L’Oréal has acquired a minority stake in U.S “social selling” platform Replika Software. Made through BOLD Business Opportunities for L’Oréal Development - the group’s venture capital fund - this investment is part of its e-commerce acceleration strategy.
Founded in 2016 by Kareen Mallet, former Fashion Director at Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman, and Corey Gottlieb, advertising, marketing and tech entrepreneur, Replika Software enables brands to activate at scale their network of social sellers to sell online, inspire on social media and connect with consumers anytime, anywhere. The company is based in New York and has offices in Paris.
e-commerce already represents 25% of L’Oréal’s revenues
“Social commerce is an exciting new form of e-commerce that enables consumers, influencers, experts, beauty or shop assistants to sell brands and products on social platforms through formats such as live shopping or livestreaming,” said Lubomira Rochet, Chief Digital Officer of L’Oréal. “Today, e-commerce already represents 25% of L’Oréal’s revenues. The rise of social commerce is a great opportunity for our brands to reinvent the consumer beauty experience worldwide. Our ambition is to crack this new channel and create a healthy and dynamic ecosystem of social sellers for the beauty category”.
Social selling is only in its infancy, according to Replika Software. Combined with the massive scale offered by the global online community, this tool has a huge potential, says Replika Software Co-founder Kareen Mallet. “We are thrilled to strengthen our partnership with L’Oréal. Having their financial support and domain expertise will help us execute our vision even more rapidly and broadly”.
