving. Like, for example, when we go live, there is like a counter, like five minutes counter or ten minutes counter.

People are joining and it starts another five or ten minutes. So yes, you can put a lot of avatars to do some gamification, to activate the audience. It's nice. And they can accept that. All right. But when you go live, they want to see the founder, they want to see the brand order. They want to see the executive. It needs to be an authentic.

It will not work. Yes. Right. With Avatar. Some of the events may be yes, but some of them it's not going to work. So I guess like if it's like a training or a customer support event, that may be fine. Maybe it's maybe it's okay. But we know that sales today is about content, authenticity and differentiation.

Right. So it's it's not something that you do, I guess, with avatars. Not yet. Yeah, it's, it does bring up, I think that there's room for character development in avatars. You know, you see some companies that are like, okay, let's just get rid of these influences. They're way too, they're way too tricky and they're not really, sometimes they don't like that relationship.

So they've gone and built their own Max Headroom or their own Joe Camel or their own, you know, incredibly attractive Japanese girl or something, you know what I mean? And they put that out there. And they put that out there. And it kind of works for them. But I think that as long as you're not being tricked into thinking it's normal, if it's a character, I think there's room for that. Look, on picture-based, there's no way for you to figure this out, I think, already.

And we know, we know. And I did a few posts about that on LinkedIn that, you know, there are accounts. I mean, that avatar already did, I think, like $20 million. Right. Like virtually, right? I mean, it's funny. But, you know, it's work. And you see the amount of followers.

She's just posting pictures, but they're all AI-based, right? So, and she's able to sell, right, actually making sales, right? Again, all picture-based, right? So on a picture level, I think it's very difficult to identify. But we talk about video. Video is something which is more challenging, of course. But it's improving, and we will soon get there for sure. Yeah, the live stream to me seems like an altered state of awareness.

I feel like the people that participate in the live. stream are as much a part of the show as the individuals that are there. Like you get to be part of something bigger than you, right? Yes. Yes. Yes. And it's an interactive event. I mean, it's like a dual communication.

Although you're not, it's not like a Zoom experience. Not all the people are, you know, opening camera. It's like one to many, but you can still communicate for the chat. There is kind of an interactivity. And we, in our platform, we encourage the viewers to invite their network. And if one of their networks is, purchasing the product we give an affiliate commission to that viewer right so it just you have this network effect of inviting through affiliate commission more and more viewers to the show and it's very

very powerful and sometimes we see that like 50% of the of the revenues are you know are achieved like after the event because we record and store 100% of the live events and they are still there as as long as the inventory is available, people can still make a purchase. So a lot of people just registered and they didn't have time to join, so they will join the recording of the event and they can still purchase. Right. And so that's very important. That's recording aspect. And yeah, I mean, live is, I think I just saw the latest report. Live 2024, somewhere around $20 billion, right, in the US. And it's like doubled the last year. And it's planning to double also next year. So I think it's turning to be something which was probably nice to have when it started like three years ago to a must have, right?

Must have at least as a as a weekly show, right? It's something that you do you do on an ongoing basis. People are waiting for that. It's a very powerful type of your marketing. When you put on your forecasting hat and you look into the future, do you see blockchain and crypto being a substantial part of? of revenue in between the viewer and the host or the in-house marketing. It seems like it's a great way to just take that next step in there. What's your take on the future of watching?

Definitely, it's a currency that there is a market for it and there is a community who is working with this currency, right? I mean, you're going to replace and going to be like adopted, like majorly adopted. No, but there is definitely a community that will keep trading, you know, with this currency, those platforms will be managed on those blockchain type of networks. There is definitely a use case for video on blockchain that we are very much familiar with. And yeah, it will serve that specific community and also serve the Metaverse type of engines like purchasing of digital asset on Roblox, like on Minecraft and all these are virtual

communities. And yeah, that's definitely growing, probably not as expected as it used to be. right it was the hype before the chat gpti remember yeah so chat gpt i guess is a most more commonly used by all of us i think it's kind of a you know in probably in the hundreds of millions of users already on these platforms versus you know like metaverous nfti you know type of blockchain which is most mostly still limited in terms of reach limited to a very certain community that is that they know how to operate within those boundaries. What are you, when you look into the future,

when you continue to look in the future, what are you most excited about for some stuff on the fringes? Yeah, I mean, I think everything that we talked is going to be just expand more and more and more, right? So I see that there is a continuous battle of just AI growing and the need for human connection and social connection also growing, right? So how it's going to, I think it's going to be a mix,

We will spend our day knowingly we are happy to accept machines and some part of the day we're happy to accept human connection. I think we don't, it's important not to lose this balance because we cannot be, you know, too much machine based, right? And just doing all these machine based interaction, it's probably not good enough. So I think when we have to have the right balance and I think this Gen Z going back to Gen Z, they are very very smart because they know how to play the day between work and non-work. And non-work is a lot of social engagements, charity, environment, sustainability, all these new trends, not new trends.

I mean, the importance that they put and all these, you know, activities, you know, climate change and they're spending time on a real thing and they're not, you know, that's a generation that they will not, you know, put 100% of their resources and time, work, they know what to stop and how to spend time on other things. And I know that a lot of, you know, executives and professionals on our age, they feel

quite, I don't know what's the word, that they're afraid or they are struggling to understand how the world will continue to evolve, right? You're not going to spend 12 hours today. It's only six, really. Okay. What do you mean you want to do something meaningful? What are you talking about you want to do something worthwhile? Make this widget.

Yes, yes, yes. I mean, we had a meeting. This is what you need to do. That's it. Let's do that. I need to be emotionally involved, right? So I guess it's a very healthy way, right? definitely it's a very healthy way and but it's a it's a different mindset and I guess they're going

to be a big big change what I found is you know I talk I spend a lot of time and effort you know in this work life balance I also you know I'm a chigong teacher and brain coach I do a lot of things outside of that business and I found that when you just zoom out from your daily routine right you're activating your default mode it's called default mode network you're in a kind of a daydreaming status, right? Yeah. And this is a place for creativity and setting priorities in life, right? And in work, right?

So you work smarter in less time, right? You put the right priorities on the right thing. And you are very, very creative and effective in these spikes of work. So that's, I think, future of our work is definitely changing and probably changing in a good way. we just need to adopt it and learn more about it. That's important. It is important. You know, something both you and I are passionate about,

there's probably many things, but this idea of podcasting, I'm wondering if maybe you could talk a bit about how, since you've begun podcasting, has that changed the way you have conversations? Has that changed the way your internal dialogue is? Or maybe you could talk about how being a podcast or doing what you do has influenced who you are

any changes you've noticed in yourself yeah so I was I mean my career always you know been on the sales marketing side so always spend time listening then talking so that it was a natural progress for me so because you know we learned very early in sales that in you know the 80% right let the customer speak 80% again on a B2B right let the customer speak for 80% of the time and in your 20% you most of the time ask questions right don't provide too much information and it's very important. So I mean, my approach is more in the like just building a relationship being more the empathy, right? It's very important. Characteristic, I think that is kind of a foundational that all the things that I do.

But for me, you know, we moved from traditional media entertainment, you know, TV stations, broadcast station, cable companies. We moved to e-commerce and that change. It's actually in the marketing terms, it's existing technology in new market. So that transition, I mean, we need to move very, very fast and learn about this new market, build relationships, understand priorities in terms of our product management, in terms of the way we price the product, and how do you prioritize feature sets, and then start discussing with influencers in the industry, customers. And I started a podcast just, I never thought,

Like on 90% of the values that I get from the podcast, I never thought before I launched that podcast. I mean, it's really amazing. I thought about, yeah, why not you try? I saw that maybe I have the right team who can manage pre and post-production, reaching out. I said, okay, let's do three episodes. 10 episode was like a dream.

How can I get to 10 episodes? Because I heard that I think 90% of podcasts that they never reached 10th, right? And 95% never reached 100 episodes. something. And it's what I realize is that first I enjoyed it a lot. I learn a lot. I just expedite the whole product market fit process that we went through, building the right foundation for the building relationship with the right influences and networking, meeting customers. I mean, the value was immense beyond anything that we can ever imagine. And it's very important for us to speak, to learn and to meet customers, to meet business partners, to meet industry influencers,

just to learn more and more and more and provide value. Of course, when you build a community and the listeners and all the marketing that you can do with that, that's like another important value, right, the repurposing, the videos, great assets for all the marketing that we do out there. But yeah, I think this is something that has marketing benefits, but there's a lot of personal benefits and our ability to learn and build relationships. So that's very, very powerful. I think that it's important. Just remember, we talked about authenticity and consistency, right?

So that wins everything today. So that consistency is like critical. I will always be there no matter what. And it's a matter of just keep going and keep grinding. You know as well. I mean, you're getting someone a request probably to join your podcast. And you need to prioritize the right thing. And I'm zooming in.

My podcast was like very general for all the e-commerce topics. And I just changed the name from e-compulse to mastering e-commerce marketing. So I'm going to zoom in specifically on the marketing where my sweet spot is and where my passion lies. So it's also another step in the evolution of my podcast as well. And but also I like to create content right on LinkedIn. This is something that looked very difficult at the beginning. But now that I start doing it, it's really fun. So it's really and again, it's so important for the business because this is the currency today that you sell with through content and it's very very important.

Yeah, what is your take on? I know a mutual contact of ours, Lloyd Lobo, and he speaks quite a bit about newsletters. And I see a lot of people that I spoke to who have sort of a one-two punch between a podcast and a newsletter. Is that something you're implementing or is that just something that you think complements it? What's the role in the newsletter these days? Again, another one, probably my best, like, crazy surprise of the year. So we launched the newsletter like, I think probably like two months ago, right? And remember, all our database was like media entertainment database, not commerce.

We started like almost from zero, right? And that newsletter, like, is reaching almost 5,000 subscribers, like within 2,000. like within two and a half months or something. And it's totally focused on video commerce. Video commerce is like an umbrella name for shoppable video, live shopping, social commerce, video marketing, all these topics that we've just discussed, right? TikTok.

And it's amazing. And the way that newsletters are working these days, if it's done right with the amount of value versus promotion, then you get more and more. And we have like hundreds that are joining, every week. It's really a great surprise. And I really amazing. I think we'll nail that issue. It's super, super critical. By the way, not just newsletters. We thought that it's the end of email, right? No one is reading emails, right? Again, it's one of those areas that you need to be very,

very expert in because emails is an email marketing is not just having the best scripting and content. it's a whole technical operation with subdomain and DQIMs and SPR. I mean, you need to be very thoughtful in the way you're bypassing the spam filters and there's a certain specialization in it. So we just outsource this entire operation. And we also see very, very good results. So everything, what I found is that everything continue to work, like all the different channels, right? But they have changed a lot and they've changed very, very fast.

And you need to have the right help, working with the right experts, just to keep that same success rate, open rates, you know, all these conversions for sales that they used to have probably three or five years ago. So every area of the marketing has become more specialized. You need help to make sure that all these vehicles will continue to, to operate in the right way. And this is another challenge is just choosing the right agency, choosing the right expert you want to work with.

It's not everything can be absorbed. And then not also for the big companies, right? So yeah, don't think that any of the channels are not working anymore. They are just changing and you need to understand how do you need to adapt accordingly. Yeah, I like that quote that you need help. it seems to me on part of my podcasting adventure that I've learned that relationship to the real currency. And after it's sort of that blend of authenticity and relationships. And once you've been in it and maybe kissed a few frogs or whatever, all of a sudden you realize this person, I've talked to a bunch.

I trust this person. I'm going with this person over here. Regardless of what so-and-so says, I've talked to him. I know them. We're moving together. What's your take on relationships is the real currency? 100%. That's, uh, think about, think about like when you go to.

in a conference or an exhibition, right? And you meet someone, you're in a cocktail party at 6 p.m. and you talk to someone, right, that you suddenly met. I mean, you don't say, hi, hello. We have a video commerce SaaS platform. It goes 149 per month. It doesn't work that right, right? You talk about other things.

You talk about life. You talk about what you guys are doing. I mean, it's something, you build some kind of a relationship first. Yeah. When you meet someone face to face, that's the natural way of doing things. You just need to remember that. and just build it on a digital front, right? So building a relationship first,

people then needs to know you before they are open to be, you know, to accept any, any offer. So relationship first, building foundation of trust before they can, they're open. I'm receiving, you know, you also like hundreds of emails of a day of just pitching and I see, I love to see all these different styles, of how people operate.

Yeah. It's a lot of, I mean, you don't have to tell me to click here to schedule a call, right? If I, if I need something, I know how to reach out, right? So what I found is, I mean, all this, what I saw, I mean, I talked to my team today about this company that is just sending. Like, every three weeks, I get an email with just pure value. It's not that email, like, after three weeks, following my email that I've sent you, did you had a chance to open the email? No, every email is like something new. That's a LinkedIn agency,

right? So every email is like some kind of a value, how to use video on LinkedIn, in Lignal algorithms are changing, right, how to do conversion on LinkedIn, how to write content, whatever, what's trending, structuring. And there is no call to action. There is no CTA, nothing, plain text, very short, pure value. And I think he's been doing this. for like probably more than two years, right? Of course, it's automated. It's fine, but it's just pure value. And if I want to work with an Indian agency,

it probably is going to be the first one I'm going to reach out to, right? It's a very subtle kind of approach, which I think works very, very well. But again, emails is like, again, from outbound perspective, is the numbers game, right? They need to be very high volume,

and the giveaway that you are providing just probably makes a difference. I think every brand needs to understand or every company to understand in their outbound, what type of value they are providing. Okay, people still read ebokes, people still like, you know, courses and videos, calculators, use a guide, checklist, whatever you can, I mean, that makes a huge difference, right? Testimonials, great case studies. Everything is working, but it's probably you need to structure in a different way, get the experts to operate this for you and you need to do it in large scale

because it's a number of games at the end of the day. Yeah, if we shift gears for a moment, like I, we see the world of e-commerce changing, but I think it's going hand in hand with education on some level, with all these places you can do courses online. On some level, it seems to me that accreditation or, you know,

people trying to get to certify you, like that seems to be losing its way a little bit. Maybe the new resume of the future for education is, What have you built online? Let me see, because you can compete with this guy with a master's or you compete with this person

out of this school if you have built something, right? What's your take on that? Yes, look, I mean, there was a huge trend of all the gurus teaching you how to build an online course and, you know,

you look at Kajabi, thinkific, teachable, these are really powerful platforms. But when you zoom in, 80% of their courses are not, no one ever purchase.

just those courses, right? So it's getting worse and worse and there is a kind of overflow. And again, with AI, I started to write a book and I met this company who said, you're just wasting time. Give us, we need five hours from your time and next week you have a book. Okay, with AI, right? So think about, and you know it's going to be a very good one, right? It works.

Think about that also on product development, right? And like VCs are spending millions with companies. There's some guy on the other part of the world just doing the same thing and just 90% less cost and probably 50% less time, right? And it's so many things are changing and it's very crowded. And this is why you need to find your community. You need to find your niche. Try to validate more fast. Being very, very agile.

I mean, the way to launch product is like what they see also on the brand side. with services and products is similar to what we are doing for the last two decades in the tech industry, right? So that lean startup methodology where you start very small with a very minimal set of functionalities, launching this product to a very specific set of shoppers, and just be very, very focused on the minimal functionalities to a minimal set of customers, get their feedback very, very fast, iterate very, very fast, be very agile. Like, you know, initially we are releasing software versions like almost every day because we hear feedback from customers and try to adopt that very, very fast.

And once you hit and you provide some kind of a value, they will tell their friends about that, then where the mouth and that network effect will start. And so that's what we call the narrow innovation type of product market fit or product launch. And once you hit and you've been able to succeed in this first phase, then you'll land and expand. You introduce more functionality after you reach that level of success. And customers are very, very happy. So then you introduce something new to the existing platform. So it's usually founders and entrepreneurs, they have a vision and a dream of a product, which is very broad, right? They can do so many things and replace so many things. And it's

really counterintuitive. You need to think very, very, small launch a minimal set of functionalities, the minimal sets of customers, and then land an expand form there. So that's a kind of a way that I see products have been launched these days. You serve a very specific community with a very with outstanding performance. And they see that you are very agile. They see that you are fully dedicated to them. And it's it's create a big effect. Focus is like everything. Focus of developments, focus of marketing. efforts. This is why it's very difficult to win all communities, right, on all platforms. You're like the king of average. No one likes to be average.

Better to be an expert in something which is very specific. It's big enough for you to take the company the next level and then you can grow. You can grow from there. So yeah, that's my take on it. Eton, I feel like we just, we blew through an hour like it was 10 minutes. It's really fun. The conversation is great. Before I know you've been very generous with your time, but before we end up today, I was wondering if maybe you could tell people

where they can find you, what you got coming up and what you're excited about. Sure. So in terms of the VMI VideoCommerce Platform, just visit vimi.net, which is vimmi.net. We have a free account that you can start going live, post-chopable videos, on your social media and on your website,

enable social commerce, and that's a free account. And it's limited not by functionality, just by the volume and the amount of videos that you can manage and you can grow. Our basic package is 149. And that's one area. I also post daily on LinkedIn.

So again, my personal profile, which is A-T-N-C-C-O-T-E-I-N-K-O-T-E-R. And that's where our post totally focused on video commerce, video marketing, social commerce, all these big trends. Try to provide as much value as I can. In terms of what I'm excited about, so, you know, like I've been waiting for two decades for this media and e-commerce convergence. I mean, just last last year, and we talked prior to this recording, like Walmart acquires vision, right? Yeah. What's for a retailer and a TV manufacturer, a TV app or TV streaming service, right?

So think about that. Also, JPMorgan launching Chase Media Solution, right? Instacart partners with YouTube on shoppable ads. Costco launches retail media network, Best Buy and Sinait. I mean, the list is very, very long. You see how commerce or retailers are becoming media houses, how media houses are becoming digital brands and digital merchandising companies. And like in the big brand, you have like the first fall, you have like keep these huge studios, right?

Because video is such an important aspect of it. And what I see now, which is very, very exciting is things that I saw from, from Zara, for example, and some of the large, the big fashion and cosmetic brands, they are creating like a mix of entertainment, storytelling with shopable content. So think about that you join an event, like a 20 minutes content. that 20 minutes has some kind of a storytelling, which is captivating, but you have also the opportunity to click on the bottom and make a purchase. So this is something really interesting.

This is happening a lot. There are a lot of companies in the U.S. that are launching like live shopping apps and shop below video apps that are becoming very, very successful. So I think those companies are going to be very big. And yeah, I mean, everything that, I mean, video is going to continue growing because it's still huge in terms of the consumption side. People are expecting more and more videos from brands, more and more videos from customers.

Any report that you'll find on video, just make it much more sense to use videos compared to any type of content out there. So yeah, we're really excited about that and specifically excited about Vime roles, you know, within this ecosystem. I think there's plenty of things that we have on our plates to achieve and happy to launch more and more features

and functionalities and innovation into this market. What is that the storytelling in Zara? What does that look like? In my mind, I'm seeing like a soap opera or like a real housewife show where they're actually talking about the garment they're wearing. And it's like, is that overtly? Look, it's not, I mean, it's not QVC, right? Right, right.

It's not HSA. So this is like, like, it's like in your face, right? Right, right. Aggressive save. Right. It's a story about how, you know, it's a story about, you know, housewives and husband and go to a vacation and all the garments and everything is like Zara.

But it's a subtle, you don't, it's not pushy. It's like Pullmore, right? They tell a story and they are just waving like, it is like inside here and there, maybe 10% of the story, you'll hear something about the project. but very, very gentle, not pushing something that is absorb, absorbable by this new generation. And when there is a purchase opportunity, then we'll not hide it, they will not, they will say,

in the next minute, you have the opportunity to purchase, 10% discount, click on this button, right? And then we'll move back. So I see a lot of experimentation around how to nail the right use case. We talked previously about lean forward, lean back, right? CTV. I see so many so much innovation

like Netflix there you know they're launching like brick mortar stores right which is like theme stores based around the series that they are launching right so I see a lot of people companies trying to find the right ways to break through and try to find the use case

you know for making really really like purchase much more frictionless much more streamlined maybe exciting and and interesting, right, just to make fun of it in a better way, engaging way. And the social aspect, obviously, is very, very important. That's, it's fascinating.

Are you okay? Do you got time for another question? Sure. Sure. Okay, yes. So I, it's interesting that you bring up about brick and mortar and e-commerce. When I was in Hawaii a while back, I got, I was back there a couple months ago. And I saw the first ever, they have a huge mall out there called Alamawana.

And it's like this incredible mall with all. All of like the big Versace, all the big boys and big girls are there, all like the most expensive stores. And the rent there is exceedingly high. But I saw the first ever, at least that I noticed, the transfer of a purely Instagram channel opened up a brick and mortar. And I thought, oh, and they had a line out the door. They did the promotion, beautiful. Like, it was just wonderful. They were selling bags.

And I'm like, look at this. Is this a new trend? Are we going to start seeing the movement back? because we saw this exodus from brick and mortars to e-commerce, are we beginning to see the transfer back from e-commerce to brick-and-mortar. Yeah, so just let's put things into perspective. Okay. E-commerce shares of all retail sales are somewhere 23%, maybe.

Okay. That's all. Like 70% plus is still brick and mortar in the U.S. And it's not going to change. There is no change. It's still, it's like constant. Okay. Last year, it's going to continue to be constant, according to,

money reports. Like in China, digital commerce is 80% of retail. Wow. Okay. It's like the other side of the spectrum completely, right? So this is first thing we need to understand. So people like, again, the social connection, the like the experience to go and test and check. And that's very, very important. But what we see is emergence of these digital experiences within brick and mortar. So for example, We stream live events, not only to mobile phones and websites, but also to digital signage, to digital to monitors within the Brick and Mortar Store concurrently. And then we put a QR code there.

So you can just, you can see the live show and you can just open your mobile, scan the QR code, and you can purchase because it's very attractive. There is a discount now in the next five minutes. There's an urgency. You want to buy it, right? So obviously, this is the trend of the retail media. Vital media is not just the ability of online retailers to monetize their inventory, is the ability of all of those retailers to monetize their offline inventory as well.

So we will see more and more digital screens, what we call digital shelves. And those digital shelves will not showcase just nice advertising, advertisement or something. It will be a very interactive experience. You can click there to actually make a purchase, right? And you can collect it at the cashier or you can just ship it all the way home, phone within the Brick and mortar store. So that's kind of a mix between the real Omni channel mix, right? So you can buy online, pick up at store, but you can buy at store, pick up at home and and also being able to purchase offline through this variety of digital experiences, right?

So it's when you walk through the aisle and there's a TV screen, just encouraging you to pay to some kind of a product that you never thought of, it's nicely priced, and you make an impulse purchase physically on the brick and mortar store. That's a very important, I think, aspect. And I see a lot of tech companies now going offline, not online, going offline, and trying to leverage the offline experiences

with more upselling and interactive type of purchase opportunities. It's mind-blowing. And now that I think about it even more, that it was an event like they marketed it on their Instagram channel and then you went there they had a band like another local influencer band that was playing I think they may have sold some tickets

they had a line out the door and they had a special product that only you had to buy it at their channel and then you pick it up there but you could buy all the other stuff there but only that one like it was really well done the more I think about it the more I'm kind of like I need to revisit what these people did right there nice nice look and we didn't talk about

immersive commerce augmented reality virtual reality I mean it's really it's really catching up. I mean, there are so many trends that are reshaping the future of e-commerce, right? People are fed up with this 2D type of product pages, right? I look at something else. And yeah, I mean, it's nice. I mean, it's really interesting.

And I mean, I interview a lot of brands and brand owners and executives. And they keep smiling all the time. So why do you smile? I mean, for the last one hour, it is like, I'm so excited about this. it's changing all the time and it's really it's interesting and it's like I feel I'm just starting my career now. So hey, it's great. It's one of the real nice things about e-commerce, retail, right? Because it keeps changing all the time because of these technologies evolving. The generation of shoppers are coming in and it creates so much opportunities for everyone.

Yeah, it's mind-blowing. Thanks again. I know you've been gracious with your time and I hope that Everybody goes down to the show notes. They check out the links to come and check out your podcast, to check out your services, and maybe just to reach out to you in general. I think you're an amazing person to talk to and just providing tons of value. I really appreciate it. Thank you. Yes, and you're an amazing interviewer.

I think you've been able to squeeze all the goodies and all the good stuff for me. So thank you so much. Yeah. Nice. Hang on briefly afterwards. I still wanted to talk to you for a moment. But to everybody who's within the sound of my voice, Thank you so much for spending time with us today to play a part in our conversation.

And I hope you have a beautiful day and that we brought some value to your life. Ladies and gentlemen, that's all we got. Aloha.