#727: From Scroll to Sold: The Future of Live Selling & Mobile Apps with CommentSold

Foreign.

Business can be a lonely game, but it doesn't have to be. Welcome to Boutique Chat where we explore community over competition and how to scale your company with the balance and the happiness that we all seek. We'll hear from product based businesses of all types, retailers, e commerce and wholesale brands, along with industry experts shaping the future of our industry. I'm your host Ashley Alderson from the Boutique hub and and I can't wait to chat. Hey guys, welcome back to the podcast. I am so excited. We have a familiar friendly face with us today. Sierra, I'm so happy that you're here.

Yeah, thank you so much for having me. It's wonderful to be on.

Well, we have lots of listeners who have, I'm sure seen you in person at summit or at market or somewhere related to Comments sold, but we also probably have a few listeners who have never heard of Comments sold. So today we're going to speak to both crowds. So if you are a full time, you know, in the Comments sold fam, stick around because we have a lot to talk about. But if you're new, let's start there. If someone's never heard of Comet Sold or is new to live selling, give me the lay of the land.

Yeah, absolutely. So Comment Sold is an all in one e commerce platform. We kind of offer a little bit of everything to people who are getting started and want to get started with either a mobile app, which is kind of the wave of the future for boutiques, or live selling. Really got our start in social commerce which I think is really important to kind of highlight. So commentsold was founded because of a need for automation and leveraging social media. So the whole premise of commentsold is based off of like taking somebody who's scrolling on social media and selling them something. And I think that that's something that's really important. So to kind of highlight is that throughout the years we have truly navigated a bunch of different opportunities for how do we leverage social media and that connection to turn it into sales for your boutique.

So yes, and really, so if somebody is looking at their, their business today and they have not used that social connection of even just video or live selling, how do your best customers like if you looked across the board at comments sold and all that you've done over the years, those who are live selling, what are the best customers have in comm?

I think it's the personality. It's also consistency and like just the grit to keep going. You know, some people say live selling isn't for the faint of heart. But I don't necessarily believe that. I think that anybody can be a successful live seller if you're willing to put yourself out there. I think that they are consistently showing up for their customers on a regular basis and presenting themselves and their product and their opportunity to the world and in a way that just resonates. So they're real. They are, you know, moms who sometimes their kids are going crazy in the background because that's just how we live our lives. You know, they're doing live from like Gretchen from Rolling Ranch doing live from the back of a trailer at a rodeo. You know, they're just present and consistent and show up on a regular basis.

So I think that, you know, going back to just it being a social commerce company, live selling isn't just one thing that you do. But I think to your point, even with Gretchen, it's. It's not about just all of a sudden I'm going live and I'm going to live sell. But it's a part of your entire social strategy, the way that you're showing up, the way that you're authentic. What else do you see besides the live sales in social, just in their social presence that compliments and makes the live sales even better.

Yeah. One of the features that I think is really unique and that I really love, that Commencal has kind of revolutionized over the last couple of years is a feature that we call comment chat. People are probably familiar with it with other names, but it's really just that engagement automation. So it's where you're able to post a reel or post a video or post a photo and have authentic feeling communication back and forth with your customers on the post. But also in dms, that sounds like you, that's real, that you crafted the response that you would truly respond to somebody and they're able to automate it. It's that engagement back and forth, which I think is something that's so unique about content Comment sold, live selling and comment chat and a lot of other features is that it's not just you talking at your customer, it's you answering your customer. It's engaging with your customers. Your customer being able to interact with you, which makes a huge difference. Right. Because on a website you're posting a pretty picture or maybe you're posting a fit video. But how does the customer ask questions or how do they tell you that your hair looks great or you know, ask you about your kids dance recital? They can't. And that's kind of what live Selling and comments sold in general bring to the table is that ability for there to be a relationship and a community built surrounding all of the different selling features that can happen on social media.

All right, so I think you know, the real like feature of lives, like you're talking about like that comment chat and building relationships, people always ask like, why would I go live versus just posting a video? And I think you nailed it. You know, people want to be able to build relationships and I think the way you do that is just through the authenticity of, of you don't know what's going to happen in a live video. You know, it's like someone tips the stand over or tips the ring light over or drops something or a kid comes in or a husband comes in or there's just an unpredictability that I think humanizes so many brands. And people just want to do business with people, not companies. And I think live really adds to that. Right. I'm sure you've seen the evolution of things going wrong turning into the best thing that could have happened to the live over the years.

Absolutely. I mean everything from your foot getting caught in your pants leg and you know, to your head coming out the armhole of a shirt, like there's been, you know, wardrobe malfunctions, dogs knocking things over, you know, those sometimes create the best moments. Some of my favorite live sellers really like lean into that and they'll even take a snippet of that portion of their live and go post it everywhere on social media. Like just being honest, like, hey, you know what, we're kind of of a mess over here because that resonates with people. Right? Like everybody's a little bit of a mess. So it's just great to be able to provide true, authentic connection to a customer in a way that they can actively engage back and forth.

Oh, it's so true, so real. So besides, you know, thinking about those best customers and how they're using lives and you mentioned just even cutting up the live, what are the best ways besides just live selling to then reuse that content and again and again or to use it to drive traffic to the next live that you're going to do.

Yeah, absolutely. We've made a pretty recent reasonable investment in AI tools. And one of the tools that you can use in comments sold, which you can do this manually obviously is called AI Clip Hero. What it does is it actually takes that really long form content of your live and it cuts it up into smaller bite sized pieces that are kind of these true product Videos that then you can reuse on social media. So it cuts that content creation time down dramatically because you can go live, you can show 30, 40 products and then at the end of it you can click a button and it will cut Those up into 30 to 40 bite sized product videos that automatically subtitles for you and does a lot of that work and makes content that you can then repurpose. So it's really great for that busy business owner, busy live seller who may not have time to go live for two hours but also shoot 30 product videos at the same time. It allows you to be able to do that kind of all in one fell square swoop and then repurpose that content on TikTok and on Instagram reels and Facebook because obviously the more content that you can push out there, the more likely you are to be discovered. I know you talked about that at the summit a lot about like having a giant content library and like content is king. We have a lot of automations and tools and AI tools that make that easier for people who are like, you know, I don't have time to live sell because I need to go make 20 reels. I don't have time to live sell because like TikTok is super important to me and I am only one person. And I think that we recognize that as a group of people who are very deeply ingrained in the boutique community that time is really important. So that's one of our key pillars of comments sold is the ability to work smarter, not harder and save you time.

So important. Every single retailer I know is time strapped, so critical. Something else that commentsold's always been known for and you guys I just think are the best in the industry at this is your mobile app. And so it's not just going live on social, but it's going live in the app as well. Can you talk a little bit more about how the app works?

Absolutely. And we just recently launched a brand new version of our apps with some really cool updated features. So we can talk about that later too. But kind of one of the bread and butter pieces of Comet Sold is the ability to easily for a boutique owner have a custom branded mobile app. I think that that's the key, right? You're not going out and paying an app developer to develop you an app. You kind of get like this turnkey mobile app that is your app. It's Ashley Alderson boutique app. Instead of being a marketplace where people can go and they can discover other brands which obviously has its place in time. But when you build a loyal following of engaged customers on social media, you're at the mercy of algorithms, right? Like, it's like, oh, if Facebook decides they want to push my content out today, they'll push my content out today. But if they don't, how am I going to get people to show up and drive traffic to your website? Right? You can pay for ads, you can pay for email. What if you didn't have to pay to send a push notification to every single customer that you have a new arrival or you know, that you're doing a sale? I think that mobile app notifications are probably the most important piece of a marketing strategy, in my opinion, because it's free, targeted promotion directly to that customer's phone, where they're probably holding it and spending 90% of their time anyway is with that phone in their hand and you have their undivided attention, which I think is the other thing. So with a mobile app, when you send that push notification and they open your mobile app, they're in your world. It's just like they've walked into your storefront, right? They are there. They're in captive audience with no other things chirping in their ear. So, you know, on social media, it's like, I see a post, I scroll, and there's three other posts and three other ads from five other boutiques and Amazon and Temu, right? Like, there's so many other things competing for your attention. With a mobile app, it is absolutely just. It's the Sierra show, it's the Ashley show, and the customer is able to be fully immersed in and everything that you have to offer. Another piece that's really important to highlight is the average lifetime value of an app customer versus a website shopper or even a social media shopper. You can't even compare it. It's night and day because not only do they show up, they show up over and over and over again. And so their repeat purchases are typically anywhere from three to seven times more. If they've downloaded your mobile app and they're held there in your app community, that's really fascinating.

The science behind that is fascinating. And I see it anecdotally all the time how loyal live sales shoppers are, especially in your app. So that is awesome. You were talking about new features coming to the app and I want to, you know, kind of move into. For those of you who are familiar with commentsold, there's been a lot of change over the last couple of years and I want to highlight some of that change. But While we're on the topic of the app, talk to me about what's new that we can expect inside of the app.

Yeah, absolutely. There are a few features that have been kind of asked for in the past that we were like, okay, if we're doing this new and improved mobile app, like, how do we make it better and how do we make everybody want it? So one of the things that is really important and I'm so excited about is the ability for you to have a notification center. So whereas previously with the Comments Sold app, you can send those notifications, that's great. But if she swipes away or she forgets about them or she opens it and then was like, oh, I didn't even read that all the way. Maybe, maybe there was a coupon code in it, right? There was something important. That notification was gone forever. So on this new mobile app, there's now a hub for all of your notifications so that you can go back and reread so that customers can catch up. They can be like, oh, I. I clicked on that mobile app notification. It had a coupon code, but I don't remember what it was, or I typed it in wrong. They can go back and revisit. And so it almost works like a virtual bulletin board for the most important things that you want your customers to watch over and. Or look at over and over again. So that's one of the features that I think is super helpful in this new, revamped, updated mobile app. There's also just a cleaner UI experience. So it's moving it into, you know, 2025 versus when the mobile app first kind of got its start in, like, 2019. So it's cleaner, it's prettier. The other thing that I think is really neat is we've made some improvements to our loyalty program, which is another really cool feature of Comments Sold, is the ability for you to kind of give cash back to customers to incentivize certain purchasing behavior that is now present on the checkout screen. So when they go to checkout, they know how much money that they're earning back so that they can plan their next visit to your mobile app or plan their next purchase, which I think is really important, you know, and something that big box retailers have probably been doing for quite some time. Right. When I buy something from Ulta, for example, it tells me how many points I'm earning when I'm making my purchase. And so now this is something that we're able to kind of bring to smaller businesses into boutiques. And as well to be able to let their customers know in advance, like this is how much money I have to come back and spend with Ashley. And so it again increases in those repeat purchases and that customer loyalty because it's just free money sitting there, right?

Yeah, I think that's a huge piece. I mean, to add to the already outstanding customer loyalty that you guys have another feature. I know this is not new, but for someone who's maybe new to commentsold, but can you talk about like just cart holds and first pay and some of those features that I think are unique to the live selling experience?

Absolutely. I think that, you know, comments sold. One of the things that people are like, there's no way that I could leave comments sold. Because my customer shopping behavior is this shopping behavior that we kind of really were first in the industry to really provide. This is cart holds. And then we can talk a little bit also about like wait list and wait list pre authorization because I think that's huge too. But cart holds. So live selling is obviously a event. It is like a party. It takes a little time. It's not a I'm going to the website, I want this top, I'm putting it in my cart and I'm checking out. Right. You're building a story, you're building an outfit, you're building a capsule of items. And so that takes time. What typically happens in a live selling event also is a little bit of a feeding frenzy. So there's the social validation aspect of live selling because I am commenting and purchasing something and so is Ashley at the same time. And I'm like, oh my gosh, I need to check out because I need to get this. Because what happens if she gets it and it's sold out before I check out? As a comment, sold provides what is called a cart holder, a cart timer, which allows customers to say, I'm purchasing this item. It is in my cart. It's just like you're out at the grocery store or just like you're at a boutique if it's in your fitting room until you say, I don't want that thing anymore and put it back on the shelf, nobody else can get it. So it's that same kind of psychology of like the in person shopping. So you're able to grab the shirt, the top, the skirt, the necklace, put it all on your cart and wait to check out and not feel the pressure of checking out immediately to make sure you don't lose the product, which is kind of what happens in that E commerce.

Typical.

Like Feeding frenzy environment which is so important to live selling because you see the average order value be astronomically higher in a live selling environment because the customer's secure in knowing that because they claimed the item and they said it's theirs, they get to keep it as long as they check out within a certain amount of time. And what's neat about it is that's fully customizable in common sold. One of the things that we really try to bring when we're building features is the ability for it to work for your business in the way that you want it to. So not only are you able to set that card part timer to expire in 20 minutes, maybe you're wanting them to check out quick. Maybe you're wanting to give them 24 hours to think it over. Or maybe you're, you want to give them like the full week. Maybe it's an environment where, you know, you only ship once a week. You want them to be able to put everything in their cart and check out on Saturday. So carts dump at Sunday at midnight. So it's fully customizable. Or you can turn on first paid, first served, and everything works just like a website typically works. And it's like, if you want it, you better check out now. So we've made it customizable so that not every person has to have the exact same setup so you can fully make it work for your business. And then on the flip side of that, it's like we offer the ability for you to choose, okay, well, do I want my customers to pay shipping every single time they check out, or do I want to give them this free shipping window where they pay shipping once and then for the next 48 hours because I only ship on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, they get to continue to make additional purchases without paying shipping again, which incentivizes them to shop on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, over and over and over again versus be defeated that they already checked out on Monday and then you drop something on Tuesday and they're like, man, if only I could just pay shipping once. Because you're shipping that to me in the same package, right? Like you're not going to be shipping these to me in individuals, individual packages. And again, it's the flexibility. You can offer it or you cannot offer it. It's whatever works best for you and your business, which I think is very, very important.

Are you ready to collaborate with us in community over competition on Pink Friday? I hope so. This is your invitation to join us for Pink Friday, Nov. 21. Held annually, the Friday before Black Friday in an effort to tell your small business's story, mention your massive economic impact and plus support small businesses first before the big box stores on Black Friday every year. Our opportunity to gather together as an industry has never been better. When you sign up, it's completely free@the boutiquehub.com you're going to get done for your resources like signage, a complete media kit coming with press releases so you can work with your local media on Pink Friday plus signage, printed materials and it will get get you on the Pink Friday map. Also new this year, something we've never done and I am so excited about, we're teaming up with Hard on Main street, which is a non profit supporting small business owners and retailers who are hit by natural disasters. So this year the Boutique hub is donating $1 for every single small business that signs up for Pink Friday on our website. So when you sign up, we're sending money on your behalf to Heart on Main street to support small businesses hit by those natural disasters, specifically this year, the Texas floods. So I hope you'll join us November 21st for Pink Friday host an event, a giveaway, a collaboration. Do what you've got to do to tell your story of what it means to be a small business owner today. Sign up Join us for free on Pink Friday November 21st. I think those are huge features and then you also mentioned wait list.

Yes.

And how to really know how to restock. I mean inventory management's one of the trickiest things that we deal with in this industry and I think Waitlist has simplified that so much. So can you talk about Waitlist as well?

Absolutely, yeah. If you're not familiar with Waitlist and Waitlist pre authorization, it's again one of those features that comments sold really was early in introducing into the boutique world that allows you to make smarter purchasing decisions. And I know that that's something that the hub is really passionate about is making smarter decisions when you're buying. And Waitlist truly allows that. So what happens is, you know, you, if you have a traditional e commerce website and you drop two smalls, two mediums, two larges of a top right and there are six people who want a small, three people who want a medium and one person who wants a large. So you sell out of the smalls, you have like one person on a wait list for a medium, but you have no idea that they want it. You also have no idea how many people actually wanted that small and you have no idea that if you restock those larges they probably, probably going to be sitting there. You have no idea. You just have put those out in the world and you've made four or five sales at that point, and you have no idea what to do next. What's really cool about comments sold is it captures all of that information and that demand, so you're able to anticipate the demand of restocking a product. So comment sold says, okay, well, you really could have sold four of these, five of these, six of these, six of these, six of these, and give you the data that you need to make a judgment call on if it's worthwhile for you to restock that item. And then the other piece of that puzzle, which is waitlist authorization, which I think is. Was kind of a game changer, is for the customer to say, you know what, if you get that size small back and charge my car, just run it. And it allows you to have guaranteed money when you're restocking products, which I think is something that I think our retailers would say has changed the game for them because they are able to not only anticipate and restock and repurchase, but it's guaranteed money. And then there's no work with that. Right. So kind of how Comet Soul got its start back in the day is like discount divas. Amanda was manually sending invoices on PayPal and she would send invoices, and then like, if somebody wouldn't pay their invoice, she would have to find the next person in line, delete that invoice, send the next invoice, wait and see if that person paid, rinse and repeat to be able to push her products through. And so Waitlist does all of this automatically without you even doing anything except for adding more inventory. The second you add more inventory, those waitlist pre authorization charges will go through. Orders will create. The customers don't have to do anything. It just creates the order, it charges the card, it's ready there for you to ship. And then for the Waitlist ones where they said, maybe I want to think on it, maybe I don't want you to charge my card, it falls automatically into their cart and says, hey, you got the item, congratulations, come check out without you doing any of the work. Which again, leans into that working smarter, not harder. It allows you to capture those additional sales. And I mean, we have shops that will make $30,000 instantly on restocking items with zero work other than telling the System, I got 15 more of this size and this size and this size. And then magic, all of the orders create and they did nothing.

It really is the best. Like, it is a game changer. It has been a game changer for the industry for sure. So huge. So that really plays into, you know, back what you said. Just working smarter and not harder and serving the retailer first. Sierra, I know commentsold has gone through a lot of changes in the last couple of years, and you guys have really been working on just refocusing who you are and who you serve and how you serve them. So maybe speak to those who are listening who are, you know, they've been around comments sold for a long time. Talk about some of the changes that you guys have currently.

Yeah, absolutely. And if you've been around comments sold for a long time, you know that I also have been around comments sold for a long time. So beta tested the product back in the day as a boutique owner and then transitioned to the comments sold side, like very early in infancy. Like, you know, it's probably not legal, but getting paid via PayPal, which all of you startups probably know exactly what that means, right? And so we have been through a lot of change, and change isn't always bad. I think that that's the thing that people really need to, you know, need to grasp and understand is the changes that we've been through have allowed us the. And afforded us the opportunity to make the advancements that we have made recently to provide these new features, these more stable platform experience. And so I think that what we did is we had a really huge area of growth right during COVID and everybody was locked at home and, you know, got a little. Little too big for your britches, if you might want to say, that might be a more southern term than. Than you guys are typically used to over here in Alabama. And then there's a. There's that area of like, hold on, like, pedal it back. Maybe we didn't do some of the things in the way that we should have done them and having that realization of saying, like, oh, we need to go back and we need to, like, lay the groundwork and we need to fix the things and make them work well before we start adding new features. So there was definitely that period of time for, you know, probably about a year where we really locked in and internalized and said, hey, like, we need to make sure that the stuff that we currently have works well, is polished, is stable and successful for our shops. And we've done that. We've done that groundwork. And then we were able to say, okay, well, if we are comment sold and what's important to us, what makes us different, what makes us an e commerce company that truly does serve boutiques and the very unique way that boutiques do business because the boutique world is so unique, what makes us the best fit to serve those people in that community? And so we spent, you know, I would say honestly six months self reflecting, which I'm sure boutique owners are very familiar of. Like, who am I? What is my niche, what am I even doing here? You know, like a little bit of that existential crisis kind of mode. And we said, okay, this is what comments solve is and this is what commentsalt isn't. So we have three main pillars, which I'm super happy to say, like we narrowed it down to three, which if anybody knows is a very hard thing to do when you want to be everything for everyone. And so our first pillar is called scroll to Sold. So it's all of the features that we create that really help you monetize social media. So it's how do you get attention on social media and transition that attention or that scrolling into a purchase? So that's really where like live selling and streaming on social media all at the same time. So on comments Sold, you can stream to Facebook, to Instagram, to TikTok Talk, your mobile app, your website, all at the same time. So that scroll to making a purchase, you know, that is the comment chat feature. That is the fact that there's like reels inside of your mobile app. So all of those features are kind of tied into like how do we stop the scroll and make a purchase out of this. So scroll to Sold is one of our key pillars. The other key pillars are shoppers that stay. So what can we do to bring loyalty to your brand and what features can we provide for that? So like that's your mobile app. That is the customer downloads the mobile app and now they're captive. That is our loyalty program, the ability for you to give cash back. So there are quite a few features in that niche too of like, what do we do to help you not have to turn and burn new customers? Right, because that's kind of the name of the game of a lot of website e commerce out there is how do I spend enough on ads to get a good ROI to get a new customer? Because you got the customer's attention for five seconds and now they're gone and they may or may not ever come back. Hopefully you have a great email marketing strategy. Hopefully you're really great at ads and so they come back. But like, what can we do to allow you to organically, for no extra money, retain the customers that you paid good hard money for. So that's kind of an area of focus for us. And then the third pillar is working smarter, not harder. So how can we automate the monotonous day to day tasks that take up so much of your time that keep you from making money? Right, so it's saving money a little bit. Right. There are automations that help you save money or help you even make more money. But it's also like your time is money. So how do we make features that automate lots of pieces of your day to day life that save you the time so that you can be out making more money going to market, going to your kids baseball game. Right. Like I want to keep book for my kids baseball game without sending invoices for my live sale that I had yesterday. Okay, cool. We automate all of that for you. And so we really spent the time to say these are the three things we're good at. Everything else is noise. Everything else somebody else does. There's somebody else in the ecosystem that does all of those things better than we do. And that's okay. So we're really buckling down over the last half of this year and beginning of next year to also start providing open API so that we can tell partners and other people in the ecosystem like you do that way better than we do. We don't want to build that thing like that's not who we are. So come do it, come build it, come tie into the system and you know, make everybody's experience better. And so I think that the commitment to saying those are the three things we do is something that we've never had. I feel like in the history of comments sold, we have never had this like deep conviction of these are the three things that we are good at. This is what we're focusing on. Every feature we develop from here on out is about these things and it's really helped us say, okay, this is our roadmap. Like these are the improvements we're going to make to mobile app. Like these are the improvements we want to do on with AI and how we help you scale faster. Because we're able to say that thing over there, the bright shiny object that was kind of trying to catch our attention isn't us. And I think that that's kind of something that should resonate really well with all of the boutique owners, right? Is because we're constantly being bombarded by the bright shiny object and it's like, how do you stay true to who you are? We kind of had to go through that same exercise the last six, eight months and hopefully people start to feel that in all of our messaging, everything we put out, because, right. It's one thing to say you're about it, but it's another thing to actually be about it and do it.

Oh, that's so good. And I think everyone listening can relate to that. I personally am like, oh my gosh, been there many times. Probably need to go back there again and just hone in on this is what we do best and let everyone.

Else do the rest.

Because it is so easy to get that shiny object syndrome and jump from one thing to the next, especially for somebody who's a business owner and is the squirrel. So I'm the visionary, you know, the owner, but I'm also the squirrel brain. Like, I've got so many ideas, but just because you have the idea doesn't mean we need to execute the idea.

There's somebody else natural for the entrepreneurial spirit. Right. And the entrepreneurial spirit lives not only in techsoup startups very heavily. Right. But also in the boutique industry. It's like you just have this spirit of saying like, oh, that's a great idea, like, let me go do it. Because you just, you want to do it. But at the same time it's like it takes a lot of self awareness, which is hard. It's not fun to step back and say, actually it's not best for me to do it. It's best if I partner with somebody to do it or hire somebody to do it. Right. That's one of the struggles of being a startup boutique owner is like, oh, I want to do everything all by myself and I don't want to delegate anything and I, you know, I don't want to let this piece of the business go. But at the same time, it's like you're hindering yourself by doing that because you're not able to focus on the things that make you unique and make you successful. And that's the same thing we're doing over here.

Absolutely. EOS says you've got to delegate to elevate. So it is absolutely a part of the process. So as you think about, you know, the changes and I just love the focusing of the mindset and the vision. What can all users expect from Comet Sold? Let's say in this next six months to a year, what is a retailer's experience with commentsold going to be like?

Yeah, one of our key focuses is Actually educating people on all of the features that we already have, it's really hard because there for a while we were like, let's turn and burn all of these new features. And there's so much when you like step inside the commentsol dashboard and step inside the world, you're like, whoa, where do I start? So we're really kind of focusing on cleaning up that experience, especially for new customers as they come in, where you have a very focused new onboarding project so that when people come in and they walk in the door, they can accomplish a goal quickly versus being overwhelmed by all the options and the bells and whistles, because there are so many bells and whistles, which is great, we're not going to take any of those away. But it's like educating people that they exist. Because when you're a boutique owner, your heads down, you're focused on your business, it's like, I don't have time to read the six emails that Comments Sold sent me about this little feature, but what if that feature changes your business? Like, what if that feature brings you an extra hundred thousand dollars this year, right? So we definitely have a huge focus on how are we communicating to our customers about what exists and what's already possible. And then also like, increase transparency on, like, what is on our mind, what is on their minds, what is important for them for us to develop. I think that, you know, there for a while it's like, okay, we have this vision of what we want to do and what we want to be, but at the end of the day, if the customer, if our end customer, which is the boutique, doesn't want to do that thing or doesn't care about that thing, like, we built all of this for nothing. So really focusing on what features do customers actually want and what features do they need. And so I think that that's something that hopefully people who have been with Comments Sold for a long time have started to notice over the last couple of months. But just being more transparent and forthcoming with like, hey, this is where we're headed, this is the game plan and communicating that well, because half of the battle is getting the message out and then the other piece is kind of like leaning into that, working smarter, not harder. And so, you know, how can we leverage AI tools to make your life easier? And AI is kind of a buzz of every industry at this point. But like, how do we take that one step further? Because nobody has more data on your customer shopping behavior than Common Sold, right? So, like, we have this treasure trove of information they can help you run your business smarter. And so it's like, how do we leverage that to build certain AI tools that you could have only dreamed of years ago? So that's a really heavy focus for us. And then also making the live experience and the mobile app experience better. So our features that we're working on kind of behind the scenes quietly right now are truly about how do we make live selling even better than it already is. Right, because our Live product, our live selling product has honestly been very similar for a very long time. We've included little updates and little features here and there. But like, how do we like change the game in live selling? And then the same for the mobile app, right? We launched, we launched the Notification center. The new app is shiny, a couple little extra bells and whistles, but like, that's where we're spending our time and we're leaning in. So like, what can we do to make the mobile app so undeniably the best boutique option mobile app out there? And so that's, that's what people need to know to like look forward to is not only are we going to be like trying to be better about communicating and educating on what we already have, but really spending our time on again those three pillars. Live selling, scroll to sold, mobile app shoppers that stick and then work smarter, not harder. So those AI automation options, so good.

I'm excited for you guys. There's a lot of good things in the works that are needed and gonna change the game and the open API I heard you mention, like, so good. So good. All right, well Sierra, as we wrap up today, just any last minute advice you want to share with retailers right now in terms of what is working with live, what's their, what's their go home, what's their takeaway, what's the action they should take based on your advice today?

Yeah, it's, it's rip the band aid. If you're not doing it, just, just go, just try, try it for a few months. Be consistent. It's not as scary as you think. You know, I'm an old dog learning new tricks all the time and I sometimes have to give myself the advice of like, it's not as scary as you think. Like rip the band aid and just go do the thing. And so that's really, I think the number one message if you're thinking about live selling is if you're thinking about it, you've waited too, you've waited too long, you need to just go do it. And so, and then the other piece of that puzzle is like, be real, be authentic, be yourself. Because you should be thinking of live selling as building a community. You shouldn't be thinking of live selling as somebody purchasing something. So a live sale is truly a connection with a customer that will build loyalty, build brand loyalty, build your stark raving fans who are crazy about you. It's not just buying something off of Amazon or buying something off of a website. It is truly building a friendship and a lasting relationship. And so if that resonates with you, if that's something you want, which I think most business owners want, there to be a community of people who are just, like, crazy about them. There's no better way to do that, I guarantee you, than live selling.

Amen to that. I love it. It's not about selling something, but it's about building a community, just like you said. Sierra, this is awesome. Thank you for all that you do. Always being, you know, here for the retailers in the industry. You've been here a long time, you've seen lots of changes, but you're always on the forefront of what's coming. So I appreciate you and thanks for joining me today on the show.

Thank you for having me. This is wonderful. Have to do it again. We'll do it again.

We'll do it again. Thanks for listening, guys. I hope you took away all kinds of nuggets and new ideas from this week's episode. Episode. Don't forget to subscribe and leave a rating and review. We love to hear your feedback and give you a chance to be featured on the show each and every week. For more information on our spirit of community over competition and to access guest downloads and bonuses and all the resources we talked about on the show, head on over to the boutiquehub.com and join the community. We'll see you next week.