Social commerce — the method of shopping for and promoting services or products immediately by way of social media platforms like Fb, Instagram and TikTok — is turning into essentially the most pure approach for shoppers to make purchases since folks use social media and messaging apps virtually day-after-day.
SleekFlow, an omnichannel social commerce platform that helps companies construct buyer circulate automation from messaging and reside video to transactions, has closed $8 million Sequence A funding led by Tiger International Administration. Transcend Capital and AEF Higher Bay Space Fund, managed by Gobi Companions GBA, additionally participated within the spherical.
“Shoppers now spend 80 % of their time on social platforms, and it’s already a behavior to find and purchase merchandise immediately from right here,” stated founder and CEO of SleekFlow Henson Tsai. “SleekFlow goals to drive this e-commerce revolution by being the highest social commerce unified hub — merging conversations, product catalogs, cost options, and order administration into one for companies.”
Picture Credit: SleekFlow
Based in 2019, SleekFlow now serves greater than 5,000 companies throughout the globe, together with NARS Cosmetics, Bossini, Lalamove Hong Kong and PSB Academy. The corporate claims that it noticed roughly 500% income development after its latest pre-Sequence A funding backed by Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund (AHKEF) in Might 2021. (SleekFlow didn’t present its baseline for that development.)
The Hong Kong-headquartered startup will use the contemporary capital for its market penetration into Southeast Asia, particularly Singapore and Malaysia, in addition to the U.Okay. and different international locations in Europe. As well as, the most recent funding will allow SleekFlow to reinforce its product improvement with fintech and knowledge analytics capabilities, one-click checkouts through social media platforms, and straightforward in-chat cost integrations for on-line to offline (O2O) and e-commerce manufacturers’ seamless workflow.
The startup has lately launched a fintech product social-to-payment function to supply a complete answer for each e-commerce and brick-and-mortar companies. In Southeast Asia alone, about 90% of digital merchants use digital payments for profitability and survival, the corporate says, including that the chat-to-checkout software is important in driving gross sales and conversions from numerous digital gross sales channels. SleekFlow additionally launched a brand new gross sales and analytics and customer support efficiency monitoring that helps customers observe and analyze shopper profiles and behaviors for personalised communications after its partnership with Shopify final November.
The worldwide social commerce market is projected to rise to $6.2 trillion by 2030.
In line with the corporate, one in 5 {dollars} spent on retail in Southeast Asia is transacted by way of social media, and extra shoppers are looking to businesses offering convenient communications. SleekFlow integrates a number of messaging channels similar to Official WhatsApp Enterprise API, Fb Messenger, Instagram chat, SMS and Telegram to handle the challenges of managing a number of messaging and social media platforms.
“Regardless of the financial downturn, the social commerce market goes stronger than ever, reaching $474 billion in 2021,” Chibo Tang, managing accomplice of Gobi Companions GBA stated in a press release. “Eight in 10 U.S. companies anticipate elevated gross sales through social media inside the subsequent three years. SleekFlow’s revolutionary options will assist these international commerce companies meet the evolving wants of shoppers who’re turning to social channels to buy greater than ever earlier than.”
Slack now has a group of 60 members in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan and the U.Okay.
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