Imagine a social platform and app that brings like-minded users into a community that brands can sell through, with platform users serving as individual storefronts. Imagine the amount of global data generated by millions of users, including product, user and community information that’s segmented and available for brands to use for marketing, product development and customer engagement.
Well, that’s exactly what Hyaloid Co. has aimed to create with its app.
During the recent WWD Tech Symposium, Sanghyeon Oh, chief executive officer and cofounder of Hyaloid, presented a session titled “Driving Fashion Technology Forward,” where he explained the hurdles facing brands and consumers, the evolving role of data and how his company’s app can convene “fandom” groups, where members use the platform to help sell products. The app is a next-generation e-commerce platform that reimagines traditional direct-to-consumer selling.
Related Articles
To set the stage, Oh told attendees that leveraging data while maintaining data sovereignty “is important to the best of fashion businesses to manage customers and VIPs better while analyzing customers’ purchasing path and planning business accordingly.”
You May Also Like
He further noted, “However, the industry realized that it is almost impossible to create its own website or applications and attract consumers and have data sovereignty. That’s why brands are returning to social media and e-commerce.”
Addressing the challenges faced by brands in pursuing direct-to-consumer strategies, the CEO said, in addition to reducing the distribution process and reducing the cost, “having owned data is one of the reasons why each brand has no choice but to continue pursuing direct-to-consumer, which creates its own platform and directly meets and transacts with consumers.”
Oh said there are challenges, including creating and managing a website with its own identity, which can be a daunting task for brands that are not IT companies. Optimizing a group platform presents additional hurdles. There are drawbacks of the current, fragmented landscape, Oh said, noting that the brands “who used to be gathered in one platform are now scattered, which means that the variety of choices that consumers had is greatly reduced. In addition, the more users move around to search for products, the more often their personal information must be entered and exposed.”
Hyaloid aims to fix this through its new platform and app. Oh said the system allows each brand to create their own application platform. “Which means multiple applications with one technology,” Oh explained. “All data from each application can be linked. This allows users to access multiple applications with one ID. In addition, each entity or user within the application can freely assemble the displays with their own identity and necessary functions.”
Oh further emphasized the community aspect of each app, noting that each app “basically has a community character in a specific field.” This is where designers, brand ambassadors, influencers, floor managers and fans gather. Regarding the integration of products into user-generated content, Oh said there are many categories. “And within each, users can connect a product to their content in ‘My Room’ or on their feed,” Oh said. “If the product is sold through the item link we share, some of the profit goes to the content creator. Through this function, brands can turn virtually all users into sales channels, thereby creating an infinite number of stores in a virtual world.”
Oh said Hyaloid’s pioneering fashion tech platform ushers in a new era of social media and e-commerce integration, redefining the way brands and consumers interact. By offering a seamless and highly customizable experience, it empowers both content creators and users to actively shape their online communities. Additionally, the commission-based reward system establishes a mutually beneficial relationship where platform users become sales channels for featured brands. With this groundbreaking platform, Oh said Hyaloid aims to revolutionize the way fashion and technology converge.