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Why Real Product Lovers Outperform Influencers with Eric Sheinkop · Beyond Fulfillment Podcast

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  Shop Talk is one of the largest commerce conferences in the world, bringing together thousands of founders, operators and retail leaders who are actively building what comes next.
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  Today's episode comes to you from the floor of Shop Talk Spring 2026 in Las Vegas, where I caught up with some of the sharpest operators and founders in retail.
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  Let's get into it.
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  All right, Eric Scheinkop, welcome to Beyond Fulfillment.
• 0:33
  Yeah, thanks so much for having me.
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  Pleasure to be here.
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  Yes, yes, we are recording this on site at Shop Talk.
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  And Eric, you are the founder of the Dzire Company.
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  Yes.
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  So just to set the stage for our listeners, can you tell us what the Dzire company is and what problem you solve?
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  Yeah.
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  So we do content education with experts who actually use the product, try it out, and then we bring them into our studio film.
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  High quality professional content that lives in the retail environment and takes the shoppers all the way through the purchase path.
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  So that retail environment, that shopper experience is everything from ctv, so Roku, Hulu, Netflix ads, things of that nature.
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  It's stuff that you'll see in store on television.
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  It's stuff that you'll see in store even at like tractor supply.
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  With QR codes, you could scan and learn about a product PDP and then post purchase as well.
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  So if you buy a new blender, they'll send you an email and it'll be one of our experts, a baker, a chef, whoever it is, talking about how to use it, how to use the attachments, and that reduces
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  returns.
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  Okay.
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  All right.
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  And why did you decide to start this company?
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  So I had a similar style of company where I provided music for brands, commercials, retailers, television shows.
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  We became the largest provider of music to Viacom, HBO, Best, Coca Cola, Disney, McDonald's.
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  And then I sold that company into Coca Cola.
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  And within going internally at Coke, I started learning a lot more about different issues that existed in this retail environment.
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  And then I met my co founder of the Desire Company, Judith Levy, who she was the global director of brand communications and PR at Coca Cola for 15 years.
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  And she had to do the first ever influencer programs.
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  And she hated the whole idea of influencers.
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  And she kind of went against the grain.
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  And she only started working with people who genuinely loved the product, which was different than what everybody else was doing.
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  Everybody else was giving the product and paying people just to talk about a new product, but there was no depth to it.
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  And she started talking about this issue.
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  I had this large community that I could tap into and we started working on it.
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  Now I will say the evolution, it's not what we initially started.
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  The company has evolved significantly.
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  It was really in 2020 during the pandemic, when brands and retailers started reaching out to us, asking if they could use the content that we had created.
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  Because initially it was a D2C, it was B2C, it was all for consumer content.
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  And then retailers, they started asking us for it and asking if they could put it on their websites and show it in their stores and use it as commercials.
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  So that's when we created the Dzire company as it exists today.
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  Okay.
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  Yeah.
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  And so often in the entrepreneurial journey, there's a pivot.
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  Right.
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  So like you said, it ended up a lot different than you saw it.
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  But just the genesis of it, where you're seeing that initial problem where influencer marketing starts to become a thing.
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  So many people are just like, yeah, pay me.
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  I'll say, I like this product, whatever.
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  Like you said, there's no depth.
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  And to have your co founder, Judith really just, you know, put your foot in the stand saying, no, I'm not doing that.
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  Right.
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  That kind of is how you started.
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  And then everything lined up and now you have this company to where you find, you know, whether it's experts, celebrities, whatever segment of people that really enjoy a product that they're going to basically create content because they use
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  it, because they love it, and doing so makes it so much more powerful.
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  Yeah.
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  I mean, when you see an Olympic athlete talk about everything from what they consume or vitamins or shoes or socks or things that you use when you get blisters on your feet, it's way more authentic because, you know,
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  they actually went through it.
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  We also, we work with everybody who's at the top of their career, but they're not famous, they're not really well known names.
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  And that's something that we take very seriously.
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  Like, we don't want a name that's too big because then all of a sudden the consumer thinks like, oh, how much did they get paid for that?
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  Versus when we have Olympic athletes or NFL players that aren't as recognizable.
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  They're really talking about how they use this product to enhance what they do day to day.
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  And people relate to it a lot more.
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  Like it's, it's what?
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  So we actually have a ton of stats that show a 300% increase in purchase confidence when our video is on a pdp.
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  And that's over any other type of video.
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  It's over a celebrity endorsement, it's over a commercial, it's over Influencer.
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  It's over just a regular production.
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  So our videos really have a standard that lifts sales.
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  25% average order value increase, 62% more time on site and a 300% increase in purchase confidence.
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  So significant.
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  If your business is an E commerce brand, this message is for you.
• 5:53
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• 5:56
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• 6:04
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• 6:12
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• 6:20
  Our central Kentucky location gives you nationwide reach, turning logistics into a competitive advantage.
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  So if you're ready to partner with a 3PL that actually gets your brand, visit EasyDC3PL.com okay, you kind of stole the thunder from my next question.
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  I was going to say, what's been the result for customers doing this type of much more authentic, powerful content creation?
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  Yeah, and where we are now is we started, you know, when we had that pivot.
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  It was really brands who were reaching out to us.
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  And then we realized retail media is benefiting significantly from our offering.
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  So now we are incorporated.
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  We've been live with Best Buy five and a half years.
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  Walmart, Sam's Club, Tractor Supply, they actually sell our offering.
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  So they make great margin off of it.
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  We're a huge profit center for retailers and the consumer loves it.
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  So the brands love it because sales go up, returns go down.
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  When you're getting an email that says, here's what you just bought, congratulations.
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  Here's how to use it effectively.
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  You reduce user error so the returns go down.
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  So it's a win win for everybody involved.
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  But those numbers, they're really making a difference in the shopping environment.
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  Okay, all right.
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  And as we mentioned, we're here at Shop Talk early on in the show.
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  The energy on the floor is just crazy.
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  There's so many people here.
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  Everyone in the E commerce world is at the show.
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  Why do you see it as important to come to a show like this?
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  I mean, this is where all the new news comes out first, right?
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  This is where you're hearing about it.
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  I think people are intimidated right now of AI and the impact that it's having not only on their careers, but overall in the industry that we all work in and that we dedicate our lives to.
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  And the theme this year being AI really is the most timely discussion that needs to happen within the retail environment.
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  So there's a lot of energy.
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  I think people are pretty nervous seeing all the different tools that come out every time, but in a good way.
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  Like, there's.
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  There's excitement of when you see these, these powerful tools that just can change the game overnight.
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  Instead of hearing about it in a couple of months and it's too late, you're able to incorporate some of these tools and actually do something about it.
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  Okay.
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  And yeah, so let's talk about AI, because it's everywhere.
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  So many AI companies, every booth is talking about what they're doing with AI.
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  How do you see AI changing the retail environment in the.
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  Even the next year?
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  I think a lot of ways, I think helping us discover the right products faster, I think that's a huge thing.
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  I think there's a lot of, you know, what influencer marketing does where it just sprays all of these different products that you.
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  But you don't, you know, again, going back to.
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  You don't get the depth.
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  I think AI is going to help surface the right product for your needs faster.
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  We're seeing that already.
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  And you could get it be a lot more specific.
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  So instead of going to a retailer like a Best Buy and saying, you know, headphones, you could go to Chat GPT and say, as a triathlon enthusiast and when I'm training, what are the best headphones that I could
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  wear on the bike and then go swimming with underwater and this, and then you could get a lot more specific.
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  So I think that's great for the consumer.
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  I think that that's somewhat scary for the retailers because where does that recommendation come from and where does it point you?
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  It also, you know, makes me concerned as a, as a observer of the industry, that that could be manipulated with ads eventually.
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  And we're already seeing some of those announcements coming out that, you know, Sephora has its own app within ChatGPT now, and there's other retailers that are building within ChatGPT.
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  So their ads are going to come up and direct you to their retail environments, and that might not necessarily be the best product for your needs.
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  So I think it's a very interesting wild time, to be honest.
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  Absolutely.
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  Okay.
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  All right.
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  And Eric, if people want to learn more about the Desire Company and get in touch with you, what's the best way people can find you online?
• 10:48
  LinkedIn.
• 10:48
  LinkedIn.
• 10:49
  Eric Scheincup, the Desire Company.
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  Go to the DesireCompany.com and we have white papers.
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  We have, you know, lots of education out there, just in general that's free to download and always happy to hear from anybody.
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  Okay.
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  All right, Eric, thank you so much.
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  Thank you.