Retail: Heartcore Consumer Technology Trends 2021

Heartcore is Europe's consumer technology VC. Our annual Consumer Technology Trends Report sums up what happened in the world of consumer technology - category by category.

Retail under pressure – every purchase is an online purchase.

L’Oréal Paris

L’Oréal has developed digital factories with advanced audiovisual capabilities to create responsive, consumer-oriented and highly personalised social content. In 2019, L’Oréal’s 1M content posts reached a total of 1.3B visitors and 285M fans.

Nike

In 2017, Nike announced it’s “Consumer Direct Offense”, expanding its focus on content, community and customisation, driving a veritable D2C revolution. “As we look ahead, we are focused on moving even faster against our strategic vision of Consumer Direct Acceleration.”, Matt Friend (CFO), Q2 2020

Home shopping is back (and the anchor is a celeb influencer).

Covid-19 has re-oriented the way consumers discover and purchase products, fortifying the trend of virtual immersive experiences-- a trend that is likely to prevail in a digital first, post pandemic world.

Livestreaming made in-roads as the shopping medium allowing for an emotional connection, further disrupting an already-battered retail industry

In 2019, 30% of China’s population viewed livestreams. In 2020, the number grew to 39%.

Li Jiaqi, a Chines salesman luminary of beauty products, gained international fame after selling 15,000 lipsticks in five minutes.

On Singles’ Day in 2019, Li attracted 36M viewers during his live-stream on Taobao and generated more than $145M in sales.

To be a kid again: the joy (and $$$) of unboxing videos.

The highest-paid YouTuber is 8-year-old Ryan Kaji. In 2020, Ryan made $29.5M in revenue on Youtube through his unboxing and product review (we expect his parents take-rate is high)

The influencer brand trend continues to evolve.

Brands started by influencers continue to emerge across fashion and beauty. Some of them are getting to a meaningful scale.

Gisou | Haircare | Founded: 2015 | Revenue 2019: $10M

Gisou

Summer Fridays | Skincare | Founded: 2017 | Revenue 2020: $4.7M

Summer Fridays

Chiara Ferragni | Clothing | Founded: 2013 | Revenue 2018L $25M

Chiara Ferragni Collection

Rouje | Clothing | Founded: 2015 | Revenue 2017: ‎€2.5M

Maverick Clothing | Clothing | Founded: 2017 | Revenue 2018: $30-40M

Huda Beauty | Beauty | Founded: 2013 | Revenue 2019: $250M

We are bullish on membership driven retail.

Heartcore's portfolio company Italic is bringing the Costco business model to online retail. A subscription for "quality at cost". La Fourche, another Heartcore portfolio company is doing the same thing in groceries/ staples. We believe that membership-dirven retail has substantial customer and manufacturer benefits and are excited by this segment.