Interview with Tangiblee’s CEO, Eliad Inbar
I sat down with Eliad Inbar, Tangiblee’s CEO, and asked him a few questions about himself, the business, and the industry.
What is the story behind Tangiblee?
My wife and I had an anniversary in 2012 that was coming up and she had mentioned that she wanted some diamond earrings. So, immediately I went online and selected what I thought would be the perfect pair.
They arrived shortly before our anniversary and I was surprised when I opened them, but not in the way you want to be surprised. The size of the earrings was much larger than I had anticipated. To salvage the situation, I ran down to the closest jewelry store and purchased a pair more suitable for my wife.
This is when I noticed the gap between in-store and online shopping. I immediately started asking consumers, alongside my co-founder Yevgeniy Kuznetsov, about their pain points when it came to online shopping. Many of the comments were regarding size discrepancies and so we ran with that idea first.
Over the years, Tangiblee has evolved and innovated to become what it is today. As with any startup, it has definitely been a rollercoaster ride, but we are excited about where we stand today and are looking forward to what's to come.
What makes Tangiblee different?
The first thing is that we are very driven by scale. We want to be able to roll out Tangiblee across large SKU counts within a week, since we can process up to 5,000 SKUs per day. This is something that other providers especially in the AR commerce industry cannot compete with. It can take a week to configure a high-quality 3D model for just one SKU.
Secondly, we make implementation as seamless as possible for our clients. We do all of the heavy lifting on our side in order to reduce to nearly zero the resources required from our clients. Retailers don’t have to put a full-time employee in charge of managing Tangiblee, configure it and maintain it. Our bots and parsers automatically identify when new SKUs are added and immediately add them to the processing queue. Our account managers are proactively updating retailers with relevant business results, and managing everything related to Tangiblee configuration so retailers can focus on building their core business. Our clients know that we are committed to helping their brand succeed and will always help address any issues.
Tangiblee isn’t just something you buy and plug into your e-commerce site. We are a live platform and constantly innovating. A lot of our innovations come from those critical conversations with clients. The retailers are the ones who know what consumers want, and by delivering that feedback to us, they help us develop and prioritize new features. For instance, one of our very popular features is jewelry stacking and that idea didn’t come from a brainstorming session or anything like that; it came directly from a jewelry client of ours. This is why it is so important to us to listen to our clients and build those relationships. We put a lot of emphasis on keeping the lines of communication open and ensuring that we are providing the best possible experience for our clients.
What have you learned?
I’ve learned a lot. I’ve learned that you have less control over reality than you think.
This is very cliche, but also very true. People are the most important business asset. You have to have a great team before you can implement all these processes. HR mistakes can be very, very expensive, so we were incredibly focused on finding the right people to join our team early on who cared just as much about our product as I do.
What are your plans for Tangiblee in the next 5 years?
We are building a platform that is going to power product interactions across all channels. We are setting the standard for interactive product experiences.
Tangiblee will be available for all categories. However, we will do this strategically and ensure that our product is addressing the pain points that retailers in these various industries have. Also, it is important that our solution isn’t just pretty bells and whistles but something that can be implemented on our clients’ sites for years to come. Tangiblee isn’t a trend, but a long-term solution.
I want Tangiblee to be in the position where we are forced to expand and grow our company internally.
Where do you think the retail industry is headed?
The retail industry is in the middle of a huge transformation. Prior to Covid, e-commerce was just a channel, but definitely wasn’t always a top priority for retailers. The pandemic accelerated the adoption of e-commerce and forced retailers to shift their priorities.
Now there are major brands and retailers that don’t have a physical store at all. They have built their presence entirely online and I think that this will continue being a trend moving forward.
The culture within the industry is also changing. Retailers are giving the digital channel the respect it deserves. Many companies have started to add members to their executive board that are in charge of e-commerce. I think that retailers will be shifting their focus from in-person shopping to the digital side, and as the digital world takes center stage, consumer expectations will continue to grow. I expect Tangiblee, given our innovation mindset, will be there to meet and exceed those expectations.