SalesTechStar Interview with Mike Welsh, Chief Creative Officer at Mobiquity

Will livestream capabilities really be a game-changer for eCommerce and online sellers? Mike Welsh, Chief Creative Officer at Mobiquity shares his point of view in this quick-chat:

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Welcome to this SalesTechStar chat Mike, tell us about yourself and Mobiquity? 

As Chief Creative Officer at Mobiquity, I lead a team of architects, experience designers, and conversational designers who collaborate with engineers to create great digital experiences for our clients and their customers. Fundamentally, our goal is to find out what truly transforms human experience and then bring it to life. Our best work happens when the team understands the human beings that stand to benefit from the project, and leverages technology to design solutions to the challenges they’re facing. People first, then technology!

We’d love to hear your thoughts on how you feel eCommerce and the impact of livestream capabilities is set to change the game for shoppers and product sellers through 2022 and beyond? 

Livestream is interesting, but to be honest, I’m not as high on it as a lot of people are, at least not as something with universal appeal. Real-time works for certain things. It’s awesome if you’re talking about Mecum Auctions and you’re selling a classic Chevy Chevelle. It works for Sotheby’s, that’s livestream selling. But the medium should not be the thing that dictates your approach, it should be the baseline of what people are doing, what they want, and what drives them.

So, to answer the question directly, I think it’s less about changing the game, and more about improving the game for the right combination of shopper and seller.

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At a point when there is a need to merge the offline and online buying experience, what should brands be doing to drive more alignment? What tools and technologies do you feel they should invest in more while doing this?

I don’t love thinking in terms of merging experiences. I think you want to focus on understanding behaviors and being in the right place at the right time with the right offer. That will look less like merging and more like tracking behaviors to make adjacent, tangential things that consumers want at the same time as they are doing something else. Think about c-stores making a well-timed, personalized offer for high-margin items in their store during the ten minutes a particular customer is charging their eclectic vehicle.

While enabling better in-store and personalized experiences today, how can brand owners and product innovators focus more on understanding the end user, what data practices should be imbibed more strongly?

I think 2022 is going to be all about getting more sophisticated about fundamental acquisition and retention strategies. Smarter, more advanced retailers are going to separate themselves from the field by collecting and using data in ways that bring in better, more qualified potential buyers. Whether it’s online or in-store, creating a bigger funnel, acquiring more potential customers, is expensive. The real value comes with using data to acquire more qualified buyers.

I also think it’s important to point something out any time we talk about retailers using their customers’ data – the two most important things in the relationship between you and your customer are consumer confidence and trust. It’s impossible to build up consumer confidence if the consumer doesn’t trust you, and misuse of data erodes trust rapidly. Using data wisely, in ways that provide real value, starts with understanding people first and tech second, not the other way around.

Any last thoughts, takeaways, digital sales/customer communication tips and best practices?

It goes back to confidence and trust. We’re going to see a lot of retailers diving into new technology. I would highly recommend every company that looks to innovative new ways of meeting their customer to understand that innovation can build trust and confidence in a big way, as long as they implement that technology with the customer’s best interest in mind.

As we start talking more and more about the metaverse, think about what that could look like for the retail experience. Maybe it’s a body scan and a virtual fitting room, fit and flow, and a trunk club type of subscription where clothes you never tried on arrive at your doorstep, fit perfectly and look exactly the way you expect. That is a huge win from a trust and confidence standpoint. That is a game changer.

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