Several months ago, I wrote an article for The Brasilians about Lu, the most followed virtual influencer in the world with tens of millions of followers on social media. Lu is the main spokesperson and savvy virtual seller of Magazine Luiza, a giant omnichannel retailer with over 1,300 physical stores and a strong presence in digital e-commerce in Brazil.
Now the company, colloquially known in Brazil simply as Magalu, is back with another innovation, this time launching an unprecedented shopping experience that some are saying constitutes an entirely new format in online retail called “sound commerce.” Magalu calls the platform “Decifrei;” in English, it is being branded as ‘Shoppin’ Inside Songs.’ You can see this as a form of e-commerce that happens through music.
Is your mind already blown?
It all started, like most things in this new reality we are living in, during the early days of the pandemic, when Magalu’s marketing professionals – eager to cement the idea that the omnichannel retailer was much more than just a website selling electronics and appliances – noticed that searches for musical instruments and recording accessories were skyrocketing. Queries for guitars, amplifiers, drums, microphones, production equipment, etc. were increasing as people, confined at home amid the pandemic’s movement restrictions and with plenty of idle time, wanted to learn to play instruments or upgrade the ones they already owned.
This observation led the retailer to quickly develop a new sales category focused on musical instruments. Magalu’s purchasing team acquired over 100,000 products in the musical instruments area to sell on its e-commerce platform. But, to bring this new category of musical instrument shopping to life in a truly innovative way, Magalu partnered with advertising giant Ogilvy to get help in how to communicate this to the public in a well-innovative manner. The result was well beyond expectations; together, Magalu and Ogilvy created a new way of shopping that ended up pioneering something that retail analysts are starting to call S-commerce, or “sound commerce.”
Here’s how it works: As users browse through the Decifrei app, they encounter curated playlists that cover a wide variety of different music genres. For each track featured, all the main instruments used in the original recording are highlighted with a ‘buy at Magalu’ button – leading the listener to a Magalu e-commerce page, where the same model of instrument can be purchased with a simple click.
Take, for example, the Pop genre. When listeners come across “Havana” by Camila Cabello, the first piece of equipment to appear is the Shure SM7B microphone that the Latin singer used to record her sultry R&B ballad. Click the ‘buy at Magalu’ button below the song and voilà, the listener is transported to the Magalu page showcasing exactly the same product. The Shure SM7B microphone can be yours for R$ 4,574.15. You may not sound like Camila Cabello when recording your own rendition of “Havana” at home, but you certainly won’t be able to blame the microphone.
This inspired way of listening to music and turning each track into a musical instrument store had immediate success, with musical instrument sales growing by over 50% in the first month and traffic visits rising nearly 200%, all creating significant buzz around Magalu’s electronic marketplace. The brilliance of the venture was even recognized at the mother of all advertising events when Magalu took home an award for creative e-commerce at Cannes Lion.
The rise of S-Commerce is further proof that, although eCommerce was born in the USA, its future may very well be unfolding in places around the globe like, in this case, Brazil.
ARICK WIERSON
CNN columnist, television producer & political advisor
Twitter: @ArickWierson