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Zoovu Chosen as Lead Partner in SAP’s Industry Cloud to Help Customers Digitize their Sales Environments

Zoovu, the AI-powered product discovery and e-commerce experience platform leader, announced it has been selected by SAP as its recommended industry cloud solution for manufacturers looking to accelerate their digital transformation in product sales and self-service procurement.

The partnership is expanding as global companies increasingly look to unlock new revenue streams and lower direct selling costs through more automated and intelligent e-commerce platforms. Until now, given the complexity and number of products offered by most manufacturers and large-scale B2B organizations, deeply knowledgeable sales teams were required to educate customers and convert inquiries into sales. By harnessing the power of SAP and Zoovu technology, customers can easily transform large, complex product catalogs into highly accurate and continuously optimized digital selling environments.

Zoovu was invited last year to join the SAP.iO Acceleration Partner Program and the platform quickly jumped to within the top 2% of performers in the SAP® Store. Building upon this strong market demand, Zoovu has been elevated to an SAP partner for SAP’s industry cloud portfolio.

“Our customers are realizing significant cost savings and revenue growth by bringing their complex product offerings into a digital commerce environment powered by Zoovu,” said Stephan G. Braun, Executive Industry Advisor, SAP. “We look forward to continued collaboration with the Zoovu team to help customers with this business transformation,” he added.

“We are excited about deepening our SAP partnership and helping global B2B customers create significant business value with our AI-driven platform,” said Lamees Butt, Senior Vice President, Global Alliances & Channels, Zoovu. “SAP is the leader in helping companies drive business transformation and we are honored to have been chosen as their lead partner in solving these sales-enablement problems, especially for the manufacturing sector,” she added.

The no-code Zoovu cloud platform integrates seamlessly with the SAP Business Technology Platform, allowing B2B and D2C customers to automate product data cleansing, standardization, solution bundling, and intelligent product searches from disparate data sources, including PDFs, PIMs, CRMs, even YouTube product videos. Zoovu’s AI-driven platform then applies its product ontology, syntax and sales insight gleaned from more than 70,000 product categories to ensure buyers are always presented with exactly the right product. It’s guided selling tools, assistants, and product configurators can then create powerful self-service customer experiences at scale.

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How To De-Risk Supply Chains In An Unpredictable World

Supply chain collaboration is one of those every day business terms that’s easy to dismiss until a catastrophic disruption strikes like material shortages, product design flaws, production delays, and more. But what if organizations across the supply chain could quickly huddle to pinpoint problems and take action together, staving off anything from minor setbacks to potential disaster? This is the concept behind Inspectorio, a cloud-based solution designed to help suppliers, manufacturers, brands, and retailers work together to reduce supply chain risk through digitalized quality management, ESG compliance, production tracking, and lab testing.

“Automating activities on a centralized data platform helps companies make fast and strategic adjustments in a way that is incredibly collaborative with their supplier base,” said David Klein, president and co-founder of Inspectorio. “Organizations can become more agile and resilient to supply chain disruptions, able to shift sources, product materials, and production locations to address problems and improve productivity and efficiencies.”

After digitalizing manual activities on Inspectorio, Klein said that organizations have averaged 95% time savings in administrative data entry, and 100% time savings in reporting. Customers have improved quality pass rates by approximately 8% on average. Some have reduced defect rates by 14% on average.

Digitizing quality control for accuracy and efficiency

Quality management spans numerous groups, including factories that conduct self-inspections and third-party inspectors who visit facilities. According to Klein, digitizing quality management activities helps suppliers, retailers, and others work together on standardized quality control. Inspectorio incorporates artificial intelligence to monitor facility risk, leading to valuable business insights and cost-savings.

“With data integrity, you can better understand your supplier base and benchmark their performance,” said Klein. “When you designate factories and products by risk factor, you can adapt quality controls appropriately. For example, maybe lower-risk factories can manage self-inspections on their own. High-risk factories producing high-risk products require tighter controls. Over time, you’re able to maximize your resources and lower costs while increasing quality outcomes.”

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SAP.iO Foundry New York Kicks Off Supply Chain Management Program

May 24, 2023 SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today launched the 2023 program focused on innovation in supply chain management at SAP.iO Foundry New York. The 10 startups have been selected by a jury of SAP experts, partners, customers, and investment funds to join the program. 60 percent of the startups are led by underrepresented individuals. 

A strong digital supply chain strategy is largely a “behind-the-scenes” organizational function. It can differentiate and enable companies to improve efficiency, effectiveness and be resilient to disruption in the supply chain. The SAP.iO program targets B2B startups with innovative supply chain solutions looking to integrate their solutions with SAP products including SAP S/4HANA, SAP Business Technology Platform and SAP Supply Chain Management software. ​ 

During the 5-month program, the selected startups work to build and develop long-term partnerships with SAP by defining joint use cases, product integration and various business development opportunities. SAP customers will evaluate opportunities for proof of concepts. 

The following startups are participating in the SAP.iO Foundry New York 2023 program: 

  1. AutoScheduler.AI creates optimal warehouse plans and feeds them directly into the warehouse management system (WMS), dynamically optimizing activities based on constraints to ensure that each site runs at peak performance. 
  2. DARVIS simplifies and automates processes using computer vision and geo-referencing for logistics and healthcare.
  3. Everstream Analytics delivers predictive insights and risk analytics businesses need to build smarter, more autonomous and sustainable supply chains. 
  4. MaintainX combines an intuitive mobile app and cloud technology to enable maintenance, operations, and safety teams to easily manage maintenance work orders, parts inventory, safety inspections, and other standard operating procedures in a single platform.  
  5. Morpheus.Network’s solutions help cargo owners, logistics service providers, and government agencies digitize, optimize, and automate their extended global supply chains. 
  6. Parsable is a connected workforce platform that digitizes frontline operations and empowers industrial leaders to increase efficiency, reduce costs and improve sustainability.
  7. Partsimony enables organizations to build intelligent manufacturing supply chains that are more resilient and sustainable by unifying engineering and supply chain data.
  8. Transmute‘s Verifiable Data Platform (VDP) digitizes the documents involved in global trade into verifiable credentials to streamline regulatory compliance, maximize business agility, and reintroduce identity, trust, and meaning into supply chains. 
  9. Vendia provides a data collaboration platform that increases supply chain visibility and enables real-time actions by all participants.
  10. Versed AI‘s cutting-edge AI delivers relevant, rapid and secure supply chain visibility, pinpointing your risks across multiple tiers.

About SAP.iO
SAP.iO curates a relevant and diverse startup ecosystem that extends the value of SAP solutions and meets the continuously evolving needs of our customers. Our programs provide dedicated support to the most promising startups as they launch and scale relationships with SAP and our global network of customers, partners, and employees. Since 2017, we have connected thousands of SAP customers with innovative enterprise software startups, helping them find solutions to their unique needs. For more information, visit http://sap.io/ 

Zoovu Doubles Down on SAP Commerce Partnership in 2023

Following an incredibly successful 2022 with the Zoovu + SAP Partnership that included participating in the Spring 2022 SAP.iO accelerator program, becoming the first technology partner to hit #1 in the SAP Store history within 2 months of launching, and presenting a keynote at TechEd, 2023 has started out equally as strong. In January, we had the opportunity to not only exhibit in SAP’s Partner Village at NRF, but also presented alongside joint customer, Bosch Power Tools, to tell their story of combining Zoovu’s Product Discovery Platform with SAP’s Enterprise technology to fuel a global digital transformation.

As Q1 comes to a close, we wanted to take some time to reflect on the value of technology partners, why SAP & Zoovu complement each other, and what “doubling down” on partnerships means to us. Zoovu’s new CMO, Ken Yanhs, sat down with Lamees Butt, our SVP of Channel Partners & Alliances to discuss the partnership as of today and what the future of the partnership looks like.

Read Q&A Here…

How is AR/3D Technology Driving Next-Gen Ecommerce Best Practices?

Retailers that prioritize ecommerce recognize that the end-to-end user experience is more important than ever. Consumers expect convenient, interactive shopping experiences, from online to in-store and everything in between. This year, 3D and AR adoption is expected to be one of the biggest trends for providing next-gen ecommerce experiences, especially for apparel and footwear brands looking to bring the physical world to digital shopping.

As a result, more brands need to look for ways to incorporate 3D and AR tech into their omnichannel strategy.

Where Does AR/3D Currently Stand?

As with all next-gen tech, there have been some early adopters, especially in the realm of fashion, footwear and accessories, that are already employing 3D and AR to enhance the ecommerce experience. For example, Nike now has Nike Fit, a mobile shopping feature that helps customers find their perfect shoe fit using their smartphone camera. Utilizing 3D scanning tech, the app is then able to create a 3D model of their feet to help them better find the right shoes to fit their desired style and function.

On the B2B side, Merrell is using 3D and AR tech to sell their products via digital showrooms, prior to manufacturing and shipping, to increase speed to market, reduce costs and lower their carbon footprint.

The furniture and home goods space is another sector of the market that’s seeing increased applications of this technology. Brands like Wayfair and Ikea offer their mobile users an AR feature that allows them to use their phone’s camera to virtually preview how an item would look in their home, true to size.

Outside of day-to-day consumer uses, many brands, especially luxury labels like Gucci, Hermès and Balenciaga, are experimenting with 3D and AR tech to engage with consumers in the metaverse. In 2021 Balenciaga dropped a digital collection for Fortnite, an online video game by Epic Games, which featured digital outfits inspired by some of their real-life designs and products. Fans who purchased the physical product could then unlock the digital versions or choose to purchase the digital versions with virtual currency to use as clothing and skins for their Fortnite avatars. $50 billion was spent on in-game purchases in 2022 and this figure is expected to continue to grow, so every brand should be looking at ways to have a presence in virtual worlds like Fortnite and Roblox that have large user bases.

No matter the use case, these brands are bridging the gap between the digital and physical shopping experience to meet potential customers wherever they may be — at home, on the go or engaged with the metaverse. These early adopters are already reaping the benefits of using 3D and AR tech as part of their omnichannel strategy.

What Are the Benefits to Brands that Implement 3D and AR Tech?

In today’s digital age, customers expect a seamless and engaging experience when shopping online, and brands that fail to deliver risk losing customers to competitors that are delivering more innovative approaches in their ecommerce strategy. Though 3D and AR implementation is still in its earlier stages, it is a great way to stand out in today’s crowded marketplace. Additionally, there are other benefits of utilizing 3D and AR tech

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Yellow.ai launches Dynamic Automation Platform (DAP) with Generative AI

Yellow.ai, a global leader in Conversational AI, announced the launch of its Dynamic Automation Platform (DAP), powered by generative AI, that enables enterprises to automate customer and employee experiences at scale with 60% reduction in their operational costs. The company also revealed a new logo as part of a rebranding strategy that reflects its vision of delivering human-like conversational experiences to accelerate enterprise growth.

With a 4X growth rate in North America and an established market presence in the Asia-Pacific and Middle East markets, Yellow.ai has emerged as an industry leader since its inception in 2016. The rebranding marks a crucial milestone in the company’s growth journey and reinforces its commitment to using technology, such as generative AI, to fuel innovative solutions for enterprises across its Conversational Service CloudConversational Commerce Cloud, and Conversational EX Cloud product suites.

“At Yellow.ai, we strongly believe in the potential of generative AI to enhance our capabilities, foster innovation, and drive business growth. We are investing heavily in domain-specific LLMs to facilitate dynamic content creation, providing our customers with a comprehensive experience through our enterprise-grade Dynamic AI agents. Our customer-centric approach and our strong focus on generative AI are reflected in our rebranding efforts, as we remain committed to delivering the best next-generation Conversational AI solutions.”

The company is combining generative AI technology with DAP which runs on its proprietary and multi-Large Language Model (LLM) AI engine, DynamicNLP™. With 100+ integrations, 150+ pre-built marketplace templates, and the recently launched Dynamic Conversation Designer, businesses leveraging DAP for Yellow.ai’s suite of solutions can go live with their deployments 2X faster.

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Obsess unveils Carbon Emissions Calculator for brands evaluating construction of new physical stores

Obsess has launched a Carbon Emissions Calculator for brands to analyse the energy output for bricks and mortar retail stores in comparison to their virtual counterparts.

The company has created 200+ virtual stores for brands including Ralph Lauren, Coach, NBCUniversal, American Girl, and Charlotte Tilbury.

Retailers can input into the tool flexible values for physical store estimates, including store square footage, daily foot traffic, and number of employees.

Based on these inputs, Obsess calculates the average output for store construction (including material production and transportation, and construction activities) and the average output for store operations (including employee labor, commute and store electricity).

Carbon emissions calculations are based on initial construction and one year of operations for both brick sand mortar and virtual stores. Outbound product shipments are not included in the calculation. Corporate employee and office operations have also been excluded.

Check out the calculator here.

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Inspectorio Introduces World’s First Generative AI-Driven Supply Chain Management SaaS Product

Inspectorio, the leading AI-powered SaaS solution for supply chain organizations, continues to break barriers in the supply chain industry with today’s introduction of the Inspectorio CAPA recommender, the world’s first ChatGPT-driven generative AI tool to assist brands, retailers, suppliers, factories, and others with supply chain management.

“As a pioneer in the supply chain field, Inspectorio is leading the way into a new era of generative AI, where physical and digital worlds converge. The industry-first launch of the CAPA recommender furthers our mission to streamline processes, accelerate supply chain performance, inspire innovation and push technological boundaries, enabling our clients to be more efficient and collaborative across their ecosystem,” said Carlos Moncayo, CEO of Inspectorio.

The AI-powered CAPA recommender tool unlocks unprecedented efficiency and effectiveness improvements by addressing critical pain points in the quality control process, specifically related to the research, validation and development of corrective action plans.

Leveraging data from across its supplier ecosystem, the CAPA recommender marries collaborative intelligence with generative AI to deliver proven guidance on corrective and preventive action, reducing the need for time-consuming manual investigations. Its benefits include:

  • Detecting patterns and trends from historical data and the Inspectorio ecosystem
  • Identifying the root causes of defects or non-conformities in products
  • Improving the speed and quality of proposed corrective actions and preventive action plans
  • Providing personalized automated recommendations, reducing the time and cost of manual investigations
  • Enabling greater transparency, trust and reputation management among all partners

Brands, retailers, suppliers, and factories will experience the enhanced supply chain performance, streamlined operations, and accelerated decision-making that is ultimately required to thrive in today’s rapidly evolving market.

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Stephanie Benedetto Leads the Charge on Deadstock

Stephanie Benedetto is leading the industry in circular fashion as the co-founder of Queen of Raw, an award-winning software that takes action on excess inventory, measures, and reports, and turns pollution into profit. This week, Benedetto joins a CFDA webinar on designing with deadstock to share her insights on the current landscape of this market and the opportunities and benefits of working with excess fabric.

What prompted you to start your business, Queen of Raw?

I had a factory and saw firsthand the massive amount of waste and breaks in complex supply chains. There are valuable resources sitting in warehouses collecting dust or being burned or sent for combustion. And organizations all over the world are looking for access to these materials. I realized this is just a supply-demand mismatch and we could use technology to bridge the gap, across industries and around the world. I left my job as a Wall Street attorney to tackle the problem head on and to build a solution for people, planet, and profit!

Can all brands (big or small) begin using deadstock as part of their design practices?

There is no company too big or too small to take advantage of integrating rescued fabrics into their designs – or to sell excess inventory that is no longer needed. We have large enterprise clients with millions of meters of high-quality materials which match well with other large brands looking to create entire deadstock collections. And we have smaller designers looking to create limited edition deadstock pieces but can’t commit to large, expensive orders.

Leveraging our proprietary software, Materia MX, they can get access to what they need, when they need it and drive the project from start to finish!

Realizing that all change is good change, we also offer a more basic membership in our software and network for smaller businesses who are looking to sell or purchase excess inventory but don’t need comprehensive ESG reporting or global supply chain integrations and inventory management.

Read More of Stephanie Benedetto and CFDA’s interview here…

SAP Startup Spotlight: Zoovu

E3zine has selected the most exciting companies to showcase in our SAP Startup Spotlight Series. In this article, we will take a look at Zoovu, which is now an SAP industry Cloud Solution Partner.

Lamees Butt is the SVP Of Global Alliances and Channels at Zoovu where she spearheads strategic technology partnerships and relationships. She has over 10 years of experience in shepherding digital transformation efforts and forging partnerships at companies like Mercedes-Benz UK, Salesforce, and Zoovu. Butt’s passion for innovation in the digital space focuses on the belief that when technology is leveraged strategically, its ability to create value for businesses and their customers is truly transformative. She is based out of London, UK.

What is Zoovu and what do you offer?

Zoovu is an AI discovery platform and the future of B2B selling.

Historically, B2B organizations sell their complex product SKUs sets directly through sales representatives or account managers—most organizations are still operating in this 1:1 framework that is frankly outdated for today’s digital-first buyers. This process is limiting and not scalable in a world where we are being asked to do more with less, and buyers expect a better overall customer experience that is not just customer-centric, but digitally driven.

Zoovu intelligently augments this process by digitizing the sales process. Our platform connects multiple data sources from the back office to transform technical product information into customer-centric content to power discovery through guided selling and configuration conversations across commerce channels. These experiences empower B2B customers to purchase autonomously without compromising on compliance, regulations, or precision.

Zoovu drives cost saving efficiencies, unlocks revenue in commerce, and boosts cart value by automating cross selling and upselling by improving product visibility.

We are headquartered in Boston, USA, with offices across Europe in the UK, Germany, Austria, Poland, and Belgium, enabling us to serve over 2,500 customers worldwide and their 10,000+ experiences.

How does your solution work?

A SaaS cloud platform that connects to the back-office product content to ingest, enrich, and unify to power a series of humanized discovery conversations on the front-end commerce platforms.

How are you connected to SAP? Can your solution be integrated in SAP systems and if so, how?

We are in an economic climate that’s asking us to do more with less and the reality is that investing in the right strategies will be in the difference between success and failure. SAP has a strong set of foundational operational platforms like S/4 Hana, Commerce Cloud, Sales Cloud, and the full CX suite. Zoovu’s platform is able to unlock the technical product content stored on these platforms and transform them into future-ready experiences.

Businesses are looking for ways to digitize their selling capabilities but need the technology to do so without disrupting operations. This is especially true in the B2B space—it is ripe for transformation as its buyers and sellers are part of generations that expect digital–first solutions in their work life. SAP and Zoovu together are the glue to these businesses to a place where they can deliver B2B sales experiences that are needed to succeed in today’s climate.  SAP is the choice for B2B organizations and Zoovu is the perfect partner to accelerate digital transformation alongside their existing infrastructure.

How has SAP.iO’s involvement impacted your journey?

SAP.iO was a fundamental part of our growth and success in 2022. From deeply understanding how the SAP ecosystem works to identifiing lighthouse customers where we can solve real business problems. SAP.iO was and is still a cornerstone to the SAP Zoovu Better Together partnership.

See this video for more information.

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Ivaldi Launches ChatGPT Digital Assistant for Troubleshooting & On-Demand Ordering

Ivaldi Group unveils a ChatGPT-enabled troubleshooting and on-demand ordering solution for maintenance teams. This AI-driven digital assistant simplifies maintenance operations, enabling faster access to crucial spare parts.

Ivaldi’s custom ChatGPT integration allows secure equipment data and maintenance documentation to be indexed and accessed through an AI assistant. Maintenance crews can engage in custom dialogues with the AI system for tailored information, eliminating the need for physical manuals or online document searches.

The platform also facilitates ordering replacement components directly through the interface. If a part is not already in the Ivaldi virtual library, users can submit 2D drawings or simple sketches, which the system converts into custom-generated models within pre-engineered categories. Once approved, Ivaldi then creates a printable 3D model and coordinates production and delivery with its partner network of 15,000 local manufacturers.

Espen Sivertsen, Ivaldi CEO, highlights the benefits: “Over eleven billion dollars were lost last year due to spare parts shortages. Providing maintenance crews with better information and faster spare parts access will save companies time and money, reducing risk, improving safety and extending the useful life of equipment.”

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Yellow.ai recognized as a Challenger in the 2023 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Enterprise Conversational AI Platforms

Yellow.ai, a leading enterprise-grade Conversational AI platform, today announced it has been recognized as a Challenger in the 2023 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Conversational AI Platforms. Recognized as a Niche Player in 2022, Yellow.ai’s recognition as a Challenger in this year’s report is based on the evaluation of its Completeness of Vision and Ability to Execute.

Yellow.ai’s Dynamic AI agents handle over 2 billion interactions every quarter, automating customer and employee experiences across 35+ channels and 135+ languages on voice and chat. Yellow.ai’s Dynamic Automation Platform (DAP), powered by generative AI, enables businesses to reduce expenses by 60% and is complemented by a suite of solutions, including the recently launched Dynamic Conversation Designer, Yellow.ai Marketplace, Customer Data Platform (CDP) Engage, and Omnichannel Agent Assist Platform.

We’re humbled to have been recognized as a Challenger in the 2023 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Conversational AI Platforms. We believe this recognition is a testament to the strength of our platform capabilities. We think our improvement from a Niche Player to a Challenger underlines our dedication to delivering cutting-edge solutions to our customersOver the past year, we launched several cutting-edge products, including our proprietary DynamicNLP™, significantly improving time-to-market and ease of use for our customers while reducing their operational costs,” said Raghu Ravinutala, CEO and Co-founder, Yellow.ai.

 

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Specright Named to Fast Company’s List of the World’s Most Innovative Companies for 2023

Specright a leader in Specification Management software, has been named to Fast Company’s prestigious annual list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies for 2023, honored at No. 3 in the Enterprise category. Specright participated in SAP.iO Foundry New York’s Sustainability & Consumer program and SAP.iO’s Rising stars program in 2022.

This year’s list highlights the businesses at the forefront of their respective industries, paving the way for the innovations of tomorrow. These companies are setting the standard with some of the greatest accomplishments of the modern world. In addition to the World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies, 540 organizations are recognized across 54 sectors and regions.

“At Specright, our vision is to live in a world without waste, and we believe the best opportunity to do so is to empower people and companies across the globe with the data needed to make products and packaging sustainably,” said Matthew Wright, Specright Founder and CEO. “It is such an honor for Specright to be named alongside so many incredible, innovative companies and this award is a testament to all of the great work our team has done in driving the Specright mission forward.”

Specright helps companies digitize product and packaging specification data and share and collaborate on that data with supply chain partners to reduce costs and errors, drive efficiency, and increase speed to market. This past year, the company surpassed two million products on its platform globally, supporting Fortune 500 and challenger brands and boasting a 99 percent customer retention rate. Specright also received a patent for its Specification Data Management™ platform, validating the uniqueness of Specright’s spec-first approach to product and packaging development, quality management, and above all – sustainability tracking and reporting. The patent also covers Specright Network, which enables brands, suppliers, retailers, and manufacturers to share live, digital specifications with one another.

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Yellow.ai tackles conversational AI pain points with new design tool

An industry-wide shift to greater use of conversational AI, often in the form of chatbots and voice assistants, is clearly underway. However, the success of these interactions depends on the quality of conversation design, a new domain for most developers and one that may hinge on subpar or outdated tooling. This is the challenge San Mateo, CA-based Yellow.ai seeks to address with its conversational AI platform.

Yellow.ai suggests that problems in this burgeoning area often reside in the design process itself. Though design is a crucial step in developing conversational AI, the process is often hindered by the use of flowchart-based tools that result in clunky and complicated designs. This not only slows development, it creates a disjointed experience for users, who encounter inconsistent design choices and interactions across different conversational interfaces.

One of the key pain points in conversation design is in the basic approach. Most designers are relying on flowchart-based tools that are not optimized for designing conversations. This makes the design process time-consuming and cumbersome, leading to subpar outcomes. As well, replicating design flows in development is a tedious and inefficient process.

With the launch of its Dynamic Conversation Designer, Yellow.AI looks to improve the design process for chat and voice conversational workflows using generative AI. Integrated within the Yellow.ai conversational AI platform, this conversation design tool allows teams to design chatbot conversations without writing any code, saving significant development time and effort.

The Dynamic Conversation Designer creates development flows automatically from design flows, eliminating the need for developers to start from scratch. Moreover, there is instant auto-sync between design and development flows. With this, the company claims to deliver a 50% faster time to market, along with reduced development and training time.

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VR platform aims to give retailers entry into the metaverse

Through a partnership with SAP, Obsess integrated the e-commerce platform within its virtual stores to create an interface that engages young consumers.

A virtual store platform looking to provide retailers with an entry point into the metaverse has partnered with e-commerce provider SAP.

The goal of Obsess, a New York City-based startup, is to change online shopping in a way that reaches the younger generation and enables retailers to sell most of their core products through virtual environments.

Obsess worked with SAP to integrate an e-commerce platform within its virtual stores and create a discovery interface that engages young consumers.

Through the partnership, Obsess and SAP customers can create digitalized shopping venues that could be different from or similar to actual stores. Consumers enter a 3D world online and can engage more immersively with a retailer in the comfort of their home or outside of their home.

“We are bringing that gamification-like interface to the shopping experience,” Obsess CEO and founder Neha Singh said.

Not all Obsess customers have 3D models of all their products. Instead, the company has a proprietary and patented technology that can take e-commerce images from Google APIs and create an immersive experience. Once a consumer clicks on a product, they get the same information they would see on a typical product detail page.

“The purpose of these virtual experiences primarily is to aid discovery,” Singh said. “If you think about when you go to a retail store, you are looking around — you’re immersed in the brand, you’re browsing. All of those elements are what we are trying to bring into the e-commerce experience, because today that discovery is typically not happening on a retailer’s e-commerce website.”

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