Do you miss shopping in an offline store to experience the ambiance of a brand; or inspecting clothes details by flipping through rack by rack; or talking to a store assistant about the latest collection and letting them surprise you? Under the pressure of providing personalized shopping experiences remotely, LVMH Innovation Award 2021 winner is here to shorten the distance between you and the brand.

After reviewing over 850+ startups applications from around the world, Bernard Arnault, LVMH chairman and chief executive officer, Toni Belloni, LVMH group managing director, and the members of the selection committee have finally made their decisions. It is no surprise that Bambuser, a startup that specialises in live streaming shopping events, was crowned the overall winner of the 2021 LVMH Innovation Award. This is an inevitable selection for the conglomerate as China has been achieving tremendous success by selling via online livestreams.

LVMH Innovation Award 2021 Winner Details 

Bamboser offers brands the ability to host live shopping sessions online with influencers or sales representatives so they can bridge the gap between online and offline shopping. Rather than hosting their own separate shows, these brands host them directly on their websites, giving them the opportunity to own the overall look and feel, as well as manage interactions, data, and checkout. Already, the startup has worked with top brands including Christian Dior, Ted Baker, Farfetch, Frame, Tommy Hilfiger, and LuisaViaRoma.

Bambuser will receive six months of “personalised support” as part of LVMH’s accelerator programme, ‘La Maison des Start-ups,’ based at the Station F startup campus in Paris.

Commenting on the win, Sophie Abrahamsson, chief commercial officer at Bambuser, said in a statement: “At Bambuser we are on a mission to change retail. We are so proud to contribute to do this with the LVMH Group. Any startup needs more than just a mission to succeed: a dedicated and highly skilled team that doesn’t take no for an answer, and that one important customer who believes in you and wants to trail-blaze with you, and that is what LVMH is to us.”

As well as being overall winners, Bambuser also won the Omnichannel and Retail Experience award. 

LVMH Innovation Award 2021 is the first time six startups have been recognized, instead of three in previous years. In addition to the overall winner, awards were given in six different categories under the theme ‘The Future of Customer Experience is Here’: Data and Artificial Intelligence, Employee Experience, Media and Brand Awareness, Omnichannel and Retail Experience, Operations and Manufacturing Excellence, and Sustainability. 

In a statement, LVMH said each startup “stands out from the competition” in their respective categories, and all “are at the forefront of innovation in their particular fields, with products and services that are helping to shape the future of customer experience.”

Here is a list of the category winners:

Data & Artificial Intelligence: DATA&DATA

A French startup founded in 2012 by Zouheir Guedri, Data&Data analyzes large volumes of transactions carried out on international marketplaces to help luxury companies fine-tune their marketing strategies. Data&Data was one of the startups that participated in the fourth season of LVMH’s La Maison des Startups accelerator program at Station F.

Employee Experience: EACH ONE

Created in 2015 by Fanny Prigent, Maxime Baudet and Théo Scubla, Each One aims to enhance the visibility of refugees and migrants with work permits, by putting them in touch with multinational companies.

Media & Brand Awareness: AGLET

Aglet is a game publisher and developer founded by Ryan Mullins in 2019 and based in England. Inspired by Pokémon Go, the Aglet game enables sneaker fans to earn in-game currency, compete with other players and collect limited-edition virtual sneakers designed by some of the world’s leading brands.

Omnichannel & Retail Experience: BAMBUSER

Specialized in Live Stream Shopping, Bambuser helps brands host live shopping sessions online, with influencers or sales associates. These shows are hosted natively on the brands’ websites, enabling them to own the look and feel of the experience and manage conversations, data and check-out.

Operations & Manufacturing Excellence: HIPLI

Launched in 2020 by Anne-Sophie Raoult and Léa Got, Hipli designs and produces reusable packaging. After receiving a delivery, consumers can easily post the packaging back to Hipli’s sorting centers using the prepaid label. Just one year after its creation, Hipli already operates in nine countries across Europe.

Sustainability: GALY

Galy is a US-headquartered startup founded by Luciano Bueno and Paula Elbl. To address the issue of excess water and pesticide use in cotton production, Galy offers apparel brands cotton grown from cells in bioreactors.