Stuck at home during the pandemic, Americans have been flocking to online shopping sites and mobile apps. The growth has been a boon for the rising number of startups that specialize in injecting excitement into online shopping for consumers who may have grown bored with mundane grids of product photos.
Many of the emerging companies focus on integrating shopping with livestreaming video, either by building their own platforms or by developing online tools to help smaller retailers—and social media influencers—improve their e-commerce game. In our latest installment of Startups to Watch, we profile six of these companies.