Founded in 2015 by Adam Levene, the Hero platform allows shoppers to go “inside the store” online to “interact with real experts at their favorite brands through video shopping, messaging and real-time chat,” the company said.
The aim is to create a more human connection between online merchants and brands, and their customers. Here, Levene discusses how the platform works and how humanizing the online shopping experience is relevant — especially since the outbreak of COVID-19.
WWD: What was the impetus behind founding Hero? And how does the virtual shopping platform work?
Adam Levene: Shoppers don’t have the same confidence to buy online as they do when browsing in-store — we launched Hero in early 2017 to solve this, believing that human interaction is what’s missing from e-commerce.
Grapple, my last business, was the largest app-commerce company in Europe, launching digital platforms for Adidas, P&G and Fiat, among others.