Shoptalk2018

Shoptalk is billed as the world’s largest conference devoted to retail and e-commerce innovation. Conference organizers expect more than 7,500 attendees at the event this year, which runs March 18–21 in Las Vegas. Coresight Research is again partnering with Shoptalk to host the conference’s annual startup pitch competition. On March 20, Coresight Research CEO and Founder Deborah Weinswig will also participate in a Shoptalk session entitled “Overview of Retail and E commerce Innovation in China.” Zia DaniellWigder, Chief Global Content Officer of Shoptalk, will interview Weinswig and Hans Tung, Managing Partner of GGV Capital, on topics that include technology and business model advancements in areas such as checkout, payments, delivery, logistics, the IoT and robotics.

Startup Competition

On March 18, Weinswig will emcee a startup pitch competition between 15 early-stage companies. Each company will present its business to a panel of judges from the investment community and to the audience. Two winners will be announced, one chosen by the panel of judges and one by audience vote, and each winner will be awarded $25,000. Shoptalk curated the participating startups based on their solutions to some of the most pressing challenges facing retailers today. As we highlight in our 18 Retail Trends for ’18: Preparing for Another Year of Change report, the retail industry continues to under go transformation, characterized by five key factors that are either driven by or affecting consumers and retailers:

1. Consumers continue to switch from conventional retail formats to new, alternative formats and channels.
2. Shoppers value life-improving services from retailers and technology providers.
3. Brands, retailers and technology firms are offering new types of interactions, rewards and experiences.
4. Industry changes are compelling closer collaboration among retailers, technology giants (including Amazon), logistics technology vendors and social media influencers.
5. Retailers are leveraging technologies as diverse as block chain and 3D printing to make their supply chains smarter and fitter in an increasingly competitive market.

In response to these trends and opportunities, retailers in all channels are changing to accommodate shoppers’ shifting preferences. Below, we profile Heuritech, one of the companies participating in the startup pitch competition at Shoptalk 2018.

Heuritech

Company Description

Heuritech is an AI-based predictive analytics platform that enables fashion brands to detect and quantify market trends on social media. The company leverages a proprietary image recognition technology to analyze millions of untagged images shared on social media daily. The software-as-a-service platform gathers quantitative and qualitative insights on product performance and emerging trends to tailor ad campaigns, measure return on investment on campaigns, and identify clients and influencers to target and engage with. The data collected can also help brands with merchandise planning and product development. The company has collaborated on projects with Louis Vuitton and Dior.

Market Overview

Predictive analytics helps retailers and brands optimize marketing campaigns and understand customer behavior,with the goal of boosting end-user response. According to a report published by Zion Market Research, the global predictive analytics market was valued at $3.49 billion in 2016 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of about 21% to 2022, to reach $10.95 billion.

Source: Blog.SerenaCapital.com

What Problem Is the Company Solving?

Today’s fashion world is characterized by uncertainty, with trends and fierce competition often seeming to emerge out of the blue. To pilot their offerings with more confidence, fashion leaders need to be empowered with technology that helps them measure what is happening in the market and anticipate what will happen next.

Headquarters

Paris, France

Funding Stage

Seed (€1.1 million/~$1.35 million)

Business Model

Heuritech clients pay a monthly subscription fee for the software-as-a-service platform.

Competitive Landscape

The company’s competitors include trend-forecasting agencies such as WGSN and NellyRodi, social listening tools such as Linkfluence and Brandwatch,and technology companies that provide visual recognition APIs, such as Fashwell, WideEyes and Syte.ai.

Management Team

Tony Pinville, Cofounder and CEO, has 10 years of experience managing technical teams in the advertising and financial industries. Charles Ollion, Co founder and Chief Science Officer, was previously a lecturer at the Université Paris-Saclay, where he specialized in deep learning. Pinville and Ollion both hold PhDs in machine learning.

Company Outlook

On the technology side, Heuritech plans to add approximately 5,000 new fashion products and attributes to its visual recognition technology in the next six months. The company plans to expand its data coverage to Asia and release several new products that enable higher-level analysis in order to provide more actionable insights to clients. Based in France, the company plans to open an office in the US by next year.