Curation To Drive Next Phase Of Ecommerce Growth: Kunal Shah, Cred
How many of us know the financial value of an hour of our time? Few of us are paid by the hour, which means we mostly don’t have benchmarks for time-money trade-offs. If we took a moment to estimate the value of our time, would we make the same choices? For example, would we spend one hour comparing and shopping for products offering singledigit discounts?
Ecommerce has made abundant choices at every price point available to consumers everywhere. The promise is that a consumer can find any product of their choice, buy it, and have it delivered in a few clicks. However, the features that make it convenient - limitless selection, reviews, options to compare - have created a new consumer problem. Information overload and marginal product differentiation across platforms have put the burden of curation on the consumer and their time while eliminating the serendipitous discovery that retail therapy originally promised.
Cred Commerce aims to incorporate the dopamine hit of shopping into the online shopping experience. If horizontal ecommerce platforms are markets where everything is available, Cred Store is a premium experience -- carefully curated, intentionally designed for discovery, and developed with the primary focus on member experience. Our iterations over the past year have shown us the relevance of our primary insight -- that time-starved people want curation rather than unlimited selection, and that shopping online should be a delight rather than a functional chore.
Curated ecommerce involves identifying the preferences of specific customer cohorts as opposed to the category approach of vertical ecommerce or the expansive, everything-for-everyone approach of horizontal ecommerce. By organising offerings around a particular cohort and their lifestyle, platforms avoid overwhelming customers with choice. This allows them to filter their large catalogues into relevant, easy-tobrowse collections, enable discovery, and increase conversions.
For Cred, that consumer cohort consists of the highest-quality Indian credit card users i.e. customers with significant disposable income to spend and high credit scores that allow them to finance large purchases responsibly. Cred Store satisfies the urge to be the first to discover a cool new brand, become a tastemaker in social circles, and bring back the delight of impulse purchases.
The success of travel offerings after the first wave has resulted in the launch of Cred Travel, a separate section for travel experiences from top hospitality brands around the world. Cred Rewards are a platform for brands to drive engagement with this cohort, while Cred Pay extends the Cred experience to merchants’ platforms. With this approach, Cred is not just curating a few products, but curating an elevated lifestyle for members that helps them save, spend, and invest their time in delightful experiences.
Merchants who participate in curated ecommerce benefit from the focused approach that contributes to higherorder value and sales, while also cultivating their distinct brand identity with the audience. Brands can offer specific, personalised, and curated experiences at a premium, stand apart from clutter and reduce the risk of commoditization.
Curated commerce also allows startup brands to compete more effectively alongside legacy brands with a strong identity and reputation moats, earning them audience attention and engagement at a depth that would not be feasible through paid customer acquisition on traditional channels.
While marketers have access to the same great tools, technology, and platforms, building affinity, advocacy, and aspiration takes time, creativity and a more thoughtful approach. Now that consumers have unlimited choice, the only limited resources are time and attention. Curated commerce helps give time to customers and attention to brands, bringing back the joy of shopping for both.
