L’Oréal invests in social-selling software to increase ecomm revenue above 25%

16-Dec-2020 - Last updated on 16-Dec-2020 at 17:48 GMT

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This month, the multinational beauty maker’s venture capital fund announced a minority investment in Replika Software, a tool that lets brands create a ‘retail partnership’ with any individual active on social or streaming platforms.

Kareen Mallet and Corey Gottlieb launched Replika Software in 2017 as a sort of commission solution for retail salespeople, brand ambassadors, and influencers—all people who are passionate about product and actively speaking with consumers online.

Remarking on this month’s minority investment deal with the BOLD fund (Business Opportunities for L’Oréal Development), Mallet says, “As an industry, we’re just scratching the surface of how powerful social commerce can be when it’s combined with the massive scale offered by the global online community.”

And “Replika Software,” she notes “comes off an excellent year of growth and is powering new revenue generating social selling programs for brands of L’Oréal and others around the world,”

“We are thrilled,” says Mallet, “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.”

Replika Software deal is an ecommerce boost for L’Oréal brands

Replika is already partnered with luxury brands like Dior, retailers such as Sephora, and L’Oréal brands including It Cosmetics, Redkin, Kérastase, and Pulp Riot.

And L’Oreal’s minority investment this month in the social selling platform only expands the collaboration and knowledge sharing between the 2 businesses.

“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,” says Lubomira Rochet, Chief Digital Officer of L’Oréal, in her comments to the press.

“The rise of social commerce is a great opportunity for our brands to reinvent the consumer beauty experience worldwide. We are very excited to partner with Replika Software, a pioneer in the field, to create social commerce at scale. Our ambition is to crack this new channel and create a healthy and dynamic ecosystem of social sellers for the beauty category.”

L’Oréal venture capital fund invests broadly but deliberately

The global beauty maker launched its in-house venture capital fund BOLD in late 2018 with the announcement of a first minority stake investment in Sillages Paris, a company focused on artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning.

BOLD has, since then, made 5 other investments in select companies that fall under its 10 areas of interest: sustainable beauty, personalized beauty, clean natural beauty, health and wellness, new aging solutions, new beauty for new generation, data management, beauty tech, multicultural beauty, and green science.

When BOLD arrived on the scene 2 years ago, L'Oréal Chairman and CEO Jean-Paul Agon explained, “As the beauty leader, it is our mission to empower young entrepreneurs in our industry by helping them to turn their vision into scalable businesses. The creation of our own corporate venture fund is a logical step that completes our existing partnerships with funds and incubators and will allow L'Oréal to invest in promising beauty concepts at an early stage.” Learn more about BOLD, find testimonials from several of the men leading BOLD businesses, and see all of the companies included in this L’Oréal investment portfolio online here.