Livestream shopping platform Whatnot has acquired Shaped, an AI startup that specialises in real-time recommendations and search. The deal is small in the grand scheme of tech M&A, but it points to something important: the arms race in AI-powered personalisation is accelerating.
For Irish small businesses, especially those in retail, this is a development worth understanding. The technology that powers recommendations on big platforms is becoming cheaper and more accessible. And that changes what your customers expect.
The Recommendation Revolution
Shaped is a machine learning company that helps e-commerce sites show customers the right products at the right time. Instead of a simple “people also bought” feature, Shaped’s models analyse browsing behaviour, past purchases, and real-time signals to surface personalised suggestions.
Whatnot, a marketplace best known for live-streamed auctions of collectables, wants to use this technology to make its shopping experience more engaging. When a buyer is watching a live stream, the AI can suggest related items in real time — before the buyer even knows they want them.
This is not new technology for big players. Amazon has been doing it for years. But until recently, the cost and complexity of building these systems made them out of reach for smaller retailers. That is changing.
Why This Matters for Irish Retailers
If you run a shop, a pub, a trades business, or any customer-facing operation in Ireland, personalised recommendations might seem like something for the big chains. But the same technology that powers Amazon’s suggestions is now available as a service. Companies like Shaped, and the many competitors in this space, offer plug-and-play AI that small businesses can integrate into their websites or apps without hiring a data science team.
This matters because your customers are being trained by Amazon, Netflix, and Spotify to expect personalised experiences. When they visit your website and see a generic list of products, it feels outdated — even if they cannot say why. The bar has been raised, and AI recommendation tools are becoming the standard way to meet it.
There is a catch, of course. Recommendation AI works best when it has data to learn from. If you have a small product catalogue or limited customer data, the results will be less impressive. But even a simple system — suggesting related items based on category or price range — can improve sales by 10 to 15 percent, according to industry studies.
The Irish E-Commerce Opportunity
Irish retail is a mix of high-street shops, independent stores, and a growing number of online businesses. Many of these are still running basic e-commerce platforms with minimal personalisation. The acquisition of Shaped by Whatnot is a signal that the market for AI recommendations is growing, and the tools are becoming more affordable.
If you are thinking about adding personalised recommendations to your online store, start small. Most e-commerce platforms — Shopify, WooCommerce, Squarespace — have plug-ins or add-ons that use basic recommendation algorithms. Test one for a month and measure the impact on average order value and conversion rate. The data will tell you whether investing in a more advanced AI system is worth it.
What to Do Next
The Whatnot-Shaped deal is one of many acquisitions happening in the AI recommendation space. The market is consolidating, which means the best technology will end up owned by the biggest platforms. For small businesses, the smart move is to adopt the AI tools that are already built into your existing platforms before looking at standalone solutions.
Start by enabling personalised product recommendations on your e-commerce site. Track the results. And keep an eye on how the big players like Whatnot are using AI to engage customers — because those expectations will eventually find their way to your business too.