Summaries E-commerce and AI Whatnot's Growth Hacking Strategy for Live Stream Shopping Success

This is a summary of a YouTube video "Growth Hacking To A Billion Dollar Marketplace" by Y Combinator!

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The key idea of the video is that Whatnot, a live stream shopping platform, successfully launched their first product with a unique approach to customer feedback and engagement, resulting in significant business growth and highlighting the potential of live commerce in collectibles.

• 👀
  00:00

  Whatnot, a live stream shopping platform, successfully launched their first product with a unique approach to customer feedback and engagement.
• 💡
  00:51

  Whatnot launched a successful website for buying authenticated Funko Pops using a pricing algorithm and proving their hypothesis that there were no great alternatives to buy from.
• 💻
  03:36

  The company launched their website, struggled with customer acquisition costs, and iterated quickly to improve their product, while also developing a mobile app with a referral feature to drive efficient acquisition through word of mouth.
• 📱
  05:42

  💸 The app gained popularity with its drop feature and raffle tickets, while the founder collaborated with Funko Pop influencers to build trust and audience.
• 💰
  07:18

  The company prioritized building a strong buyer base and then shifted focus to the sell side to boost sales for sellers.
• 📈
  08:15

  Whatnot's cross-listening tool helped sellers increase sales on both Whatnot and eBay, leveraging their community's trust and launching a live shopping feature for their fifth inflection point.
• 🚀
  11:00

  Whatnot founders developed a live shopping feature to enhance their marketplace, with a focus on seamless product shipping demonstrated through their Bare Bones MVP launch.
• 💰
  12:35

  The speaker's live commerce event sold $5000 worth of Funko Pops, resulting in 120% business growth and highlighting the potential of this format in Collectibles.

Key insights

• 💰 The founders of the billion dollar marketplace started by selling Funko Pops with fake listings, using a pricing formula and buying them off eBay only after customers made a purchase.
• 🚀 Quick iteration is key to success, with the team moving from idea to launch in just six weeks.
• 💰 The importance of building trust with customers in order to increase sales and grow a business.
• 💰 Building a marketplace is a challenge of balancing supply and demand, as seen in the struggle to attract enough sellers to match the existing buyer base.
• 💰 Cross-listing on multiple platforms can be a game-changer for businesses, as it allows them to tap into different audiences and increase sales.
• 🛍️ Building and launching a live shopping feature can be a transformational inflection point for a marketplace.
• 💰 The hypothesis on social commerce during COVID-19 lockdown led to the creation of a more fun experience for collectors and enthusiasts, resulting in a successful live shopping product on the marketplace.
• 📈 The inflection point of Whatnot's business was when growth shot up from 20 sales a month to 120% after the successful launch of live commerce.

Detailed summary

• 👀
  00:00

  Anu Hariharan interviews Grant LaFontaine, co-founder and CEO of Whatnot, a live stream shopping platform and marketplace, about their first product launch and how they went about it.
• 💡
  00:51

  Whatnot launched a successful website for buying authenticated Funko Pops using a pricing algorithm and proving their hypothesis that there were no great alternatives to buy from.

  • The speaker's first launch was a website for buying authenticated Funko pops with fake listings, using a pricing formula to purchase items off eBay and authenticate them before sending them to customers.
  • Whatnot chose Funko Pops as their collectibles category due to its large market size and used a pricing algorithm to show tens of thousands of listings.
  • The founders launched their service with the hypothesis that there were no great alternatives to buy from and were able to prove it successful despite the uncertainty in the early days.
• 💻
  03:36

  The company launched their website, struggled with customer acquisition costs, and iterated quickly to improve their product, while also developing a mobile app with a referral feature to drive efficient acquisition through word of mouth.

  • The company launched their website, advertised on Facebook, struggled with customer acquisition costs, iterated quickly to find different channels and improve their product, and received feedback within six weeks.
  • The second launch of the company was the development of a mobile app with a feature called "the drop" which incentivized users to share referral codes and content assets to drive efficient acquisition through word of mouth.
• 📱
  05:42

  💸 The app gained popularity with its drop feature and raffle tickets, while the founder collaborated with Funko Pop influencers to build trust and audience.

  • The mobile app's drop feature and raffle tickets gained momentum with increasing user participation in weekly drops after the second launch.
  • The app struggled to gain trust from users, so the founder convinced Funko Pop influencers to work with them to build trust and audience.
• 💰
  07:18

  The company started building a strong buyer base and then focused on building the sell side to increase sales for sellers.
• 📈
  08:15

  Whatnot's cross-listening tool helped sellers increase sales on both Whatnot and eBay, leveraging their community's trust and launching a live shopping feature for their fifth inflection point.

  • Whatnot built a cross-listening tool that allowed sellers to list their inventory on both Whatnot and eBay, resulting in increased sales and an inflection point for the business.
  • Early sellers on Whatnot were attracted by the positive buying experience and reputation on eBay, leading to a successful start for the platform.
  • Whatnot leveraged its strength and trust in the community to help newer sellers grow their sales on eBay, and their fifth inflection point was the launch of their live shopping feature.
• 🚀
  11:00

  Whatnot founders developed a live shopping feature to enhance their marketplace, with a focus on seamless product shipping demonstrated through their Bare Bones MVP launch.

  • The founders of Whatnot saw an opportunity to create a more engaging and integrated live video product for collectors and enthusiasts on their marketplace, leading to the development of their live shopping feature.
  • The focus is on shipping the product to consumers without any obstacles, as demonstrated by the Bare Bones MVP launch where the co-founder had to manually enter products through the command line.
• 💰
  12:35

  The speaker sold out $5000 worth of Funko Pops in a live commerce event, leading to a 120% growth in the business and a realization of the power of this new format in the Collectibles category.

Q&A

• What is Whatnot?

  Whatnot is a live stream shopping platform and marketplace.

• How did Whatnot launch their first product?

  Whatnot launched their first product, a website for buying authenticated Funko pops, using a pricing formula to purchase items off eBay and authenticate them before sending them to customers.

• How did Whatnot attract customers?

  Whatnot advertised on Facebook and iterated quickly to find different channels and improve their product, receiving feedback within six weeks.

• How did Whatnot gain trust from users?

  Whatnot convinced Funko Pop influencers to work with them to build trust and audience.

• What was the impact of Whatnot's live shopping feature?

  Whatnot's live shopping feature resulted in a 120% growth in the business and highlighted the potential of live commerce in the Collectibles category.