The joy of shopping -- and how to recapture it online | Nimisha Jain

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4.1 • 11.9K Ratings

🗓️ 26 January 2021

⏱️ 12 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Shopping is about more than just what you buy: it’s a treasure hunt to discover something new, a negotiation to get a great deal, a time to catch up with friends and family. But for many, online shopping has turned the experience into an impersonal, unsatisfactory event. Is there a way to bring back the magic? With exciting examples from companies in India, Thailand and China, consumer expert Nimisha Jain introduces us to “conversational commerce,” a new retail model that combines the convenience of a digital experience with the personalized touch of a real, human interaction.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to TED Talks Daily. I'm Elise Hugh. So much about the way we live and do things will change because of the global pandemic, including how we buy things. In her 2020 talk from TED at BCG, commerce aficionado, Nimiiemisha Jane, lays out how even online shopping can be more
0:23.0	human with a focus on real relationships with sellers. The perk that sold me, she's promising
0:28.8	we'll wind up with better stuff too. Growing up, one of my fondest memories was of going to a local market with my mum every month
0:41.0	in the small town in India where we live. We would spend the morning walking through an intricate
0:47.5	maze of small stores and street vendors, stopping at her favourite spots where everyone knew her, discovering what fruits were
0:56.5	in season and what kitchenware was in stock. She would spend hours examining things from all
1:02.9	angers, quizzing sellers on their quality and where they came from. They would show her
1:10.1	the latest tools and gadgets,
1:12.5	picking the ones that they knew she would like.
1:15.8	And we always walked back, happy and satisfied,
1:19.9	our arms overflowing with dozens of shopping bags,
1:24.0	having bought so much more than what we originally intended.
1:28.7	A decade later, as a college student in the bustling city of Delhi,
1:33.0	my friends and I would spend a similar few hours every month on Fashion Street,
1:37.8	a euphemism for a row of small stalls with the latest clothes at great prices. We would spend hours rummaging through piles
1:47.7	of clothes, trying on dozens of trinkets, getting advice from each other on what looked good
1:53.3	and what was on trend. We would then combine everything we had bought to negotiate a big discount.
2:00.8	Each of us had different roles. One was great at putting the look together.
2:05.8	Another one was better at negotiating the discount. And a third was always the timekeeper to make
2:12.4	sure that we got back to school on time. Shopping is so much more than what you buy. It's a treasure hunt
2:19.7	to discover something new, a personalized recommendation from someone you trust. It's a
2:25.3	negotiation to get that great deal and a time spent catching up with friends and family.
	...

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