Driving Disruption: Maggie Adhami-Boynton Of ShopThing On The Innovative Approaches They Are Taking To Disrupt Their Industries

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive into our discussion about disruption, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share with us the backstory about what brought you to your specific career path?

Upon completing my schooling in Psychology and Business Management, I embarked on a career journey leading me to an operational role in the tech industry. Despite my success in this position, I found myself yearning for something more aligned with my true passion: fashion and style. From the outset, I had harboured aspirations of working in the fashion industry, but the prospect of carving out a viable career path in that field didn’t seem realistic or easily attainable.

It wasn’t until I stumbled upon an emerging trend known as ‘Live-Shopping’ in Asia that I experienced an epiphany moment in both my personal and professional life. Recognizing this was an untapped market in North America, I saw an opportunity to combine my passion for fashion with my expertise in technology. This realization sparked a new entrepreneurial drive within me, compelling me to venture out on my own and bring this innovative marketplace concept to fruition in the North American market.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

Not only is ShopThing the pioneer of its kind in the North American market, but it also transforms the shopping experience by blending the excitement of Instagram with the dynamic realm of live shopping. This innovative platform brings the allure of exclusive designer goods within reach of the masses, offering a fun and entertaining way to shop like never before. Not to mention, the relationships we’ve built with our partners, allows us to bring our community exclusive deals on 100% authentic merchandise.

Coming from my background in operational roles, I understood the importance of gaining proper analytics before entering into any venture. For ShopThing, I needed to prove the North American consumers would be interested in this as much as I was. The first iteration of the platform was done by myself and my co-founder live on Instagram. I needed to prove market fit and profitability before I went in — head first.

Early on we realized that nothing is more important than listening to our customers. What makes us different is we have a really good pulse on how they feel, think, and their pain points. I attribute this to the fact that I personally still host events for our customers at a minimum of 1–2 days a week. It allows me to not only use my product on a weekly basis, but also engage with and listen to my customers, ensuring our continued relevance.

You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?

Patience: Take the time early on (before you start your business) to pilot and test the product/service before pushing it out. Test the market, product, and customer for viability. A lot may change in the first year of your business — from your business model all the way down to whether you call your user a customer or client. You must be willing to make quick changes as you learn about how people use your product or service in the real world. Most businesses, after all, are made or broken within the first few years of operation.

Integrity: Millenial and Gen Z consumers are demanding an increase in transparency from the companies they purchase from, whether that be leadership, supply chain, pricing, etc. In addition to ensuring the relationships with my board and investors are built on honesty and openness.

Drive: During the early stages of my entrepreneurial journey my drive played a pivotal role in propelling me forward. We made a firm commitment to dive headfirst into our venture, dedicating months to the development of our tech product. With plans set in motion, we launched live for Black Friday 2019, expanding our team with the addition of 4–5 developers and securing office space.

However, our momentum was abruptly halted with the onset of March 2020. As the global pandemic shuttered brick-and-mortar retail stores, we found ourselves, like most of the business world, filled with uncertainty. Suddenly, our live streaming platform had no content to broadcast. Recognizing the need to adapt, we deliberated on pivoting our strategy. Yet, before we could solidify our plans, stores began reopening. However, at this time consumers were still apprehensive about entering stores in-person — enter ShopThing. Had we not remained focused and stayed true to our original vision, we could have lost this payoff.

Leadership often entails making difficult decisions or hard choices between two apparently good paths. Can you share a story with us about a hard decision or choice you had to make as a leader? I’m curious to understand how these challenges have shaped your leadership.

Following up from my previous response, our journey took an unexpected turn as we entered the market just months before a global pandemic and an impending recession. During those uncertain times there were many sleepless nights pondering whether to halt everything. Despite the challenges, we had invested in office space, hired employees, and steadily building trust with our growing customer base. Stores were closed, people were scared to leave their homes and we seemed at a standstill, sitting on our investment and everything we had been working up to. Ironically, this is what truly made us blow up! Behind the scenes, we had partnerships with certain retail stores and online platforms we were able to leverage at this time. People didn’t want to leave their homes but still wanted to shop! Our job was to bring it to them in the form of personal live shopping at their fingertips, from the comfort of their home. As cities began to open back up we partnered with even more companies and our community began to expand.

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. Let’s begin with a basic definition so that all of us are on the same page. In the context of a business, what exactly is “Disruption”?

To me disruption is the ability to provide significant change and value to an industry through innovation. As consumer behaviours evolve, market research tells us that there has been a steady decline in physical retail store visits over the past two decades. Online shopping has become the prevailing trend. Nevertheless, the online shopping model has its limitations and there still remains a segment of consumers who prefer in-person experiences.

In response to this landscape, we’ve merged the best of both worlds. Our solution offers a live, personalized shopping experience that is accessible to all. By marrying the convenience of online shopping with the personal touch of in-person interactions, we bridge the gap and cater to the diverse preferences of modern consumers.

How do you perceive the role of ‘disruption’ within your industry, and how have you personally embraced it? Is it a necessity, a strategy, or something else entirely in your view?

As a CEO, I foster a culture of innovation within my company, encouraging creativity, experimentation, and out-of-the-box thinking among my team members. By prioritizing innovation and investing in research and development, we continually push the boundaries of what’s possible and strive to introduce groundbreaking solutions to the market.

One of my favourite books is “Billion Dollar Brand Club” by Lawrence Ingrassia. It talks about startups that were underestimated early on, but later went to disrupt trillion-dollar industries. This really resonated with me because back when I was still testing the concept, many didn’t understand my vision and how much potential I saw in this business. On top of that, live shopping is seen as a rival to both brick-and-mortar AND online shopping — almost anyone would say I was out of my mind for trying to take on these giants.

Responsible disruption is to prioritize customer needs, expand market opportunities, or increase overall service efficiency. For decades, the only way to purchase something was to go to a physical store, try it on, and pay at checkout. Then online shopping became the biggest craze — millions of items at our fingertips and all you had to do was click an image (but let’s be honest, there’s no replacement for the experience of touch — feeling a coat’s fabric or trying on a shoe for yourself). Live shopping is the perfect combination of the things we love most about in-store and online shopping: engagement, experience, and convenience. Bonus? ShopThing brings the magic formula of influencer marketing and their trusted reviews. Our retailers can drastically increase brand awareness, grow sales and reach hundreds of thousands of customers that wouldn’t have set foot in their store. Some companies report conversion rates up to ten times higher than in conventional e-commerce. Live shopping is undoubtedly disrupting the retail landscape and the future of how we shop and sell. Our retail partners see a huge spike in brand awareness and foot traffic after a shopper event — something we’ve coined “the ShopThing effect.”

What lessons have you learned from challenging conventional wisdom, and how have those lessons shaped your leadership style?

For me it means being able to embrace change and pivot, especially at a moment’s notice. In navigating everyday business decisions, I’ve learned you need to adapt quickly to changing circumstances or you’ll be eaten alive. You could be the smartest person in the room and have done all your market research, but the world is constantly changing — your product has to be able to adapt to be what consumers will want tomorrow and a year from now. This is something I instil in all those that work with me — to embrace the unknown, with a pros and cons list in your back pocket.

By encouraging creativity and experimentation within my team I’ve fostered a culture of innovation, allowing us to continuously push boundaries and disrupt the status quo. However, I like to partner this with strategic risk management. Assess risks carefully, weigh potential rewards against potential pitfalls, and make informed decisions based on data and analysis. This approach allows me to navigate uncertainty while minimizing downside risk.

Disruptive ideas often meet resistance. Could you describe a time when you faced significant pushback for a disruptive idea? How did you navigate the opposition, and what advice would you give to others in a similar situation?

Our business model in terms of our consumer relationship mimics that of online shopping. In this sense I suppose the only main pushback we have received has been similar in terms of paying for a product without feeling it, trying it on, being able to adjust for sizing, etc. However, how we have managed to overcome this is the very essence of having live and personal shoppers. These shoppers are your favourite influencers, they act as your best friend and stylist, discussing all things in terms of item fit and sizing. What’s more is you are able to message your shopper live in-app throughout the entire shopping experience.

I always like to think about navigating pushback in terms of what I would want from a service and what area’s are in need of growth. I understand my consumers, because I am one. I am my own pickiest customer, so once I achieve satisfaction — I know I am in a good position.