The last few weeks have been truly exciting for the whole Emplifi team and me. First, we successfully launched our extensive Social Commerce Cloud offering to the market. Just one week later, we announced the acquisition of a fantastic business that has been revolutionizing the Live Shopping experience for brands and customers alike, Go Instore.
But why are we so excited?
The pandemic-driven ecommerce boom has helped accelerate the growth of social commerce across the US and Europe. Social commerce, and especially live commerce, already have significant traction across Asia and China specifically. eMarketer even forecasts the social commerce market to reach over $350 billion by the end of 2021 in China alone. The market is poised for continued gains in the West, too, as key social commerce platforms advance their shopping and checkout capabilities.
Suffice it to say, social commerce will play a key role in the future of online shopping.
The Go Instore platform enables live commerce by connecting online customers with in-store product experts using immersive HD live video. Their leading-edge video technology provides brands with a new channel through which they can engage and serve their customers. Emplifi’s acquisition of Go Instore further strengthens our omnichannel approach — meeting customers, wherever they are.
Livestream shopping gives brands a new way to connect with their digital customers
Today, more than ever, brands need the ability to deliver engaging, easy, and convenient online shopping experiences. Livestream shopping has emerged as a key way for brands to do this, especially since the start of the pandemic. To deliver these experiences, brands need stand-alone livestream solutions that enable them to build faster connection-to-conversion experiences for their audiences.
Live video can be used to provide customers with several personalized services, including sessions with virtual stylists, fashion consultants, product experts, salespeople and customer service reps. It can also be used to host one-to-many streamed video events like product launches, seasonal campaigns, or influencer marketing promotions, directly from your own website or via social platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.
Looking ahead
Aside from a cutting-edge technology platform, with Go Instore we are also adding a great new group of talented experts to the Emplifi family. The Go Instore team has a phenomenal culture of innovation, success, and teamwork, and like Emplifi, they care about building collaborative relationships based on respect, authenticity, and transparency. They aspire to create outstanding experiences and services time after time. And, very importantly, they know how to celebrate success!
I look forward to celebrating a lot of success with our teams as we help customers connect and convert consumers more quickly and directly — and deliver engaging and memorable shopping experiences for their customers — through the power of livestream video and social media.
If you want to find out more about our Social Commerce Cloud, please drop me a note. Or, you can read all about it in this blog post from Alex George, CPO at Emplifi.