New York, September 12, 2023 – Emplifi, the leading customer engagement platform, today announced enhancements to its Social Commerce Cloud, giving brands the power to create more shoppable content across the brand’s social media channels. By bringing together user generated content (UGC), ratings and reviews, influencer marketing content, and live video commerce Emplifi’s Social Commerce Cloud bridges the gap between a brand’s social media marketing and ecommerce teams to drive increased online conversions and revenue gains, and move the needle just in time for the 2023 holiday season.
The National Retail Foundation reported eCommerce sales grew 9.5% during the 2022 holiday season, reaching $261.6 billion. And while retail sales slowed earlier this year, current forecasts show that they are trending upward—the NRF confirmed US retail sales had “reversed their downward trend” in July, supported by steady job growth and wage gains. As we head into the holiday season, Insider Intelligence forecast brands will see similar growth as last year, with eMarketer predicting 2023 holiday retail ecommerce to be up by nearly 12%, representing nearly 20% of total holiday sales. Another Insider Intelligence prediction: The US will see social commerce retail sales reach nearly $80 billion in the next two years.
Brands can quickly identify and integrate their strongest performing social media content into ecommerce experiences that accelerate the shopper’s journey and yield higher conversion rates. As can be seen with clients Drybar, GNC, Jones Soda Company, Kimpton Hotels, Kipling and Stanley.
"Emplifi is focused on building the most comprehensive social commerce platform available. We know this is the future of ecommerce, and want to enable brands to create high-performing shoppable content and maximize its impact across social channels," said Todd McCaslin, CTO, Emplifi. "Consumers crave these experiences from the brands they love. When they see something they want in an Instagram Reel or in their Facebook feed, they want to be able to click a link and purchase it with little to no friction. The brands that understand this and continue to fully lean into shoppable content opportunities will be the winners this holiday season and beyond."
Emplifi Social Commerce Cloud includes:
User Generated Content: The preferred platform for delivering shoppable content, Emplifi Social Commerce Cloud makes it easy to identify and collect effective UGC for product pages and social posts. Enhanced functionality such as “in stock only” UGC album filters help brands serve up shoppable content for products available and ready for immediate sale.
Ratings and Reviews: Industry research shows that nearly 90% of consumers claim that ratings and reviews have the biggest impact on purchasing decisions. Customers can quickly search and filter ratings and reviews with intuitive, powerful metrics like date range, product title or category, or syndication source. New ready-to-go email templates save teams significant time and provide the ability to review collection rates with sleek out-of-the-box email interfaces.
Influencer Content: Emplifi Influencers, the unified creators module that is part of the Social Commerce Cloud, helps brands track, manage, and communicate with influencers via the influencer portal. The feature also includes analytics and tagging on Instagram and Facebook so that they can see the true ROI of their influencer marketing campaigns.
Live Commerce/Livestream Shopping: As part of the Emplifi Social Commerce Cloud, brands now have access to an easy-to-use “Live Page” API where they can manage their shoppable video content that resides on their website—all without a heavy lift from their web development team or back-end support. Because the API does not require coding changes, brands can quickly and easily trade out video content on their site. This is all in addition to live video capabilities that make one-to-one and one-to-many livestream shopping experiences possible.
Drybar (Helen of Troy) uses Emplifi Social Commerce Cloud’s UGC and Ratings and Reviews. The brand acquired 4,700 UGC assets in seven months, a 300% increase in review collection rate, where 68% of questions were answered by community members. "It’s important that Drybar brand advocates are empowered to share their experiences," said Tari Huddleston, Senior Director at Helen of Troy. "Emplifi helps us tell the customer story both visually and through written words."
As a pioneer on the UGC and tech front, Jones Soda Company didn’t stop at static images when it came to celebrating customer content. The brand’s "Reel Labels" campaign allows users to submit videos to be showcased on-site via Emplifi, which the team then turned into an AR experience on real-life soda bottle labels. The brand automated 54 UGC galleries sitewide, with a 69% engagement rate and 25% increase in time spent on digital properties. This captured 4,600 votes in under 30 days for a key community campaign. "Before Emplifi, we had this on-its-own-island gallery that was a bit dated and lacked some necessary functionality," said Maisie Antoniello, Vice President of Marketing at Jones Soda Co. "We asked ourselves: what does it look like rebuilding from bottom up? After exploring our options for UGC, we chose Emplifi."
To get a closer look at Emplifi’s Social Commerce Cloud, book a demo.
About Emplifi
Emplifi is a leading unified customer engagement platform that empowers businesses to reach and grow communities through digital- and social-first strategies. More than 20,000 brands like McDonald’s, Ford Motor Company, and Delta Air Lines rely on Emplifi to enable connected, empathetic experiences for the modern consumer across marketing, commerce, and care. Headquartered in New York, Emplifi partners with major social media networks and digital platforms, including Google, Meta, LinkedIn, Twitter, TikTok, and Snapchat.
