Shipt's AI Shopping Assistant | Fast Five Shorts
This segment from the Omni Talk Retail Fast Five podcast, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Mirakl, Ocampo Capital, Infios, and Quorso, examines Shipt's new chat-to-cart feature powered by Perplexity's Comet browser.
While Chris and Anne appreciate the innovation, they question the execution. Requiring customers to download a separate browser creates too much friction for mainstream adoption. Anne and Chris agree it's the right idea at the wrong time... a PR headline that sounds more innovative than it actually is. Will Shipt's AI gamble pay off, or is it too early for consumers to embrace?
For the full episode head here!
#shipt #perplexityai #aishoppingassistant #chattocart #grocerydelivery #retailtech #aiinretail #shoppinginnovation #grocerytech #retailinnovation
Shipt has launched a Chat to Cart feature.
Speaker AJesus.
Speaker AShipt and Chat to Cart in one sentence, that's really hard.
Speaker AAccording to Progressive Grocer, retail tech company Shipt is partnering with software company Perplexity and its new browser in a move that promises to enhance the grocery shopping experience by assisting with same day delivery and encouraging discovery of new and trending products.
Speaker ABy leveraging Perplexity, Comet C Shipt aims to assist consumers with cart building and shave additional time from their shopping process by powering product discovery and cart curation with artificial intelligence.
Speaker AQuote Everything we create at Shipt is in service of blending human warmth with technological innovation, said Katie Stratton, Chief Growth Office Chief Growth and Strategy Officer at Shipt.
Speaker AAnd for those curious, also no relation to Ricky Stratton of Silver Silver Spoons.
Speaker AAnd are you buying or selling Ship's chat to Cart functionality with Perplexity?
Speaker BI think that I'm buying the idea but I still think there's too much friction from the customer standpoint and I understand the the tightrope that Shipt is walking.
Speaker BThey wanted to be first to market with this and so you have to decide like are you going to be first to market with some hurdles for the customer still or are you going to wait until it's 100% seamless process and then roll it out to consumers being shift?
Speaker BI think I would have waited, I think I would have done the latter because they are they have not historically been a first to market company with their their concept.
Speaker BWell I think that their, their consumers are going to not use it like if they have to go out to another application, they have to download, you know, comment on their phones like they are in ships because it's an easy thing for them.
Speaker BThey have reliable, you know, pickers for their products and shoppers.
Speaker BSo to me I think like this is a great idea down the road because I think it benefits everyone.
Speaker BYou know it gets if they did have Comet installed or as part of their go to search engine it gets comment and perplexity, more traffic for other things outside of grocery and then for the ship shopper it becomes more simple for them to pick up their goods and not have to put as much work into every single week putting together that grocery list.
Speaker BBut I for right now I really think that it's just going to be too early and too hard for the ship shoppers to ship consumers I should say to grasp right now.
Speaker BSo I'm worried it's going to, it's going to not have the impact that they want it to Big PR headline for them, for being progressive but not going to have the shopper impact.
Speaker ABut what do you think?
Speaker AYou said it.
Speaker AI 100% agree with you.
Speaker A100 agree with you.
Speaker AI.
Speaker AThat's what I wrote in my notes.
Speaker AI said, seems like a headline that sounds more innovative than it actually is.
Speaker AAnd it's because you want the PR from it.
Speaker AAnd the other point, knowing the Big Red as we do and is, you know, I worry about, you know, getting a false.
Speaker AA false negative on this because no one's going to use it potentially.
Speaker AAnd then, you know, the leadership's gonna go, well, why do we invest in that?
Speaker AWell, because you did it the wrong way.
Speaker AYou know, you probably should have done it inside the Shift app to make this easier for them.
Speaker AYou know, can make those connections happen the way they want to or figure out how to do this in a way that has a better user experience.
Speaker ABecause.
Speaker ABecause you're right.
Speaker ANo, very few people are going to do this, I think.
Speaker ABut despite, you know, all the fervor over perplexity comment this week on social media, I think it's still.
Speaker AIt's still a big ass to get people to acclimate to this in.
Speaker AIn my opinion.
Speaker BAnd they launched this, like, did they launch this at Shop Talk Fall or.
Speaker BThey announced it and it was like, it was just so slow to come out, which.
Speaker BYeah, I don't know.
Speaker BI feel like.
Speaker BI feel like this is just.
Speaker BIt's the right idea.
Speaker BRight idea.
Speaker BJust wrong timing and execution.
Speaker BSo.
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker AFirst when I heard about, I was like, ooh, this is cool.
Speaker AAnd then I read about.
Speaker AI'm like, no, it's not.
Speaker AAnd so it's like, I know, I know.
Speaker AI want to get on board with something.
Speaker AI just can't.
Speaker BI know.
Speaker BWell, hopefully people will think it's cool and download the.
Speaker BI keep wanting to call it Capstone.
Speaker BIt's Comet.
Speaker BThey'll download Comet and they'll try it.
Speaker BYes.
Speaker BRight?
Speaker AThere's so many new words to everything.
Speaker AOh, my God.
Speaker BI know.