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Virtual Shopping Mall
Cutaia is most excited about the company’s newest product, Market.live, which he said analysts haven’t yet calculated into their revenue models.
The company describes the offering as being “akin to a virtual shopping mall, a centralized online destination where shoppers could explore hundreds, and over time thousands, of shoppable stores for their favorite brands, influencers, creators and celebrities, all of whom can and will host livestream shopping events from their virtual stores.”
Thus far, the company’s signed up more than 200 vendors such as Babylonstoren, a South African wine farm; Celeste Sol, a fine jewelry boutique; and Wander Beauty, a cosmetics brand that’s one of the biggest sellers on HSN.
“There will be thousands selling their merchandise,” he said of the Market-live platform.
Currently, Verb is in a soft launch where it’s onboarding about 10 companies a day. It plans a grand opening kickoff July 26 with a three-day festival.
“It’s better than going to a mall,” Cutaia said. “There’s actually a person that is standing there telling you about the product and you are actually communicating with them.
“It’s a very social experience, you don’t have to leave your house and it’s 24/7. It’s like QVC.”
In fact, the company’s hired executives from QVC, such as former producer John Rizzo, who is now Verb’s senior vice president of content and brand partnerships.
Influencer Partners
Verb also has a program to work with talent agencies that represent internet influencers who want to generate extra revenue by selling products.
“They can come onto our platform, and we’ll marry them with a brand,” he said. “People get hooked on personalities and will follow them wherever they go.”
The company recently announced a partnership with the Tube Wearable Waistband, a brand featured on the NBC shows, “The Biggest Loser” and “Ninja Warrior.” It’s also working with sports teams like hockey’s Pittsburgh Penguins.
Verb says it is building a distribution channel that cuts out the middlemen. The firm collects about 10% to 15% of the sale, which he said is lower than the 60% collected by QVC.
“When you have thousands of stores on the platform and all are doing livestreams all the time and we’re getting paid by every one of them, there’s an unbelievable potential.
“This livestream shopping is so gigantic—we don’t have to own all of it. If we own just a piece of it, we’ll be a billion-dollar company.”