albert Chan
What’s the Story?
This report forms part of our Innovator Profile series, which focuses on emerging technologies that are disrupting traditional retail and fueling innovation across the retail value chain.
In this free report, we profile CommentSold, a cloud-based SaaS platform that enables small and medium-sized retail businesses (SMBs) to implement live social selling across multiple shopping platforms.
Coresight Research collaborated with CommentSold to offer insights into its service capabilities and offerings.
Why It Matters
Livestream shopping is growing rapidly as a key aspect of social commerce, enabling viewers to engage directly with brands and retailers in learning about and purchasing products. The US livestream e-commerce market is set to reach $11 billion in 2021 and $35 billion in 2024, Coresight Research estimates.
Although retail players in the US have been accelerating their adoption of live shopping technologies and services, there is still a gap to bridge when it comes to optimizing live social shopping experiences. Social media platforms are a key pillar in retail: Coresight Research survey data indicate that more than half of social media shoppers aged 18–34 make purchases via social media more than once a month.
CommentSold offers brands, retailers and content creators a centralized control center with livestreaming support, as well as integrated checkout options, which are not yet available on social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.
CommentSold: In Detail
Headquarters
Huntsville, Alabama, US
Funding Stage
Raised an undisclosed amount, received strategic investment from private equity firm Permira
Management Team
Brandon Kruse—Co-Founder and CEO
Andy Smith—Co-Founder and COO
David YoungWe—VP of Marketing
What Problem is the Company Solving?
It can be challenging for retail businesses to leverage social media to sell directly to followers as the algorithms on social media platforms limit the visibility of all external links. Promoting products on these platforms therefore requires a new approach in order to access shoppers and better understand their preferences. CommentSold’s platform allows a seller to syndicate products listed on its system with social platforms, as well as their own e-commerce site and other apps.
CommentSold’s platform connects retailers with shoppers on social networks through trigger words, which function as an alternative to external links. During a livestreaming session, viewers can type "sold” with their size and color requirement in the chat box to automatically add an item to their cart. Customers can purchase items in just a few steps and without leaving the livestream.
The company’s platform automates operational tasks such as invoicing and inventory management, as well as integrating processes including order listing, payments and fulfillment processing into one dashboard. CommentSold currently works with over 6,000 companies and has captured over 12 million users in the US.
Competitive Advantage
- Redefining social commerce through livestreaming: CommentSold’s solution expedites the live selling practices for companies, allowing them to engage with shoppers directly through a centralized platform. Triggering orders via live commenting is unique and exciting—plus, it offers brands and retailers opportunity to drive sales through targeted and customized promotions.
- Simplification of the retail operation process: The company’s platform brings agility and automation to each merchant’s system. CommentSold provides a variety of commerce enablement services including order intake, payment, fulfillment and analytics through its proprietary SaaS platform.
- Branded mobile apps: CommentSold helps SMBs to democratize e-commerce amid the growing consumption of live commerce through the creation of their own mobile apps for customers. The branded apps can also connect livestreams sessions concurrently on Facebook pages and groups with curated product links and push notifications to reach shoppers. More than 80% of sales it powers are generated on the 2,400 mobile apps CommentSold powers.
- Owning first-party data: Sellers can monitor shopper data on CommentSold’s dashboard to inform actionable sales strategies. This creates a direct channel between manufacturers, retailers and customers, allowing companies to assess trends and notify consumers about product availability without relying on syndicated data.
Strategy for the Post-Pandemic Market
CommentSold seeks to form new partnerships with retailers and market chains to enhance customer experiences during live shopping. It will continue to facilitate a seamless live shopping ecosystem, with effortless administration, marketing and checkout processes. In October 2021, CommentSold launched a “flea market” live shopping series on social media platforms, which allows customers to viewers various sellers in one stream.
Upcoming Developments
The company plans to expand its services by moving into supplying products to sellers and handling more elements of the fulfillment process. CommentSold has identified that there are many influencers in the US that could sell directly to their followers but lack the expertise to become an online retailer. The company sees itself as filling this void by offering a full suite of services that would make becoming a seller as simple as selecting the products to promote during a livestream.
On August 18, 2021, CommentSold announced that it received strategic investment from Permira, a global private equity firm that backs tech-enabled businesses, to implement live shopping for more retailers.
What We Think
CommentSold enables the creator economy and maximizes retailers’ live social selling capabilities. With its full-suite live social selling services, we see the company as being at the forefront of the large and disruptive live shopping market.