Shownotes
This Omni Talk Retail Fast Five segment explores The Mall, a startup attempting to create a universal shopping feed across thousands of brands.
Chris Walton and Chap Achen debate whether consumers actually want a new discovery platform, what makes shopping different from streaming, and why the biggest players may already be solving this problem.
The conversation also examines what this idea reveals about the future of retail discovery—and why becoming the "Spotify of shopping" may be easier said than done.
⏩ Tune in for the full episode here: https://youtu.be/BYxUBG-sSTQ
#TheMall #RetailTechnology #Ecommerce #ShoppingApps #ProductDiscovery #RetailInnovation #RetailNews #ConsumerTrends #AI #OmniTalk
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Transcripts
A new startup called the Mall has launched an app that aims to be a universal shopping feed, a kind of Spotify for online retail, if you will, letting users follow their favorite brands, track sales and product drops, and discover new products across more than 10,000 retailers all in one place.
Speaker A:According to TechCrunch, the mall was founded in October 25 by co founder and CEO Shreya Halder, a Stanford computer science grad.
Speaker A:So you know, it just must be awesome.
Speaker A:Chap and co founder and CEO Ellie Konskar, who previously worked at Tom Ford and Carla Otto.
Speaker A:The two connected through a female founder circle in Los Angeles rather than using brand APIs or affiliate partnerships.
Speaker A:The Mall scrapes retail websites frequently enough to track sales restocks, drops and promotions, and alerts users via push notifications when users are ready to buy.
Speaker A:A browser opens inside the app and takes them directly to the brand's site to check out.
Speaker A:The app is currently live only in beta and and is invite only, and it's currently being tested with 4,500 early users, but it's expected to be broadly available by the end of the summer.
Speaker A:Chap the Mall is pitching itself as a solution to the fragmented, multi tab online shopping experience.
Speaker A:Does this startup have legs to reshape how people discover and shop online?
Speaker A:Or is it too easy for Amazon, Google or even TikTok to replicate and ultimately destroy it in one fell swoop?
Speaker B:So Chris, I had not heard of this prior to this podcast.
Speaker B:I went checked it out.
Speaker B:I guess I'm on the wait list now.
Speaker B:I found it odd that I have to, you know, get on a wait list to experience this product, but I'm on the list.
Speaker B:I guess I am not optimistic on this one.
Speaker B:On its surface now they call it the Spotify for Shopping.
Speaker B:I don't love that analogy because we're talking content versus products.
Speaker B:Very different, right?
Speaker B:And I'm not going to go I'm not creating a playlist of pants anytime soon.
Speaker B:So it's broader than the Google Universal cart thing though, because it does allow you to build a mall of brands versus specific products.
Speaker B:So that's interesting.
Speaker B:But then it also does some of the same things that Universal Google's cart does, which is like watch for price drop, price drops and in stock alerts.
Speaker B:So I'm I'll be honest, I'm probably not the target demographic of this product, so it's tough for me to say it's a good bet.
Speaker B:But right now I fall on the skeptical side of this thing and the Monet, the monetization side of this looks to be a B2B model where they're selling data to retailers.
Speaker B:So we need lots of scale on the consumer side for that monetization to work.
Speaker B:And right now, I don't see the compelling consumer angle that drives that kind of scale.
Speaker A:Yeah, right.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:I think I agree.
Speaker A:I think I agree with you.
Speaker A:The one point I don't agree with you necessarily is what you said at the beginning.
Speaker A:Like, I think, I think there is some aspect of the future of retail online merchandising being driven by content.
Speaker A:So I think there is some analogies with the Spotify, but that's also why I want to hold Ella's commentary on the last headline until we get to this headline, because I think there's, there's some overlaps here in terms of how this all could play out.
Speaker A:But I think fundamentally, I do agree with you.
Speaker A:If I had a nickel for every time I covered a story like this on the podcast in the Omnitoc Fast Five history, I'd probably have, you know, truthfully, 20 cents because I feel like it happens every year to two years.
Speaker A:But it's still pretty regularly, when you think about it, when this type of thing is breaking and getting the coverage it is.
Speaker A:The last one I remember of any substance was Veri Shop, but I haven't heard word one about Verishop, you know, since it came on the scene with similar fanfare.
Speaker A:So, so I'm, I'm, I'm actually going to be pretty, you know, pretty blunt.
Speaker A:I give this zero chance.
Speaker A:But, but I do think it's the reason that I want to include it this week because even though I'm not long on it, I think it is important to highlight because it, the story itself highlights where things are going and the problems that the bigger platforms are going to set out to try and solve.
Speaker A:Which, you know, it's like Amazon, if you go back to the last headline, is kind of trying to solve this in some ways, or you could see how they will pivot in a similar direction over time.
Speaker A:And the other thing too is I feel like, I hate to say it, but I feel like a smart person, probably smarter than me, could probably program Cloud to do this for themselves just as a personal feature for them and, you know, you know, day in and day out, if they're really inclined to want to shop this way.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:But, but, but I don't know.
Speaker A:Producer Ella, what do you, what do you think here?
Speaker A:You know, like, what's your, what's your take on, on shopping apparel on Amazon and also on the mall.
Speaker C:Yeah, the mall headline is really interesting to me.
Speaker C:I think it might honestly come down to the marketing of this because if.
Speaker C:If they can get me to the platform, maybe, maybe.
Speaker C:Maybe it's a go.
Speaker C:However, I. I'm interested to know what, what the difference is.
Speaker C:Chap.
Speaker C:Kind of to your point.
Speaker C:It just feels kind of like I'm already doing this, you know, on Google or Amazon itself.
Speaker B:Yeah, there's some pretty big discovery systems that we're all familiar with right now.
Speaker B:So how is this one going to create really differentiated consumer value?
Speaker B:That's.
Speaker B:That's what's not clear yet.
Speaker B:But you know, it.
Speaker B:I'm on the waitlist, so it's hard for me to know what's out there, but once I click into it, I'd love to see what they're up to.
Speaker A:Yeah, good to good.
Speaker A:Good to Whoever's running their PR for getting them in TechCrunch too.
Speaker A:You gotta wonder if there's some connections there at the TechCrunch media staff.
Speaker A:But Ella, I'm curious too.
Speaker A:What about, what about Amazon?
Speaker A:Like, do you, do you shop for apparel now on Amazon?
Speaker C:I do.
Speaker C:I actually have this as.
Speaker C:As my, my favorite headline of the week, so I might as well just jump in.
Speaker A:Let's just do it.
Speaker A:Let's just do it now.
Speaker A:Yeah, let's do it now.
Speaker C:I feel like kind of a broken record because every time it's the favorite headline, it's talking about this type of search.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:Like I'm searching for a coastal grandma rain jacket, but cooler.
Speaker C:Like the most specific thing ever.
Speaker A:Are you really.
Speaker A:Are you really doing that 100?
Speaker C:A coastal grandma rain jacket.
Speaker A:Coastal.
Speaker A:I wanted to make sure I heard that right.
Speaker A:Yeah, I was glad you repeated it because I didn't want to accidentally say it wrong.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:But it's using that third party of getting to someone's Amazon storefront who maybe already shopped.
Speaker C:Sort of like a merchant that I can, you know, shop what that person likes that's maybe labeled as Cool girl grandma jackets.
Speaker C:Right, Right.
Speaker C:So I think if they can figure out this search function, it might.
Speaker C:It might become the creator I'm looking for just within their own site.
Speaker C:So I think they're onto something.
Speaker C:And this honestly reminds me too.
Speaker C:I'm going to plug one of my good friends here, but Mary Corland Downs, she just hosted the Fashionology Summit in New York.
Speaker C:And this was.
Speaker C:The whole entire thing was about modern commerce and agentic search and how search is just changing and the consumer intent is changing.
Speaker C:So she got a ton of people together to talk about this, but definitely look into all things fashion tech, if you're interested.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker A:All right.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Well, that's.
Speaker A:I did not expect you to tell me that.
Speaker A:I really didn't.
Speaker A:I didn't expect.
Speaker A:But.
Speaker A:So that's.
Speaker A:That's really good news for Amazon.
Speaker A:You know, if.
Speaker A:If someone like yourself, who's big into fashion, as followers of this show, will know, is already going there to.
Speaker A:To do their searches.
Speaker A:You know, particularly, as, you know, we think about the evolution of content, too, and how that plays into it, and I know that that's a key way that you think about things and search things, too, so.