buywith

Ramat Gan, 
Israel
https://www.buywith.com/
  • Booth: 8016

buywith is bringing shopping back to LIVE!

buywith is a livestream shopping platform operating in the live commerce space, connecting creators with brands for a frictionless live stream shopping experience. Using a simple omni-channel link, any shopper can join the live events and enjoy a fun social shopping experience inside the brand’s website alongside their favorite creators, influencers and other shoppers in the community. buywith’s platform enables brands to engage and convert in today’s creator economy with minimal integration and full access to the coveted Gen Z and Millennials shoppers.
Today, some of Fortune 500 leading brands are already enjoying buywith’s platform and the added value of being a key player in the social commerce industry.


 Show Specials

  • buywith is throwing an exclusive “Behind the Scenes” cocktail event at Park West Gallery on January 16, 2023  at 7:30 PM - 9:30 PM EST and you are invited!

    Attending retail brands will get an exclusive closer view into the world of Livestream shopping magic with an influencer-hosted Live demo at the event itself. They'll also enjoy the Gallery's fine art, delicious food and connect with other top quality brands.

    Space in the gallery is limited so make sure to RSVP here today.

  • We're bringing LIVE back to shopping with demos at the show!
    You are invited to join us for a livestream shopping demonstration event and a chance to win AirPods at Innovation Lab BOOTH #8016


 Press Releases

  • Social media platforms are ever evolving, constantly displaying new ways to sell and advertise products to consumers. Livestream shopping is one such tool, combining human interaction with fast shopping transactions. Viewers can directly express their opinions and feedback through livestream chat functions, as well as send donations to their favorite streamers, building substantial streamer/audience relationships. A study published in the Journal of Open Innovation Technology Market and Complexity demonstrated that exchanging virtual gifts expands consumer satisfaction, and with it potential purchases, due to the resulting social interaction between streamer and viewer.

    After having witnessed massive popularity in the Asian markets, the format has had a slower start on social media apps in the West, despite the help of popular brands, internet influencers, and social media platforms.

    YouTube partnered with Shopify back in June, which resulted in creators having the ability to go live on the platform and tag products they want to recommend and sell. A Talk Shoppe survey based in the US found that 89% of viewers agree that they can trust recommendations from YouTube creators.

    In September 2021, TikTok unveiled a live shopping feature that has authorized users to be able to purchase products through livestreams and events without having to leave the app. However, the Financial Times revealed that a series of investigations uncovered that the company has “paused, delayed or withdrawn the planned rollout of TikTok shop into any other international markets” due to the failure of the feature to gain traction in the UK.

    Instagram’s live shopping feature lets brands and creators select up to 30 products or a collection to feature. These products will then be pinned or displayed during their livestream. In December 2021, beauty brand Too Faced launched their “Better Than Sex” perfume through a dedicated livestream on Instagram. It was extremely successful, with 100% of the available inventory within the live selling out.

    “Livestream shopping has fallen short of expectations in terms of traction this year. The USA and Europe are still missing certain critical factors such as quality livestream shopping hosts, interaction and incentives, significant discounts, and many more that make live shopping a unique model,” comments Alessandro Bogliari, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of The Influencer Marketing Agency. “With that being said, this doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have the potential to grow.”

    The company conducted a survey of 1,000 US and 1,000 UK consumers between 18 and 67 years old to gain an overview on the progress of livestream shopping for these markets, contrasting it with the state of opportunity in China. Here are the key takeaways:

    Total Market Size

    • Chinese livestream sales are expected to reach $423 billion by 2022.
    • In 2022, livestream shopping revenue in the US is expected to hit $20 billion.

    Preferred Platforms

    • The Douyin Livestream feature is trendy among young consumers. In fact, as of February 2022, 88.3% of its users reported to have livestreamed.
    • First choice for American respondents is Facebook Live (26%), while UK respondents prefer TikTok Live (30%).

    Consumer Mindsets

    • Only 36% US and 25% UK responders have ever purchased something during a livestream.
    • Livestream shopping is not considered as “more fun” nor “more entertaining” compared to regular online shopping.
    • The 3 main reasons why US and UK responders shopped during a livestream session are: 1) quality of product, 2) free delivery, 3) discounts.

    Spending Figures

    • A portion of US responders (27%) have spent between $20 and $50 on livestream shopping in the last 3 months. A majority of UK responders (31%) have spent between $10 and $20.

    Chinese Market

    • With an annual growth rate of 14%, in 2021, 700 million Chinese users watch livestreams.
    • 460 million have purchased goods via platform Livestream, accounting for 44.9% of Chinese internet users.
    • One of the most famous KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders), Austin Li, also known as “Lipstick King,” sold $1.7B worth of goods in a 12-hour livestream for Alibaba’s Singles Day.

    Popular Apps in the Chinese Market

    • Taobao was the first livestream shopping platform introduced in 2016. In 2021, the app accumulated over 50 billion views and the average viewing time increased by 25.8%.
    • Kuaishou introduced livestreaming in 2019 giving smaller users more exposure and lowering the fee compared to other platforms. Over 85% of Kuaishou users are from rural areas and lower-tier cities, and in the second quarter of 2022, the revenue from livestreaming increased by 19.1%.
    • Douyin (Chinese TikTok) reports that as of February 2022, 88.3% of its users reported to have livestreamed, with over 9 million livestream sessions per month on the platform.

    Leading Livestream Shopping Platforms in the US/UK

    • NTWRK 
    • Buywith
    • PopShopLive
    • CommentSold

    Although livestream shopping carries plenty of potential, it seems to be struggling to stick in the US and UK, whereas in China it has situated itself as a go-to shopping method for consumers. With TikTok halting their plans to spread livestream shopping on their app across Europe, it calls into question whether livestreaming has the longevity and potential to grow in US and UK markets.

  • buywith completed a $9.5 million seed round, and while that may be the kind of funding a younger company takes, the livestream shopping platform is actually a “veteran” in this emerging way of shopping.

    The company was founded in Israel in 2018 by Adi Ronen Almagor and Eyal Sinai as an e-commerce site that enables end users to consult with their friends and family within the site as they shop.

    When Ronen Almagor came to the U.S. to take part in the New York Fashion Tech Lab, she saw the impact influencers were having on shopping and created a video-enabled tool they could use. She would ask potential customers if they preferred the standard business-to-business shopping tool or the video one with influencers, and many chose the video.

    “That’s when I met my co-founder Eyal, and we saw that we had something interesting if we added the video layer on top,” she told TechCrunch. “The meaning of that for us would be you could do the session on any e-commerce site, which would be a huge advantage for us.”

    Retailers and brands can host on-site livestream shopping events featuring influencers, experts and brand representatives as viewers shop live and interact with the hosts.

    Some unique features of buywith are the “Shop With Me” screen-sharing component and the fact that it does not require an app download or code integration, making it easier for brands to use it. In fact, that is how buywith started out with Walmart, enabling the retail giant to get up and running with the platform and go live immediately, Ronen Almagor said. The company also has integration capabilities now and is working with brands like MAC Cosmetics and is launching new partnerships with Steve Madden and Charlotte Tilbury.

    When buywith initially started, the company was running pilots with four employees, Ronen Almagor recalls. Live commerce was already a huge hit in China — where sales are expected to hit $423 billion in 2022 — but her company was one of the few doing it elsewhere.

    However, when the global pandemic hit, it created some organic momentum for buywith as companies and brands were out to find more ways to engage with their audience and retain relationships with new audiences.

    The company, now with 20 employees, is delivering an eight-time increase in e-commerce conversions, an increase of around 40% session engagement rate and an average of 10 times return on investment, Ronen Almagor said.

    Meanwhile, buywith is working with clients in all size ranges and experienced major growth in the last year, which resulted in bringing in a “few millions of dollars in ARR,” she added. The company also launched in the U.S. in 2021 and is in the process of opening offices in the U.K. to expand its European market presence.

    The seed round was led by igniteXL Ventures, which was joined by Fab Co-Creation Studio Ventures, Alibaba.com’s former Europe and North American president John Caplan, and Alibaba.com’s North America general manager Kevin Ambrosini, Regah Ventures, Irani CVC, True, Sarona Ventures, Andav Capital and NEOME – Women Investing Club. Among that list and more, the company touts having 18 female investors involved from Israel, the U.S. and Europe.

    “Live commerce is a key to increasing e-commerce conversion rates,” Caplan said in a statement. “Approximately 30% of shoppers walk out of a physical retailer having bought something, while today’s e-commerce results in about 4% conversion rates globally. Buywith aims to close this gap.”

    Though live commerce is already huge in China, the U.S. has a lot of bandwidth to catch up. Live commerce in the country is poised to reach only $35 billion in sales by 2024Firework is making strides in this area, picking up $150 million this week, as is Drip.

    Buywith intends to use its new cash infusion to grow its sales, marketing and R&D teams across the globe. It is also working on a self-serve marketplace where brands can select the host for their livestream shopping sessions among a growing community of vetted content creators and influencers.

    “We are adding a roadmap for the product, and with our audience being young, we want to eventually enable them to buy with coins and even offer purchase chances to go live with the host,” Ronen Almagor said. “We have a new head of product that came from the gaming industry, so more features will come from that, too.”

  • buywith, a Livestream shopping platform startup, announced today that it had completed a $9.5 million seed round. The company will use the investment to meet surging customer demand and grow its sales, marketing, and R&D teams across the globe, focusing on North America. The company was founded in 2018 by Adi Ronen Almagor and Eyal Sinai. It has offices in Tel Aviv, has recently registered an entity in the US, and is opening offices in the UK to expand its European market presence.

    As featured previously in Business Insider and Glossy - Walmart, the world's leading retailer, is increasing its integration with the buywith platform to acquire and engage customers. buywith is also launching partnerships with Steve MaddenCharlotte Tilbury, and other global brands thanks to the platform's fast and easy to implement integration, patent-pending technology, and an engaging, interactive and guided shopping experience, which until now has only been experienced in physical retail stores.

    After a series of integrations, the buywith platform has delivered an 8X increase in eCommerce conversions, an increase of ~40% session engagement rate, and an average 10x ROI.

    These days buywith is launching a self-serve marketplace where brands can select the host for their Livestream shopping sessions directly from the buywith's growing vetted content creators community. Along with the technological superiority, this is another unique selling point that enables brands to easily scale their Livestream shopping campaigns with influencer-led sessions.

    "As one of the first brands to use buywith's Livestream Shopping Platform, we are extremely proud to be an industry leader in this field," says Alexandra Perry, Head Of Retail Marketing, Omnichannel, and Innovation at The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. ״Our makeup artists and social media influencers conducted dozens of live shopping sessions. By utilizing the technology, we achieved very high sales conversion and engagement rates. We also engaged with our audience in a unique way.״

    Retailers and brands use the buywith platform to host on-site Livestream shopping events featuring influencers, experts, and brand representatives. An unlimited number of viewers can shop live and interact with the hosts and brand. Unlike other Livestream shopping solutions, buywith does not require app downloads or code integration and creates a turnkey "Shop With Me" experience.

    The seed round is led by igniteXL Ventures, a Silicon Valley-based global fund with a special focus on technology-driven beauty and wellness investments. "Given the explosion of Livestream shopping in Asia, we are about to witness the rapid growth of this channel in the West. Unlike other Livestream shopping solutions, buywith hosts Live shopping sessions directly on the brand's website, meeting the customers where they are and increasing the conversion rate to unprecedented levels in eCommerce", said Claire Chang, General Partner at igniteXL Ventures

    Other notable investors include Fab Co-Creation Studio Ventures, founded by Odile Roujol, former CEO of Lancome, Alibaba.com's former President of North America and EuropeJohn Caplan and Alibaba.com GM of North AmericaKevin AmbrosiniRegah Ventures, Irani CVC, the venture arm of Factory54, the leading luxury retailer in IsraelTrue., the UK-based e-commerce, and retail fund Sarona VenturesAndav Capital, and NEOME – Women Investing club. The company is proud to be backed by no less than 18 female investors from Israel, the US, and Europe 

    "Live commerce is a key to increasing eCommerce conversion rates. Approximately 30% of shoppers walk out of a physical retailer having bought something, while today's eCommerce results in ~4% conversion rates globally. buywith aims to close this gap." said John Caplan, Alibaba.com's former President of North America and Europe, who participated in the round.

    Livestream shopping is the next step in the evolution of eCommerce, bound to become the natural way buyers shop, as they are seeking better value, information, and a more engaging and immersive shopping experience. 2021 racked up $300 billion in global Livestream Shopping sales, and the trend is projected to surpass $35 billion in the US by 2023.

    For more information, please visit https://www.buywith.com

  • From recipe site integrations to interactive videos, the retailer has embraced partnerships that aim to boost inspiration and ease for at-home cooking.
     

    Find a recipe. Then search on an online grocery platform for each ingredient and add one-by-one to the virtual cart. When that’s done, repeat the process for the ingredients for the next recipe.

    Shopping online for groceries can be a tedious process, especially when there’s a long list of ingredients. Shoppable content aims to streamline at-home cooking by providing meal inspiration and making it easier to select and order ingredients with a few taps or clicks.

    Walmart, in particular, with its expansive U.S. fleet of more than 4,700 stores, has been spearheading shoppable recipe adoption in the grocery industry.

    From recipe site integrations to livestreaming to interactive videos, the retailer’s U.S. division has collaborated with a range of partners over the last five years.

    “Broadly, what they’re experimenting [with] is making a lot of bets in shoppable content to drive that behavior,” Joel LaFrance, marketing vice president at grocery technology firm Basketful, said about Walmart, which is a partner.

    As more grocers in the U.S. explore shoppable content, here’s a look at Walmart’s range of experiments.

    Shoppable recipes can account for 5% to 8% of online sales for grocers, said Jordan Berke, founder and CEO of Tomorrow Retail Consulting and a former Walmart executive.

    His firm’s research has found that while shoppable recipes are a solid enhancement, they aren’t “going to [switch] the user from competitor A to competitor B,” Berke said, noting that recipes can still be a “powerful” customer acquisition tool.

    Many of the shoppable integrations across those sites share similar features, like a button that redirects customers to checkout at Walmart, a way to set location, the option to swap recommended products and the ability to change item quantities. Not surprisingly, private brand items frequently appear as suggested ingredients on certain sites.

    While they all aim to make shopping ingredients for a recipe easier, Walmart’s site integrations are far from cookie cutter.

    The collection of Walmart-sponsored shoppable recipes unveiled earlier this year on MSNBC’s Today Show, for example, lets people view suggested ingredients through filters like “minimal waste,” “organic” and “based on lowest cost.”

    Walmart’s shoppable recipe partnerships illustrate a variety of user experiences with different features aimed at personalization, speedy cart building and cost-saving measures.

    Through SideChef, Walmart has ventured into offline shoppable QR codes and smart kitchen applications. At the end of December, LG announced its newest lineup of smart kitchen appliances would let users of its ThinQ app, which is powered by SideChef, select from 10,000 recipes for delivery from Walmart or Amazon Fresh, The Verge reported.
     

    Along with its numerous cooking site integrations, Walmart has played with retailer-branded and co-branded sites featuring shoppable recipes.

    Last year, Walmart announced a cross-platform partnership with the Meredith Corporation – now called Dotdash Meredith following its acquisition by Dotdash in later 2021 — featuring several tools such as artificial intelligence-powered meal planning, shoppable recipes, visual search and chatbots. That partnership also resulted in two programs: the co-branded “Make It Easy” site with personalized and shoppable meal planning focused on time, occasion or ingredients and the “Kid Foodology” site with Allrecipes and Parents focused on kid-friendly shoppable recipes, kitchen tips and blogs.

    Retailers like Walmart are also beginning to deploy shoppable videos as interactive tools to get shoppers adding products to their digital carts.

    But while live commerce like shoppable videos has a powerful presence in Asia, in the U.S. it hasn’t achieved the same level of traction, Berke said, noting Walmart U.S.’s portfolio of content-driven commerce is different from what it’s done in China. For example, in the U.S., Walmart has focused more on relying on using well-known celebrities and influencers in their livestream efforts.

    “Oftentimes, those people may not be the best salespeople. They’re exciting. They’re attractive. They draw traffic but they’re not as natural in selling something,” Berke said.

    In recent years, Walmart has linked with different firms including Buywith and TalkShopLive on livestreaming and held shoppable livestreaming events on Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and YouTube.

    In 2018, Walmart started a joint venture with interactive video tech developer Eko content that includes the Walmart-branded Cookshop and Make it with Walmart sites, both of which feature original shoppable and customizable recipe videos. At the time the two companies linked up, Reuters reported that Walmart invested $250 million in the venture as well as in a funding round.

    After Walmart “fell in love with the experience” it created with Eko, the retailer worked to expand its work on shoppable interactive recipes, Berke said.

    The sites allow users to build-their-own recipes in interactive videos that walk through the preparation process. At the end of each video, people can shop the recipe they created.

    Over the years, Walmart and Eko have expanded their work together, including adding shoppable celebrity videosKraft Heinz meal prep episodes and a Kraft Heinz-exclusive “Sandwich Shop” to the Cookshop hub.

    While Walmart and Eko have explored various avenues of shoppable videos in recent years, the Eko platform is now “in the hands of merchants to decide to use it or not,” Berke said, adding that he expects Eko to become a niche specialty in certain categories that could benefit from interactive video.

    Berke, who was optimistic earlier this year about the future of livestreaming commerce in the U.S., has recently changed his tune, noting that Meta and TikTok are pulling away from live e-commerce and that consumers have so far been hesitant to adopt that style of shopping.

    “No single retailer is going to have enough livestream content to train their consumer on this very different way of behaving. We were concerned that the whole live stream commerce market may have missed its opportunity in the U.S.,” Berke said.

    In late September, Walmart Connect, the retailer’s media arm, announced expanded tie-ups with live commerce platform Firework and TalkShopLive as two of the five partners for its Innovation Partner Program. Those two partnerships will add supplier-funded shoppable livestreams to Walmart.com/live. With Firework, Walmart Connect is also testing mobile-first video experiences and adding short shoppable videos.

    Firework co-founder and CEO Vincent Yang said in an interview that Firework can give brands information about users, their location, average viewing times for videos, how many shares a video got and how many people shopped the video, allowing for better measures of engagement than static visuals.

     

    The Innovation Partner Program also includes new advertising opportunities between Walmart Connect with TikTok and Snap — social media platforms with whom the retailer has already started leveraging shoppable capabilities.

    In the spring, Walmart debuted a shoppable augmented reality lens Snapchat connected to cooking site Allrecipes that lets users find recipes for ingredients they already have or can order from the retailer, Marketing Dive reported.

    The Snapchat lens shortens the customer journey from discovery to purchase, a Walmart spokesperson told Marketing Dive at the time of the announcement. The lens aims to meet shoppers, especially younger ones, in digital spaces where they are already spending time, the spokesperson said.

    As social commerce gears up stateside — Walmart recently cited Accenture’s forecasts that social commerce will grow to account for nearly 17% of global e-commerce spend by 2025 — the retailer seems intent on catering to audiences on those types of platforms.

    “We believe the future of retail lies in social commerce,” Walmart U.S. Chief Marketing Officer William White wrote in a company blog at the end of 2021.

  • We asked live-shopping experts to weigh in on how brands can leverage video for the upcoming peak season.

    Live shopping may have started in China, but now it’s picking up steam around the world. According to some studies, around half of companies in the US and Europe report incorporating live shopping into their strategies in 2021 or earlier, and livestream platform Bambuser says livestream-shopping viewership is growing by ~38% every quarter in 2022.

    Brands are using live shopping to increase sales and customer engagement year round, but with the holiday season looming, experts say it’s good timing for those who haven’t yet tested the livestream waters to jump in.

    Here’s how experts say brands can get started and get the most out of their video content:

    Keep it simple

    Dutta Satadip, chief customer officer at CX automation platform ActiveCampaign, said getting started with live shopping is a relatively light lift, even for smaller brands.

    “Today, the cost of producing a good product demo—which is basically what livestream is—it’s relatively low,” Satadip, who helped launch live-streaming options at Pinterest, told Retail Brew. And it’s a great opportunity for small and medium-sized businesses to bring traffic directly onto their site, he added.

    Adi Itach, chief marketing officer at live-shopping platform Buywith, said livestreams provide a more effective alternative to social media ads. “This is not a banner on Facebook or Instagram that is chasing after you,” she told Retail Brew. “We’re not fighting on eyeballs; we’re bringing the users to us.”

    • Influencer Rachael Kirkconnell, who has hosted livestreams on Buywith for brands like Charlotte Tilbury and Steve Madden, said her livestream attendees are more engaged than her 867,000 Instagram followers.
    • Viewers are “locked in” for the entire stream, and attendance increased throughout the events, she told Retail Brew. “You just don’t see that, especially if you’re going live on TikTok or Instagram.”

      Start early, start basic: 
      Yaniv Navot, CMO of marketing-software provider Dynamic Yield, said even brands with small budgets can use livestreams to stand out in a crowded holiday-shopping landscape.
    • Holiday sales aren’t an effective means of differentiation because the holiday shopping season starts earlier and earlier every year, and most companies will have a sale at some point, Navot said. They also don’t foster long-term loyalty, he added.
    • Instead, brands should use livestreams earlier in the year to get their consumers excited about the holiday season. One strategy is scheduling live shopping events that highlight gifts for different people—mom, dad, significant others—he explained. “The trick is not to lead with discounts, but to weave them into an already engaging overall experience.”

      Satadip advises companies to feature their core products until they have a better understanding of just how successful the events will be. If sales are unexpectedly high, brands likely have enough inventory of the core products to meet demand. And there’s a longer horizon to sell those products in case the first livestream doesn’t meet expectations, he said.
    • Brands should then use personalization tactics like basket expansion or recommendations based on purchase to leverage seasonal products, Satadip said.

    Work what you’ve got

    Liz Ritzcovan, chief revenue officer at text messaging platform Hustle (which recently launched a video component), said brands should use video shopping to rope in their existing audience for the holiday season.

    “It’s the low-hanging fruit because they are customers that are already connected to you as a brand,” she told Retail Brew. “They know who you are, there’s trust, there’s that connectivity already happening.”

    • And live-shopping campaigns have much faster turnarounds than more traditional options, which makes it a good option for brands finding themselves up against the deadline of the holiday rush, she explained.

      Reuse and recycle: 
      Joel Leonoff, co-founder and CEO of live-shopping platform Revo Video, said he advises companies to use the video from their livestreams beyond the event itself, but that doesn’t mean they have to redo their strategy for the season.
    • Making clips into shoppable videos is a simple process, Leonoff said. And those clips can be integrated into existing marketing efforts. “So if they’re already considering some type of email campaign, this is just putting it on steroids,” he told Retail Brew.
       

      Satadip said repurposing video is a great way to increase personalization after the show.

      “I would recommend somebody to use livestreaming as a starting point, but reuse the asset to bolster your story, your messaging,” he explained. “Repetition never killed the prayer.”—MA


 Products

  • buywith
    buywith is a livestream shopping platform, connecting creators with brands for a frictionless live shopping experience. Using a simple omni-channel link, any shopper can join their favorite influencers for live shopping events on the brand's website!
    ...

  • buywith's platform offer exclusive features:

    • One-to-one and one-to-many livestream shopping events

    • “Shop With Me” screen-sharing technology - Live events hosted directly on the brand's ecommerce website.The influencer takes the shopper on a shoppable journey where they can purchase products without ever leaving the live!

    • Fast and seamless integration - No equipment, integration or app download needed

    • Unique registration process - With automatic SMS and emails before and after the event

    • Conversion increasing shoppable features such as our ‘WANT’ button to add items to cart and buy them immediately, In video purchase and dynamic coupon code 

    • Gamification features to boost engagement such as our AI based live chat, adjustable video size, polls and many additional features

    • Insightful dashboard with shoppers' email and phone numbers and sales data in real time

    • Content creator marketplace - community of multi-faceted influencers