TRANSCRIPT
This transcript was completed by an automated system, please forgive any grammatical errors.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
google, brand, people, tick tock, layoffs, twitter, search, tweet, cow, picture, thought, super, shopify, dairy milk, account, point, tic tock, water bottle, retention, verified
SPEAKERS
Mariah Parsons, Noah Rahimzadeh
Mariah Parsons 00:04
Hi there, I'm Mariah Parsons, your host of retention Chronicles, ecommerce brands are starting to shift their strategy to focus on retention in the customer experience. And so we've decided to reach out to top DC brands and dive deeper into their tactics and challenges. But here's the thing, we love going on tangents. And so with our guests, you'll often find us talking about the latest trends, as well as any and all things in the Shopify ecosystem. So go ahead and start that workout or go on that walk and tune in as we chat with the leading minds in the space retention Chronicles is sponsored by Malomo. A shipment in order tracking platform, improving the post purchase experience, be sure to subscribe and check out all of our other episodes at go. malomo.com. Hello, no. Good, how are you? Good. Good. Excited to chat today. Um, okay, so we're gonna dive right into it. So I on our like, for the listeners. This will be the previous chit chat episode with Yeah. Oh, but we were Have you heard of we're speaking about this. So this is why I'm bringing it up because I want to get your insight on it. And I have more insight myself to share with the listeners after I ended the chat with Yeah. So have you heard of like Google multi search? No. Okay, I'm going to share my screen. Because it's super interesting. So the copy like this is a tweet from Google. Copy says need that shirt but in a different color or the pattern on your favorite shirt and matching shorts, multi multi search has you covered, take a pic and ask a question about it to find out what you need. And it's coming in 70 plus languages. So this new thing, and like search on is the hashtag they're using. I think that's like the conference they announced it at is with Google, you can like take a picture of something and Google will find it for you. So it's like it's yeah, it's like very, very revolutionary.
Noah Rahimzadeh 02:20
i This is one of those moments where like, I've thought about this before why? Damn, Google beat me to it.
Mariah Parsons 02:30
Yeah, you know, you can't blame them. They have they have a lot more resources to do that the execution. But yeah, I thought it was really interesting. So I saw this this morning while I was scrolling and it was an hour. It's from October 20. Oh, my gosh, October 11. So just just like newer thing. I'm just getting around to seeing this. But it's interesting because it just so happens to at all stop my share. But it just so happens to be aligned with this other article that I was reading, which made me dive more in depth to what Google multi search men is. The idea around like Tik Tok being a search engine competitor. So like a lot of and this is what I was speaking to Yao about yesterday is a lot of younger shoppers, Gen Z will go on tick tock and search for stuff there instead of going on Google because it has the whole video component to it. And it has like reviews and like you can like you get the visual aspect of it. So I guess this is how Google is responding to that because, you know, tick tock is is booming and they're seeing a lot of people who would be Googling something go to tick tock to look up something and like shop there.
Noah Rahimzadeh 03:54
Yeah, I had this like that revelation. I think it was my sister might have been Ashley I forget but like they were talking about basically like going it wasn't Tik Tok. This was like a year ago. I think I heard this for the first time but they were talking about like going to Instagram to like find clothes to purchase rather than like, going to Google and typing in their favorite brand or whatever. Or like when they are like to like validate a new brand, they would go to Instagram social media in this case. Yes, I do that bit. You know, in a way. It's like the social proof aspect. But also like, the brand identity I think that lives on social matters more to the younger generation then like I'd never I've never thought about that. Like, oh, I'm in this brand. Let me check out their Instagram profile. Ever. Yeah. I think that that will probably I think that maybe I'm like coming around to that but like it's just fascinating to me that you know, the younger generations are going there first like social media is like the first stop for them not not even like a validation in the in the buying process like it's where they go first to explore and like find new brands. Yeah. And so I think that that's probably going to be to your point where I like even more exacerbated on Tik Tok given like the video component. And now it sounds like yeah, again, Google's Google's counter is this.
Mariah Parsons 05:45
Yes, multi.
Noah Rahimzadeh 05:47
Multi search. This is so interesting. I've got it pulled up right now.
Mariah Parsons 05:52
Ah, yeah, it's, it's really interesting. I'm glad you brought up the point with Instagram because I also do that like all before buying from a brand I 100% go on their social media and like, Oh, let's see how many followers they have. If there's like, actual reviews, or how they're like using a product, right, like picture or video, how it like looks on someone or if they have UGC, or an influencer or something. Because, like it it obviously eradicates that fear that it's like a scam or something that isn't real, like bigger, nicer brands, obviously, you can tell but like Instagram, sometimes you're like, Oh, where am I buying from? So if you go to the profile, and then of course, you see all these followers are all these engagement or different types of content, you trust them more, and you're like, more excited for the product of the brand. So yeah, it's really fascinating, honestly, like, being able to take a picture of something and be like, oh, I want something that's like this, go find it like
Noah Rahimzadeh 06:50
that. So there's like, the feel like the natural extension or like the monetization component is like selling ads for like that dress that you're searching for. Like do you have they don't know if they've already talked about that maybe at all? Or?
Mariah Parsons 07:09
Yeah, I haven't I don't know how they're gonna go with, like ads and such. I think I'm, I'm, I think that's what they would do like is you can have the shoppable ads, like the display ads just come up and like keywords will rank what keywords and, you know, your like, search engine rank will populate address, like say, I like have a yellow dress, and I'm like, oh, I want more yellow dresses. Yeah, if you know if certain brands tag yellow dresses, then those because that's what will populate, but I think it's the like say like just the design of the dress right? If it's like strapless versus long sleeve or like, like full length or like ballgown. You know, there's just so many things that like a yellow dress could encompass so I think it's your camera would be able to pick up on that so you don't have to put in like details or it would show you like similar dresses based off of those keywords. I haven't seen it like inaction or Yeah, it's interesting. I kind of reminds me of like Pinterest almost have like, it'll show you like, like items or similar items. And then you can shop from there. So that's what I'm pursuing. Like I'm thinking through
Noah Rahimzadeh 08:37
Yeah, is that is super interesting. I think we've probably all we've already we've probably all like wanted something like this for me. Yeah. I think it like it wasn't necessarily I don't think it was about like shopping but what's it called when you're like scared of health concerns all the time? Like that is mean. Oh, and so like anytime that what is it called?
Mariah Parsons 09:10
Gosh, not crypto maniac is it claptone
Noah Rahimzadeh 09:13
hypochondriac
Mariah Parsons 09:15
hypochondriac. That's it. Yeah, that's it. Yep.
Noah Rahimzadeh 09:20
All the time. I'm pretty sure
Mariah Parsons 09:22
it is. To maniac is that I was like crypto maniac is definitely someone who like loves fires or fireworks. hypochondriac sounds like it sounds similar. Yes, hypochondriac. Yes.
Noah Rahimzadeh 09:35
In this case, we could like take a picture of a fire and be like, I'm obsessed with this. What's wrong with me?
Mariah Parsons 09:40
Yeah. Yeah, there you go. Crypto maniac.
Noah Rahimzadeh 09:43
Oh. Yeah, I feel like anytime I'd have like a rash or like some I'd noticed something like body I'd want to like I really want an ability to just like take a picture of it and search Google and now it's like, okay,
Mariah Parsons 09:59
now there you go. Oh, yeah.
Noah Rahimzadeh 10:02
And then, oh, there's another one. Oh, like things that would break around the house, like being able to take a picture of whatever it is and be like, I don't know, obviously, if that it'll be that extensive when it launches. But like, man, it'd be awesome to take a picture and be like, what's wrong with this? Yeah, it's part that I need. So that's awesome. That's very cool. And I think, yeah, like, Google's probably, to your point, feeling a ton of pressure from the search engines, because like I said earlier, you know, I still go to Google, I think a lot of times has like the first stop, but you know, yeah.
Mariah Parsons 10:42
So I, I actually just looked at Google and I think it so I think it's launched. So because I had to look up how you even use it, because it's not super obvious. And so if you go to Google, and there's like, in the regular search bar, you can use search by voice and now there's a little camera Search by Image. Oh, man. So home like going to start using this and start exploring it honestly, I found to this. This is what like, the experience will look like. So you can obviously Google something. And then you can take a picture by using that little icon of say, these these heels and see things that match or similar and you can buy them right from there. And it looks like Pinterest, honestly. And then you can also search like, if you search say you have these heels you put in flats, they'll show you flats that looks similar. super interesting. Shall we try it? I know I was gonna say, what are we what? What was it? Should we search?
Noah Rahimzadeh 11:45
Alright, I'm just going to take a picture on my shoes.
Mariah Parsons 11:48
Okay, I'm going to I think I'm going to try my water bottle. See what it gives me. And you can like upload. So okay, let's see, you can upload an image directly from your laptop. Okay, like or directly to your laptop. So I'm air dropping a picture right now. I love that we're doing this in real time. Okay, here we go. Oh, it made the image a little weird, but wow, it got it. Okay, so there's all these different hydro flasks it even got it I mean, I guess I included the logo but like look at this it can like detect
Noah Rahimzadeh 12:20
even God like even got it like this is clearly used water bottle salts are all like banged up water bottles.
Mariah Parsons 12:31
Yeah. A little mean but whatever. Even like down to the sticker. Look at it. Like I have a be a nice human sticker on my monitor bottle. And it's giving me like other stickers frames. Mugs candles. Yeah,
Noah Rahimzadeh 12:45
this is awesome. Yeah,
Mariah Parsons 12:46
this is really cool. Okay, there you go. Yeah, just beating up water bottles. Okay, I got I got the point. Google. That's awesome on there. So yeah, there you go.
Noah Rahimzadeh 12:57
I'll be very interested about like, how they monetize. I'm sure that there's like an ad component. And
Mariah Parsons 13:05
yeah, yeah, I think there there should like there probably is no, yeah, Google. So
Noah Rahimzadeh 13:10
I'm gonna try to use this this week. And then maybe next time we talk, we can update the career views that I'm excited I love like, that's
Mariah Parsons 13:20
a Yeah, right. I thought you'd like this. Okay, kind of in a similar line of thought about just like products and social media. So I know we've talked about obviously tick tock the Malomo Tick Tock starting and the applications that we can you know, the wide horizons for us and the applications of TiC tock and I wanted to tell you that board cow this is a little bit of a surprise so the rest of the team doesn't know this but board cow is joining the podcast really cool brand. Yeah, I don't know if you've seen one of their like this. Yeah, I agree. I agree. One of my favorite chatting pages one of my favorite websites to go to super, super, super just cool creative that they use with their designs, and like their cartoons. And so they sent me some product which is really nice. Oh, nice. So I'm very excited to try it. But why I'm bringing this up is because if you come in the office to I'm going to have it and then we're going to create some fun tic toc content.
Noah Rahimzadeh 14:31
Okay. Looks like I love how you position that is like a great I'm very excited to try board cow and the TIC tock you know, I'm stoked about it. But also like you have to do is like pretty brutal.
Mariah Parsons 14:53
I'll talk you through it. Don't worry. All right. Well, how many fun? Six.
Noah Rahimzadeh 14:59
Yes. Six calls tomorrow, but I could probably come into the office Well, that's That's dope. I'm excited to try board cow. Animal free dairy milk is what they offer. It looks
Mariah Parsons 15:16
like Yes. Yes, it's um, so I of course had to do some reading up on it because you read it and it's like animal free dairy cow, you're, yeah, animal free dairy milk, not cow. And I was like what? And so what they do is and you can find this on their website, they take whey protein, which is the protein that's in cow milk, and they manufacture it in a lab. And so it takes out like the cow actually needing actually like having to produce the milk. And they like inject plant protein as well. And then, like, more vitamins, so you get the same taste as dairy milk, but it doesn't. It's better for the environment and better for livestock. So just very exciting stuff.
Noah Rahimzadeh 16:04
Wow. Yeah. Have you tried it yet?
Mariah Parsons 16:09
I haven't. I'm waiting. I got it on Monday. And I got all my all my Malomo tracking pages. I was so excited. They also sent it was so fun. In one of those they sent, like while you're waiting for board cow, like don't be bored or something. And it was like a little crossword puzzle. And I haven't had the chance to do it yet, but I will be doing it because I think that's adorable. Like on in their email or yeah, in their email. Okay. Yeah, really cute. Just like some fun like, idea.
Noah Rahimzadeh 16:37
Their branding is on point. It's awesome. Yeah.
Mariah Parsons 16:41
So I wanted to tell you that though, because I want to get like different taste test reviews from everyone. I'd be like, Oh, because there's like the three flavors, vanilla, chocolate and strawberry. And have everyone tastes a little bit and then like, Okay, well, it's your favorite one, like set up a whole thing. All right, let's
Noah Rahimzadeh 17:00
do it. Mark and like, in like, yeah, how is Tiktok? Ellen? Overall, so far?
Mariah Parsons 17:07
It's going well, did I tell you in like the, I think I told you maybe I don't know if it was on the podcast, or if it's just in a meeting, or when you were in the office. But the first like 10 or eight videos we upload, we got like 800 views. So in like the first day. So it's slowed down a bit. I think like the TIC tock algorithm, you kind of have to upload, like, a good amount in like one day, which we're not at that point right now. But the algorithm rewards you the more you upload. So I think that's why we got so many major hits when I was just like uploading video after video when I started that account.
Noah Rahimzadeh 17:46
Holy cow, so yeah, I'm on the page. It's like, we got like, 900 on a couple podcasts? Um,
Mariah Parsons 17:55
yeah. Yeah. And so good views, good exposure. I'm starting to like experiment a little bit more that there's like the one I did with like the be real trend. So going to try and like, make a couple of different videos with like the board cow products, tag them, give them some love because they sent us free products. They're amazing. All around. So it'll be interesting. When I'm done with it. Honestly.
Noah Rahimzadeh 18:23
I have I don't have tick tock, tick. Wow. Tick tock, tick tock tick, preserving after whatever that was. I've got a topic, I thought the big tech layoffs. I'm curious how, how that makes you feel about the companies who are doing that. About like leadership, does it have any impact on like, how you use them? Or if you're, you know, how you view them as a as a brand?
Mariah Parsons 18:58
Yeah, yeah, definitely. Really interesting question. I don't know if I've thought about it. exclusively. Like I think the bigger like the ones that come to mind are Facebook, Twitter. Shopify, like those are the three that just are really central. I feel like to my life, like people are like, oh, big layoffs. So Shopify, I mean, by all three I'm not really surprised. Twitter's Twitter's a little bit more nuanced because of like, Elon Musk and just transferring of ownership. But I think I don't necessarily I don't think I look at the brands differently. Like I think it's because they're bigger. I'm like, Oh, wow, they're affected too. Like it's more of a we're kind of all in this together like in the tech ecosystem in the economy in general. Like everyone's feeling the pains. No one's what's the word I'm looking for? No one's ever was susceptible. That's probably a better way a word to just to like the economy and society, the terms that we have, so I don't think I've used them less, if anything. It's more like, oh, that's disappointing for the people involved, and I hope they're all able to land on their feet. But from like a leadership point of view, I hope they're making the right decisions and keeping like the wonderful people around like, I hope politics isn't at play, you know, where it's like, oh, you know, the ball or whatever. Like, that's why you're here. I hope that people who are you know, who are being retained are because of like merit reasons, and the people who are being let go, hopefully, they're, like, supported the best way that the companies can support them too. But yeah, my usage or like, belief in the organization isn't rattled, because it's like, everyone's going through it right now. Okay, so what would you say?
Noah Rahimzadeh 21:00
Of those three? Yeah, I agree. I think fate. Facebook, my account was hacked probably 18 months ago, I just, I just did nothing about it. And haven't thought about getting on Facebook since
Mariah Parsons 21:17
that's funny.
Noah Rahimzadeh 21:20
Like, because they make it so hard to report anything on Facebook or like recover your account. I like I try. I take that back. I tried to do that. It was just a major headache for like, 30 minutes. And I was like, Okay, this is stupid. Yeah. Okay. So I never got back on and haven't missed it at all. Let's see. I think I, you know, I'm not a huge Mark Zuckerberg, to be honest with. And I think like this Metaverse thing that he's trying to pull off, like, there's tremendous potential there. But at the same time, he's putting a ton of capital into it and human labor and capital outside of just financing. And I just feel like he might be putting the cart before the horse a little bit. Which is maybe part of the reason that they're laying off so many people and part of the reason that he could be considered an irresponsible leader or
Mariah Parsons 22:27
Yeah,
Noah Rahimzadeh 22:29
ah, Twitter, I feel very similarly about Elon, like that. Dude is out of the world actually.
Mariah Parsons 22:41
Actually out of the world. Yeah.
Noah Rahimzadeh 22:43
Um, and then I have like, I actually I'm not just saying that this because like, we partner with Shopify, but I actually have like, tremendous respect for for their leadership team and like, how they handled their layoffs compared to the rest like Toby was like, super upfront about, you know, them making a mistake on their projections and thinking that the the rise that ecommerce on COVID was like here to stay, when in reality, it's normalized. And that's the reason that they had to, you know, they they staffed up to basically like, account for all the the increase in demand and then didn't necessarily expect the pullback to be as severe. So like, him being super transparent about that I thought was was actually pretty cool. That said, it's a major bummer that they had to layoff 10% of their staff. So yeah, I think maybe there's another discussion about like, the leadership teams, especially at Twitter and Facebook, but
Mariah Parsons 23:52
yeah, and I will say too, like I am relatively removed from most of that like I don't I haven't seen anything online in terms of like what each leadership team is saying. So I don't I'm not even like that close to it. Or like near like, super, super interested in or like just having taken upon myself to read up on all the different companies who are going through layoffs. So that's definitely on me but just from that, that makes a lot of sense and yeah, I also think like have a slight tangent but the on Twitter, the verified checks and the mess Whoa, I mean, like being able to buy the verified checkmark, you will have been going off on like, corporations, people, just the mess. Stephen King thing. Well, I didn't see that when I said that Eli Lilly one which was interesting. So though someone tweeted from like the actual handle of Oh yeah, corporate Lily is like lily pad, I think. And then someone made one like lily pad Co. and got verified. And it was like we're now selling insulin for free. Yeah. And heard that. I mean, literally like,
Noah Rahimzadeh 25:19
like, not only not only is that insane what's more insane is there was like, some insider like people at Lilly sold stock based on that tweet, apparently
Mariah Parsons 25:31
no. No way.
Noah Rahimzadeh 25:35
Like, yeah, that is that is crazy. I heard that like, very briefly on a show or podcasts like maybe even this morning or yesterday. Wow. So I don't know like the actual details or what the like potential long term effects are, but pretty, pretty insane. The Stephen King thing was he like he like tweeted at Elon saying like 20 bucks to get verified is ridiculous. You should be paying me to be on your platform. And Elon tweeted him back. Like we have to monetize somehow outside of just ads. How about $8? They're like, I saw this tweet. I think it was a tweet or like, comment that was like, nowhere else in the world. But Twitter. Can you see the richest guy in the world arguing with another billionaire? Yeah. About $12. Like,
Mariah Parsons 26:36
yeah. Is was it from their real accounts? Well, yeah,
Noah Rahimzadeh 26:42
okay. This actually, it's
Mariah Parsons 26:44
really funny. Yeah, Twitter is a funny place. I'm not on it really? Like I don't. I just go like for work. I'm not. Personally it's not like I've never been into Twitter. I'm like, I was actually going through it. My personal account, just probably like a year ago, and I think I haven't used it since 2016. And the last The only things I tweeted was happy birthdays. Can my high school friends. So I was like, happy birthday to all my high school friends. There was not like, that's it. That's all we used it for. Unlike like football games in high school is like who's going to the game tonight? And then everyone would? I used to not was it?
Noah Rahimzadeh 27:25
Yeah, I used to use it all the time in college like, honestly, probably to my like, detriment. Like we would like me and my friends and like the people that I went to school with would like say whatever you wanted to on Twitter, right?
Mariah Parsons 27:39
Yeah. That's probably
Noah Rahimzadeh 27:42
could be sharing my views of the world with with the world quite yet. So I actually made up deleted that account. And it is gone for good. Yeah. Yeah.
Mariah Parsons 27:57
But it's a humbling experience. So cringe worthy. Yeah.
Noah Rahimzadeh 28:00
Yeah. We have some we have some talking points for next time. We should circle back on.
Mariah Parsons 28:07
We definitely do. Yes. I'll make a note of it. And well, we'll see how your first tick tock creation went. That's my biggest point. I think his takeaway? Yeah. Yeah. It'll be fun. I guarantee you. All right. This is fun. No, thanks.