Former Klarna and Amazon execs are betting on shoppable TV with Shopsense AI

The founding of new shoppable TV platform Shopsense AI was inspired by a desire many can relate to: wanting to dress like Carrie Bradshaw.

Co-founder Glenn Fishback was at a NYC deli with a friend when she mentioned she was watching the Sex and the City spin-off, And Just Like That, and had admired a jacket worn by Sarah Jessica Parker’s Bradshaw. But she couldn’t figure out where to buy it.

And, uh, just like that, Shopsense AI—a retail media platform functioning as a “Shazam” for merchandise on TV, as Fishback told Retail Brew—was founded. The platform partners with broadcasters to offer a “leanback experience” letting consumers shop everything from fashion to home decor featured on TV programs using their mobile devices, Fishback said. In April, the company debuted its partnership with Paramount, with the company powering shopping experiences used during the CMT Music Awards and daytime talk show The Talk.

Fishback is co-founder of Toplooks AI, a platform creating shoppable content for brands and retailers acquired by buy now pay later platform Klarna in 2021, while co-founder Bryan Quinn spent over a decade at Amazon Publisher Services. Together, they’re combining their knowledge of retail media and broadcast advertising to help broadcasters monetize their content by making it shoppable.

Show biz: Quinn said Shopsense works with the show’s wardrobe team and the talent to include the exact products the talent wears on-screen on the shoppable site. It also uses information on the brands and types of clothes the talent usually wears to plug into its AI engine and find similar items from the 1,000+ retailers Fishback said the company has direct relationships with. This effort helps to “democratize the commerce experience” both to offer more affordable items or to offer alternatives if the consumer is watching an old episode and the original product is now out of stock, he noted.

Consumers can use on-screen QR codes and URLs, as well as links shared by the network’s or talent’s social media pages, to start shopping, Quinn said. On The Talk, co-hosts have shared the on-air link and QR code to “Shop the Talk,” bringing consumers to a website highlighting host-curated collections. Host Amanda Kloots, for example, has a collection featuring a puffed sleeve dress from Mango, another dress from Alice + Olivia, and Veronica Beard jeans. When consumers click on the Elvira smocked minidress from Alice + Olivia, they’re given ways to purchase the dress but also directed to similar matches, like a Calvin Klein dress sold at a lower price.

Peak TV: Quinn said Shopsense’s offering differs from shoppable TV ads in that it doesn’t require high integration costs and isn’t disruptive to the TV viewing experience. (Selling products via entertainment platforms where consumers’ first goal is, well, to be entertained, isn’t an easy task.)

“You see that with different experiences, where people…want to force them down a path,” Quinn said. “That’s one of the things I personally really liked about the second screen solution is that it doesn’t force anything on the consumer. And it’s there for them when they want to go ahead and shop.”

Quinn said there’s interest among the broadcast community to enter retail media, which continues to grow—it’ll make up one-fifth of global digital ad spend this year, per eMarketer.

“TV is no longer just a top-of-the-funnel awareness generator,” John Halley, president of Paramount Advertising, said in a statement. “It is a 1:1 vehicle that brings the full funnel to the living room.”

As other video platforms like TikTok are able to monetize their content, broadcasters like Paramount are looking to do that too, and Shopsense helps to “create stickiness” and “give that power back” to broadcasters who spend lots of $$ of content development to tap into additional revenue streams, Fishback noted. The company will continue to grow this goal with the upcoming launch of Shopsense Lens, which will allow consumers to snap images of products from shows they’re watching and shop them through the broadcaster’s app.

“[Broadcasters have] known for decades that they’re driving inspiration of culture, and they’re driving those shopping journeys,” Quinn said. “Now they have an opportunity to participate in that shopping journey.”