Apple has launched their new live shopping experience “Shop with a Specialist over Video”. This shopping experience connects iPhone shoppers with Apple specialists via video chat directly on Apple.com. Customers shopping for a new iPhone are now able to instantly connect with a specialist to receive the best shopping experience available. Karen Rasmussen, Apple’s Head of Retail Online explains, “We’re constantly innovating to deliver an even more personalized experience for our customers”.
Apple always inspires the industry with the simplicity of its innovation, but more importantly the practicality of solution to an unmet need and their impeccable timing to launch right when the market is ready for the innovation. Launching video commerce as a one-on-one experience means that it's time for video commerce to go mainstream. The consumer is ready to engage on video and it is a rallying cry for direct-to-consumer brands with a complex customer decision journey to add the human factor to their e-commerce equation.
At 9am on March 14, 2023, when this Apple news hit the newsfeeds, the founding team of Uptok jumped off their seats with excitement in a downtown co-working space in Chicago.
Uptok went to market with their video commerce solution in January of 2022. Since then, Uptok has been making steady progress with pioneering brand leaders who understand the value of human connection in their sales journey. They know that prime time for conversational commerce has arrived and it's time to kick into high gear.
Kashif Zaman, the CEO and founder of Uptok declares, “Humanless websites will be a thing of the past.” Which, in all honesty, may be a few steps away but a vision is a vision. Uptok team is now gearing up for the mainstream growth of video commerce as a service.
Video commerce, when done right, is based on practicality. Apple does a good job of this by launching their 1:1 video shopping experience only to iPhone shoppers looking to purchase. By doing this they are able to market users towards their trade in program and towards their latest product launch, the iPhone 14. Startups such as Uptok, who have been in this space know this play well.
The recent rise of AI is not lost on the Uptok team. In fact, AI is at the core of Uptok’s technology, it is not designed to replace the human experience but to enable it at scale.
Uptok’s 1:1 video commerce platform is backed by intent, their algorithm will highlight “the most serious shopper” on your website to optimize face-to-face conversation between brand specialists and ideal shoppers.
Emily Anastasiades, Uptok’s co-founder and the mastermind for its go-to-market strategy explains, “The path to video commerce success is not in a plug-and-play approach. It requires a meticulous roadmap to be successful and that is why we encourage brands to reach out and discuss their customer experiences with us.”
You can set up a free consultation with the Uptok team at https://www.uptok.com
