Tiffany Serbus-Gustaveson 0:18

Happy Wednesday everybody, I am Tiffany Serbus-Gustaveson, a digital strategist with BWG Connect and we are a network of knowledge sharing group we stay on top of latest trends challenges whatever shaping the digital landscape we want to know and talk about it. We are on track to do at least 500 of these virtual events this year due to the increase in demand to better understand the digital space. And we will also be doing at least 100 in person small format dinners. So if you happen to live in a tier one city in the US feel free to send us an email, we'd love to send you an invite, these dinners are typically 15 to 20 people having a discussion around a certain digital topic. And it's always a fantastic time, we spend the majority of our time talking to brands that's how we stay on top of latest trends. We'd love to have a conversation with you so you can drop me a line at tiffany@bwgconnect.com And we can get some time on the calendar. It's from these conversations we generate the topic ideas we know people want to learn about and it's also where we gain our resident experts, such as Nfinite who's with us today. Anybody that we asked to teach a collective community has come highly recommended for multiple brands. So if you're ever in need of any recommendations within the digital space, please don't hesitate to reach out we have a shortlist of the best of the best. And I'd love to provide that information to you. Also note if you have any hiring needs, we do partner with a talent agency Hawkeye Search formerly BWG Talent that I can put you in contact with as well. A few housekeeping items as this is a 30 minute session. So we're going to be fast, furious, really move in. But first and foremost, we want it to be fun educational conversation. Also drop those questions, comments into the chat the q&a, you can always email me activity and bwgconnect.com we will be sure to get to them. So with that, let's rock and roll and start to talk about the holiday season 2023 It is a comment winning the shopper loyalty amid that lower spending habit that we're seeing the team at Nfinite have been awesome friends and partners of the network for a long time. So Rachel, I'm gonna kick it over to you. If you can introduce yourself, that'd be lovely. And then we can dive into the information. Thank you.

Rachel Kim 2:11

Sounds good. Thank you for having me. My name is Rachel Kim. I'm the Vice President of Corporate Marketing at Nfinite. And what I do is one of my core roles is to understand broad macro level insights for retailers. Nfinite enables retailers to create immersive and stunning product visuals at scale using 3d and CGI technology. And in order for us to be the best partner we can to our retailers, we always want to be on the cutting edge of our insights, which gets into the topic today. We interviewed over 1000 shoppers in the United States to get an early look at what holiday shopping has in store for us this year. So with that, I will get into the data. I'm going to do a quick introduction to our topic. And then we'll get into the holiday outlook. Some implications for retailers, many of you on the line or retailers, some of you are brands, we'll talk a little bit about what these insights tell us. And at the end, I will answer your questions. And if you want to know how Nfinite can help you, I will pass you to the right link. And we'll we'll take it from there. But for the most part, today's should just be educational, and here to share these insights with you. So as mentioned, we talk to over 1000 shoppers, this survey was conducted in July and August of 2023. And we recently published these insights. So you guys are getting these sort of hot off the press. What we can tell you is that overall, we see a trend where consumer spending will be down this holiday season relative to last year 30% of consumers said their anticipated budget will be spending less than last year on their holiday shopping. And then an additional 33% of consumers plan to purchase less seasonal items. So this could be anything from a Christmas tree to wreath, or anything else holiday decor wise that would be encapsulated in that consumer spending being down this year. So that's something to keep an eye on. We also asked consumers because we always want to understand the why right? We know the what people overall are going to spend less than last year but why is that? Um, here's what they said when we ask them why would they spend less this year one desire to sell save money. We are in a world of inflation and economic uncertainty and that's coming through loud and clear from our consumer panel. So desire to save money, economic uncertainty, and then other things such as personal financial situation impact on inflation and prioritizing essential expenses over discretionary spending. In addition, we're seeing that consumers are becoming more price conscious. So this is pretty interesting statistic 76% of consumers say price most influences their purchasing decision when shopping online for holiday gifts. So again, doing a lot of research looking at price And consumers really seeing that as a key reason to make a purchase and actually convert on a shopping cart. They're also much more likely to seek out product discounts. 66% are more likely to actively seek product discounts during this holiday season compared to last year. So one insight for us is that we think discount retailers, you know, the TJ Maxx, the Marshalls of the world are likely going to see a strong holiday season. These are retailers that provide discounts, that's the value proposition to the market. These seem like they will be advantageous retailers this holiday season. And again, discounting and saving money is chief concern of shoppers this year. Any questions from the audience yet? Tiffany, or should I continue on?

Tiffany Serbus-Gustaveson 5:47

I think you can keep rolling. But yeah, have questions, comments, simply put them in the chat and I will keep an eye on them. Thank you.

Rachel Kim 5:52

Okay, thanks. And then in terms of how do they research, so this is really interesting. As I think about the audience that's consuming this today, consumers will look to retailers for guidance when researching gifts. 57% plan to use online product reviews and ratings. So this is a really important component. If this isn't part of your PDP tray, or your offering online, this is something to consider investing in because those product reviews are really critical. 55% plan to browse retail websites or apps, we're seeing a lot of people turn to mobile applications. Oftentimes that's where discounts can come through as well as loyalty programs. So those mobile applications as well as web websites are important, and 45% plan to ask family and friends for recommendations. So that word of mouth, of course, still critical and 41% planning to visit physical stores 22% plan to read gift guides or blogs and 16% plan to seek advice on social media. So going back to the implications for retailers, there's a variety of ways in which consumers research things. But clearly those reviews and ratings are very important. In terms of when they look for discounts on products they want to purchase, and what they plan to do, how do they do this, they go to search engines. So our friends at Google, Bing, others, online search engines are a place where people start the discovery process. 48% use coupon websites or apps 38% Use store loyalty programs 38% Use retailer websites or apps, and also other communication channels, including the retailer newsletters, and social media. So all places to be on and available, ensuring you have a good partnership with all those different websites, as well as communicating through email marketing and social media marketing. Okay, so that's the end of the data. Any questions from you, Tiffany or the audience? Before we get into some of the implications for retailers?

Tiffany Serbus-Gustaveson 7:58

One question is will this deck be available? Post events, we'll be able to share it to the audience members.

Rachel Kim 8:06

I'm happy to Yes, no problem. Okay. We also have a length, which I'm happy to share, but the full report with all of the data and the methodology is available on our website at nfinite.app under our resource section, but I will be happy to share the deck afterwards. And Tiffany can help me facilitate the distribution. No problem. Absolutely Cool. Yep. Okay, so what can retailers do? And some of you are retailers? Some of you are brands, but what can you do? What are these insights tell us? So given the number of channels that consumers go to to make purchasing decisions, one of our chief recommendations is to invest in great product visuals, the world is more visual than ever. And when we talk to brands and retailers alike, this is another set of primary research that we conducted, we talk to retail executives 91% said that great product imagery has clear positive impact across performance metrics. Some of this imagery comes from us as Nfinite we again make those 3d models and enable immersive experiences on retailer websites. But we do find that real retailers that are investing in great visuals see better outcomes, and really ties into consumers doing more research than ever want to be confident when they make a purchase and product imagery is key to that decision. In terms of other things, we really recommend this year specifically to provide budget friendly options. So we found out through this survey that shoppers planned to do research earlier in shopper earlier and we recommend that you strategically time sales and discounts even considering doing sales and early bird specials for those most engaged shoppers that are looking for discounts this holiday season. So that's an implication. We also see a lot of benefit to those personalized recommendations. So tailoring your email campaigns getting it into what different personas in your database may be looking for, in helping to cater various discounts and promotions specifically to the audiences where you think these products will resonate. And then offering rewards. So we talked a little bit before about mobile app, and those that have mobile applications, offering a rewards program that enables a consumer to get points or have a reason to come back. That is something that we're seeing in this budget constrained environment that is helping bring the consumer back to the store. So helping to build loyalty through rewards is also something to consider investing in, maybe not available for this holiday season. But we do think that this budget conscious shopper is going to look for rewards and loyalty and reasons to come back through discounting.

Tiffany Serbus-Gustaveson 10:51

Okay. Yeah, I'll put in the link here for the full study for people to download it after.

Rachel Kim 10:57

Thank you, that'd be fantastic. The other thing is prevent producing relevant educational content at the right time. So email marketing, going back to the data, we saw that customer newsletters or email campaigns was an effective channel to reach consumers. And so it's not just about promotion of discounts, but just newsletters that are able to share more about what's happening with the retailer, can you preside present some fun insights of what to expect maybe even give them a heads up in terms of what sales and discounts are coming up so that they can put those on their calendar and be reminded to come back on that day. These are all ways in which you can be top of mind for that price conscious consumer. Digital Advertising is also an area we see a lot of opportunity in personalizing ads across your digital campaigns can be helpful. And knowing that your consumer this year is looking for discounts. consider personalizing advertising that talks specifically to any type of loyalty program, you may offer any sales that are happening to stay top of mind at those moments where consumers will be more likely to buy. And then finally, we see again, we work with some of the largest retailers, but those that are really doing well are engaging on social media. So using that owned channel to share news, but also to engage with the audience. And again, kind of like the newsletter sharing more details in terms of any upcoming promotions or discounts. As well as that compelling product imagery that brings your products to life. Social is a place where once you put it online, you can't use it again. Right. So tick tock Instagram, once those product imagery is posted, you need to create new assets. And so potentially looking to a technology provider that can help you with your product imagery at scale that isn't reliant on photography is another thing to consider. Again, if anything on the product imagery side sounds interesting to you. That's where Nfinite can help. But those are some of the suggestions that we have coming out of this data report. And I am going to pause here because I can talk a little bit more about Nfinite. But I also want to give an opportunity for anyone in the audience to ask questions at this point, or revisit anything I've discussed

Tiffany Serbus-Gustaveson 13:17

beautiful questions, comments, put into the chat that q&a, and we will get to them for sure. Very interesting information. It is does align with what we've seen all year with people being more reserved with a lot of uncertainty in the market, how they're spending. And also looking like I think this is great to me to to go into what Nfinite does because having been a brand Dover owner and selling home decor online. It's like this is crunch time now like now we're getting into like, paper five and like what can we do? What's that low hanging fruit that can still make an impact? Yeah. So it's like in working with lots of photographers in my life working with lots of product samples, like photo shoots galore. How you can go so much faster to market using us.

Rachel Kim 14:08

Yeah, so let's talk a little bit about this. And again, we always come from the perspective of, we're here to help retailers win. And so we're Nfinite comes in is we take, we turn one 3d model into Nfinite possibilities. In this case, because Tiffany, you're talking about home and living in this couch, what we do is we create a 3d model of the couch. And this is the first part of our technology solution. And then within our Nfinite platform, we create a digital twin. And on the right, what you see with this GIF is we create automatically all of the different angles of your product imagery. So how does this help? Well, of course, as I said, product imagery kind of fuels everything we're talking about today from our insights, but certainly for social media, email, those assets where you need a lot of compelling visuals, it's almost impossible to achieve that Through photography alone. And so with Nfinite what this enables is, I can go put this couch in situations, and I can put it in a Halloween background or Tiffany's birthday coming up, or I can put that couch in a scene for Christmas with a fire and Christmas tree. And that's all done through CGI technology. So it's a single click of a button that enables that new scene to be rendered. And then we have a platform that enables you to download that content in any type of file format that you want. So that can work both on digital channels and then offline print excetera. Yeah, go ahead. Did you have a question that

Tiffany Serbus-Gustaveson 15:41

I say that it's so amazing, because it is, locations back that they get that empty house, fill it up with samples make that vignette? Like while the list goes on of how much work it took to make, you know, a real lifestyle shot, especially for home decor?

Rachel Kim 15:56

Yeah, absolutely. And then, you know, we work with the leading brands and retailers, we've created them most 3d models in the space. So we're the leader in 3d retail, we have the capacity for millions of skews. So we do this at scale for some of the largest global retailers, which means that if you have a large product catalog, the urine very DePayne were the really the ones that you can turn to for that. We've raised the most money in 3d retail. But we've also been recognized by Gartner as a cool vendor for digital commerce. And we're pushing the limit. We're investing in new immersive experiences that includes augmented reality, enabling you to use your own camera phone to visualize in this case, a piece of furniture in your own room, as well as additional immersive experiences online that allows the shopper to see products in context to make struck a better purchasing decision and feel more confident when buying. And then where we start again, just going back to what is the kind of outputs, we automate the full PDP tray. So automatically when you work with us, we're going to deliver the silhouettes these nine pack we call them nine pack shots. And then 360 degree video as well as the lifestyle scene that Tiffany you were talking about this image down below, it is not a photo, this is a CGI rendered scene. And again, we create these custom templates that enable you to swap that cash out in different situations throughout the year without having us photography. One little statistic from another shopper sentiment report we did 65% of shoppers are more likely to purchase an item if they can see it from all angles. So being able to click a button and automatically produce all of this so that you can use it across all of your channels is really magical for our retailers that we partner with. And then extendable across all channels. So everything from email, e commerce, email, social, any print, all of our file formats are configured enabling you to download and utilize these assets, not just for your digital campaigns, although, again, going back to the holiday shopper, I mean, I think a lot of decisions will be made online this year. But including, you know, your print campaigns as well. Oftentimes, a lot of our customers are looking for really high fidelity imagery for catalog and we've produced what we think is a photo quality, realistic image without ever having to have a photography Photoshop.

Tiffany Serbus-Gustaveson 18:28

And are you able to integrate with PIMS content management systems, like a salsify for example?

Rachel Kim 18:34

Yes. So we've built a number of API's, salsify being one of them, in which we can automatically take the inputs. So in this case, we look at your product catalog, we pull in all of the reference photos, automatically enabling this PDP automation, and then send that information back to you. So again, we're trying to make it as easy as possible. But yes, we are building those integrations. And that's an good example of what we're doing.

Tiffany Serbus-Gustaveson 18:59

Very cool. Oh, so we have a question here. Wow, I like this question. Because this is so mean, are there certain categories that you think will perform better this year, for example, maybe a parent that's willing to buy less apparel for themselves, but willing to spend more on their kids for a good holiday experience?

Rachel Kim 19:18

Yeah. I don't have a specific data point on that. But it's a great question. And when we looked at just overall, we saw discretionary discretionary spending being down this year versus last. So the implication for that would be yes, consumers are going to spend less on discretionary purchases, ie, I'm less likely to buy something for myself, I'm going to use that smaller budget for purchases for the people in my family that matter. I think that's a safe assumption. I didn't ask that specific question in that study. But it's a great question. And that might be something we could add on in our next panel survey because we actually do these every month. So again, if people have suggestions on other things, hey, Nfinite, I'd love to know X, Y, and Z. I'm happy to work with our research team to ask those questions and get more answers for the team.

Tiffany Serbus-Gustaveson 20:05

It's great that you do that every month. Very cool. Another question here. Can you share any examples of companies doing product image imagery? Right? In general, for for the upcoming holiday season?

Rachel Kim 20:18

Yeah, sure, can. I bet you got it, I would love to share an example on a webpage. And I wonder if I can stop sharing and try to pull something up. I have two examples. I mean, I think in the home and living category, and you know, one company that I think always does a great job is I'm in I apologize, I realized I'm in France, and I'm paywalled. I mean, sorry, the cookies don't work here. But I think one good example on the home and living side is is IKEA. Um, so IKEA is a great example, where they're actually enabling on sort of full imagery across all of their products, and they're actually a leader in CGI in 3d, I would say they're probably the best in the business. And then I did want to show you one other quick example. And, again, I'm outside of the home furnishing space. And I would say like home furnishing is really the place that we believe we perform best. But in other kind of product categories, I actually really like some of what some consumer packaged goods examples. So Betty's shampoo, this is a dry hair shampoo. And they're they're owned by church and white, which is a large, CPG company, based out of New Jersey, but one of the things that they've enabled is they've created a lifestyle around that. So they've taken their dry hair shampoo, given that to lots of influencers across both Tiktok and Instagram. And now all of a sudden, this dry shampoo, hair shampoo is ending up on everyone's back, like in their bags at the beach. And so this, they took this small kind of niche product. And actually, if you go look at their quarterly earnings report from the last quarter at church, and Dwight, their CEO is talking about how this actually has become a, like, the category dominant brand, there now commanding premium retail shelf space across across target and elsewhere. And this became not just like this niche product, but this product everyone needed. And I think it's because they really embrace influencers, to help to tell their story. And if we go back to the holiday shopping data, what's interesting to me about that is holiday shopping data tells us that people go to a lot of different channels to make purchasing decisions or spending a lot of time on social media. And so for this brand to show up authentically, in the back pocket of people that you might trust or follow on social media, that's clearly been a strategy that's played out. So that's another company that I think has done a great job taking something that is just a product a bottle, right, a dry hair shampoo, but creating a lifestyle brand around it. And that's been really successful for them. So hopefully I answered that question. I did want to show one other. I just want to show you, we were talking about immersive experiences. So I did just want to talk a little bit about what we mean by immersive experiences. So when you model something in 3d, what that enables for a shopper is I can actually move this photo frame around, how cool is that? I can zoom in and out, you know, I can move it around. And then we were talking a little bit about augmented reality. But if I click Try it now and if anyone wants to do this, you can hold your mobile mobile phone up and pull this up. But what we do is we enable you to actually put that picture frame on your wall. And this has been really powerful for the again, home and living space where you want to visualize this not just on a website, right, not just in the $3 million home photoshoot that you see in Restoration Hardware catalogs, but like, what is that going to actually look like in my space. And augmented reality has been a really strong place for us because you're meeting consumer where they already are. You're not saying like put on, you know, Oculus goggles, or go into the metaverse or join at web three, it's just take your iPhone, open a QR code, and magically that frame is going to show up on your wall and you can see what it looks like. And we've seen an incredible increase in conversion rate when people can actually visualize a product in their own space. And this goes beyond just home and living. I mean, we're doing this for things like coffee machines, TVs, anything really that's kind of a big box product. Even appliances, like a washing machine, somebody still might want to see that in context. So we're enabling that across a few different verticals at our company. But this has been something that enables a consumer to really just go and play and almost touch and feel something in a digital environment.

Tiffany Serbus-Gustaveson 24:38

That is so cool. Love. Yeah. Yeah, questions, comments, put in the chat that q&a As we round up the last few minutes here. I always said that imagery is like the gift that keeps on giving because that only is it helping that conversion and showing that you invest in your brand and your brand is premium but also the return See, the return rate goes down because they're able to use those tools like he was shown. And so when January hits, the p&l, the returns is not as bad, as it maybe has been historically. Yes. After that big surge in December.

Rachel Kim 25:16

Yes. And hold on. One more data insight, again, come back to Nfinite for more insights, because we we pull these all all the time. But let me just show you one quick thing. Speaking to that. Consumers expectations are only increasing. And when we ask our panel of shoppers about returns, in 2020 to 75% of consumers said they would return a product, if the image online does not match the actual product they received. Do you see that there? This year, when we asked that same panel the same question 83% said they were returned something if the image they saw and the product they received did not match? They were returning that. So you're absolutely right. It is a gift that keeps on giving. And the data will say vast majority of consumers are very likely to return and very unlikely to come back, they won't shop again with you. So really important to ensure that your product imagery is strong. So just in the simple sitting on a pilot data over your activity, just have an answer because

Tiffany Serbus-Gustaveson 26:15

pull it monthly too. That's fantastic. Absolutely. And that's all there is to I just want to say like the marketing team, you know, has usually own this world. But from personal experience, I noticed once you bring in the operations and the quality control team to to see the reduction in returns, they get very excited about this world as well. So it really helps that holistic experience that eCommerce is all about bringing everybody together and breaking down the silos. When you can bring really good imagery to an organization. It really can flourish in all different aspects of the business.

Rachel Kim 26:48

Yeah, yeah. And we have many different teams that use Nfinite for variety of reasons for that reason. But anyways, super fun. As I mentioned, Tiffany will follow up with all of this content. If you ever have other questions, you want to ask a panel of shoppers again, I do this every month. I'm always happy to throw a question in for any of you so happy to engage you guys can find me probably on LinkedIn or Tiffany can share some follow up contact information. But so fun chatting with you today. Thanks for having Thank you.

Tiffany Serbus-Gustaveson 27:16

Thank you so awesome into like I said, go to the website, check out that link that I dropped in, you can download the full report plus them. There's a lot of good information on that site. And we definitely encourage follow up conversation with the Nfinite team. And we'd love to have a conversation with you. So you can always feel free to drop me a line at tiffany@bwgconnect.com. That's how we get the content for our future events. So with that, it's a wrap. Happy Wednesday. Y'all have a lovely week. See you on another event and Rachel take care and safe travels.

Rachel Kim 27:45

Thank you. Bye