Every 25 years a new medium comes to the internet which necessitates standardization. But what does it take to successfully adopt new and complex technologies, particularly in eCommerce? We’ve worked with many inspiring and innovative customers, one of whom joined us in our recent Talking Out Cloud thought-leadership series: Justin Scott, CEO and Co-Founder of Dopple.
Justin has built a career on visual merchandising in different markets, and the mission at Dopple is to bring the human feel of offline experiences to your browser or mobile phone. Here he provides an introduction to the world of 3D commerce and how transformative UI UX design is being received by consumers.
#1 Given the innovative nature of 3D commerce, what are the primary consumer benefits with this type of advanced tech?
On the consumer side, we’re inundated with information, right? And if you’ve been to a website and you had to click all around to try to figure out what the product is that you’re buying, that can be laborious. So the major benefit for buyers is empowerment – being able to browse the offline-to-online concept where you can look at a product and make personalization changes. People really want customized experiences, and we deliver that on a one-to-one basis. For example, in the auto industry, imagine coming in and finding that perfect color, finding that perfect leather, talking to your friend or partner about what they like about that choice. It’s really about shared high-value buyer experiences.
And so what does that do? One, it increases the buyer rate. So you spend less time shopping. It increases confidence, and the biggest luxury or commodity, depending on how you like it, it saves you time. And if you look at the apps that are downloaded on your phone or if you look at the digital products that you love, there is seamless buying. If you look at the last 20 years, the NASDAQ is driven by companies that are able to do that. So the big companies are going to empower 3D commerce and we empower brands to have that technology through what we call a 3D commerce.
#2 What is the reaction of consumers when they get a first look at your technology?
It’s just one of those digital experiences that creates convergent thinking around, “Oh, wow, this is different!” It’s a new and novel experience. If you’ve ever seen augmented reality, which is an output of 3D, seeing that product or object that you love in your space makes it very personal. With the car analogy again, I bought a car last year; it was a huge cost. So, we talked about all the details, we were able to put that car in our driveway once we had configured it, and it felt like it had come home. And so psychologically, we had purchased that. Even for somebody that works in the field of 3D, I’m still amazed at the ability to display embodied or dimensional information in your environment for better decision-making.
People think it’s super cool, and people are seeing 3D all the time. If you’ve ever seen an iPhone on a billboard, that is a 3D model, not an actual photograph. Using CGI with the utility of 3D, people are starting to leverage 3D for visual merchandising instead of traditional photography because of the cost. It’s very new and it’s really just getting standardized now.
#3 What would your advice be to other entrepreneurs looking to develop new products or solutions?
I think my advice to entrepreneurs or those looking at new solutions is to understand the history in your sector of how technology has evolved and then work really hard to have a two-year vision and then a 10-year vision. Most people can’t get past the two-year vision; they feel like that’s sufficient, but technology usually needs a bigger cycle to be innovative.
The history part? I’ve been working in digital long enough to tell you! I remember when JPEGs progressively loaded, I remember when video was horrific on the internet with that spinning wheel of buffering. So we see these new mediums every 25 years take hold, but when they’re new, they’re not standardized since they’re very novel and unique – and 3D is like that. There’s a group we’re part of called Khronos that is standardizing 3D files, similar to JPEG, and the one we’re making our bets on is GLTF – Graphics Library Transmission Format.
So for entrepreneurs, look at history – history doesn’t always repeat itself but it rhymes, meaning it’s similar. And then project what you think it could look like in a two to 10-year vision. It’ll probably never go as you want but have a plan, and more importantly have the right people that want to embrace new technologies and share a vision with you.
#4 How would you describe your experience working and collaborating with SourceFuse?
It’s been wonderful – and it’s grown. I was lucky enough to meet the founder of SourceFuse and we built a relationship and built trust; I think that was helpful in my decision-making process. I was a little hesitant about partnering with an external group, given the intensity of what we’re doing, but I got to know the leadership team and SourceFuse has an amazing reputation.
So together we tested, then we built. There’s a lot of things I like about SourceFuse, but the professionalism and the attention to detail around our account has been really great. The level of skill of the individuals has been incredible – we are seeing talent with the SourceFuse team that rivals talent that we can get anywhere in the globe.
Then there’s also flexibility – one of the things that I think SourceFuse has gone above and beyond is in adapting to the way we work. How we wanted to operate was a little bespoke and SourceFuse adapted, gave us feedback, and now the output of that growth is that we operate as one team. For those entrepreneurs looking to make a decision, the SourceFuse team isn’t just a group where we give scope or product brief and they just write code. It is the opposite of that. It is thought leadership, it is key stakeholders – we treat them just as our team.
There’s some wonderful leaders that push us, and I’m proud that we’ve created that trust and that partnership where it’s not just order taking, it’s true collaboration – and that’s what you want. And the evidence of their time, attitude, and endurance – because building tech is an endurance sport! – is they care; our outcomes are their outcomes, and I don’t think about it any differently now. SourceFuse has been a great part of our journey, and we don’t see that stopping. I look forward to coming back in 10 years and talking with you about what great work we’ve done together.
#5 What are your predictions on the ‘next big thing’ for online communication?
If digital has done one thing for us, it has opened up lines of communication. So think about shopping: you used to have to go to a store, usually in the local area. Now, you have a limitless choice, but with limitless choice, you have the paradox of choice. It’s a little too much.
Bringing it back to how I started, I believe in an embodied internet. If you look at what we did, the internet was this great, powerful, connected technology, and we took the metaphor of magazines and just pushed it onto digital pages. The magazine metaphor was boxes, block text, that underserved the technology. I think the technology, visual tech through GPU, processing power, and 5G, has caught up to our standards from the human psychology of visual information.
But I think we will start to blur the lines. We talk about offline and online, and I don’t think we’re going to know the difference in a positive way. What am I talking about? Well, brands have spent a lot of time building brand equity in logos, so there is also the ability to visually recognize products with a device, and it’s those product details that consumers want to know.
So what will the future look like? I think we’ll have the ability to access embodied information digitally in the physical world. Again, an example is that car that I told you about that I had in my driveway; I’ll be able to look at it, ask my phone through my digital assistant to get product information that is interactive with me. So always on, always learning, seamless information based on predictive recommendation is where I think we’re going, and I think consumers will adopt that really quickly.
