Dive briefs:
- Video commerce platforms Firework and The Fresh Market will begin public testing in early June of an automated platform that can automatically answer questions from shoppers who watch live streaming video recordings, Firework co-founders said. CEO and president Jerry Luk said in an interview.
- The system, which Firework is still improving, uses generative artificial intelligence technology to interact with viewers in real time after an online program ends.
- Firework decided to build on the technology after being asked by retailers for tools to help them more effectively manage their shoppable content, Luke said.
Dive Insight:
While live streaming has emerged as an effective way to generate excitement among a key subset of shoppers, Firework believes that producing and managing video programming is a key challenge for the majority of the retailers it works with. I discovered something.
Retailers were particularly interested in finding ways to appeal to shoppers who watch live shows as well as people who can tune in live, he said, and Firework has also worked with Albertsons and L’Oréal. I said yes. Sam’s Club and American Express.
The technology developed by Firework uses AI to generate answers to shoppers’ questions based on the content of the video, comments from other viewers, and product information the system has access to. For example, when viewers ask a question about how to make the salad featured in the video, they get an immediate answer, Firework said in a press release about his partnership with The Fresh Market.
The grocery chain will pilot the technology through its website and shoppable video live commerce retail media network, according to the announcement.
Fresh Market will begin adding shoppable videos to its online grocery channel in the second half of 2021, and within months it saw increased engagement with shoppers, the company said last year. Earlier this year, The Fresh Market and Firework launched what they described as the first retail media network in the US to incorporate shoppable video.
In an email response to a question from The Grocery Dive, Kevin Miller, chief marketing officer at The Fresh Market, said retailers could use video to help shoppers make shopping decisions on their own terms. You said you wanted a way to do it.
“Today, you need to go beyond the traditional strategy of reaching the right customer at the right place at the right time, and reach them in the right way. It’s a way to encourage engagement, which means not blocking it, turning it off, or throttling it.
Firework and The Fresh Market will use the beta tests they’re preparing to launch to measure the accuracy of the answers their systems can provide shoppers, Luk said. The company is still working on whether or when the system should let shoppers know they are interacting with an AI engine rather than a human moderator, he said.
“We are getting more feedback, and the whole point while doing alpha and beta testing is fine-tuning the experience,” says Luk.
Firework is looking at ways to offer additional services to retailers, even as it refines its existing technology. For example, Firework’s technology can currently manipulate information gleaned from text-based comments and voices of people appearing in videos, but the company’s AI team wonders how the system can be used to extract information from video visual material. have already begun to explore. Luke said.
Additionally, Luk said Firework is looking to use AI to help retailers create content. This includes using input from shoppers and existing content as the basis for other videos.
