Introduction

What’s the Story? The Coresight Research team will attend and participate in this year’s Shoptalk conference, which will be held on March 27–30, 2022, in Las Vegas, US. Shoptalk 2022 will address the sudden transformation in the retail environment since the outbreak of Covid-19, as the industry is looking to embrace technology and innovation to address new challenges. On March 27, 2022, Deborah Weinswig, CEO and Founder of Coresight Research, will emcee and feature on the judging panel of Shoptalk 2022’s “Shark Reef” startup pitch competition, which will see 15 early-stage US retail-technology innovators compete to win the Shark’s Choice and Audience Choice awards. In the lead-up to the event, we are profiling the participating innovators. This report forms part of our Innovator Profile series, which focuses on emerging technologies that are disrupting traditional retail and fueling innovation across the retail value chain. We present Ownit, a SaaS (software-as-a-service) platform providing one-click checkout capabilities to brands and retailers. Coresight Research collaborated with Ownit to offer insights into its service capabilities and offerings. Why It Matters Coresight Research categorizes the 15 participating innovators into four areas of disruption in retail. Ownit falls under “consumer experience and client relationship management.” As consumers interact with brands and retailers across more channels—both online and offline—in a post-pandemic world, they will gravitate toward those that provide a richer, more engaging shopping journey. Retail-technology companies are helping retailers by creating seamless channels of communication, integrating digital infrastructures and simplifying online shopping, with the aim of better managing their relationships with their clients and enhancing the overall consumer experience.

Ownit: In Detail

    Headquarters  Santa Clara, California, United States Funding Stage  Seed stage Company Description Founded in 2021, Ownit provides one-click checkout technology that retailers and direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands can integrate with their e-commerce platforms to offer shoppers a frictionless checkout experience. Ownit’s Connected Checkout Link technology integrates with e-commerce platforms (such as Amazon and Shopify), payment gateways (such as Apple Pay and PayPal) and social media platforms (such as Facebook and YouTube) at the point of discovery, so consumers can buy in one tap. According to the company, Ownit aims to make online shopping a seamless experience by eliminating inconveniences arising from the lack of integration between digital platforms, such as social media product links and payment processors. Brands and retailers can use Ownit’s checkout link in their paid advertisements, emails, texts and influencer marketing to increase conversion rates, while shoppers benefit from a frictionless checkout experience at the point of discovery. [caption id="attachment_143190" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Source: Company website[/caption]   What Problem Is the Company Solving? An issue facing e-commerce today is the lack of integration across online channels, leading to high cart-abandonment rates. Coresight Research’s 2021 social commerce survey found that 90% of social media shoppers abandon a purchase at least sometimes due to a site’s lack of functionality. Consumers that discover products on social media platforms are often re-directed to purchase on another site, with a different layout—as part of this process, additional fees may be added, leading to prices customers are not willing to pay. By integrating online channels such as social media sites, e-commerce marketplaces, native websites and different payment processors, Ownit claims that online retailers will be able to provide their customers with a more fluid purchase experience—all at the original point of discovery. Ownit’s software also gives customers price transparency, by displaying the prices offered on different websites, such as Amazon or Shopify, which may lead to lower cart-abandonment rates. Market Opportunity  The digital payment industry is set to continue its strong growth over the next few years; according to Statista, the global digital payments market is projected to reach about $8.6 trillion in total transaction value in 2022 and grow to $13.8 trillion by 2026, representing a CAGR of about 12.8%. Among sub-segments of digital payments, digital commerce will drive the most growth, and will reach about $5.5 trillion in total transaction value in 2022, according to Statista. There are several key growth drivers expected to bolster the growth of digital payments and digital commerce. As more consumers shift toward digital shopping, many traditional retailers are beginning to heavily invest in their online channels. We estimate that total online retail sales (excluding automobiles) reached $805 billion in the US in 2021 and will total $1.2 trillion in 2025, representing a CAGR of around 10%. A February 2022 Coresight Research survey found that 88.6% of US consumers had purchased products online in the past three months, highlighting the high penetration of the e-commerce market. As technology advances and consumers continue to seek seamless digital experiences, we expect digital payment technologies to grow in importance for brands and retailers.

What We Think

We expect consumers to continue to gravitate toward digital shopping experiences as new technologies make shopping online more functional and engaging. As e-commerce and digital payments see higher uptake, proper integration of the different pillars of the process—social, e-commerce and payment platforms—to create a seamless digital shopping experience, will become crucial. We believe retailers that focus on the digital shopping experience and work to make it simpler and more seamless for consumers will have a competitive edge and gain market share as consumers increasingly shop online.