According to a 2018 Salesforce report from 6K consumers and 1.4B e-commerce visits, 87% of consumers begin their shopping journey through digital channels. Despite this staggering number, many brands struggle to build brand loyalty from online shoppers, who are aware of the conspicuous, transactional nature of the traditional customer relationship. Replika solves this problem by giving social sellers (influencers & online sales associates) a suite of tools that adds authenticity and emotion to the online shopping experience. This multifunctional platform includes curation tools, allowing social sellers to build inspirational, personal webpages connected to the brand’s website, and a marketing platform so social sellers can create optimized brand-safe social posts that lead to transactions. Additionally, Replika has a platform for brands to expand and manage the relationships with these social sellers.
AlleyWatch interviewed Kareen Mallet to learn how Replika is the enterprise solution for brand loyalty.
Tell us about the product or service that Replika offers.
Replika Software is a social selling solution (B2B) enabling brands to activate their network of social sellers with a turnkey business to inspire on social media, sell online and connect with consumers anytime, anywhere.
What inspired the start of Replika?
Replika was created based on my prior experience as a Senior Fashion Director from Neiman Marcus & Bergdorf Goodman. We believe Replika is empowering personal relationships between brands and consumers while leveraging the role of sales associates and independent social sellers as expert curators.
In a world where personalization has been diluted to making the right transactional recommendation, we believe that the human connection is the lost, sought after the element that empowers brands to make more sales, in the long run, build brand loyalty, and creates a fulfilling, superior, experience for the customer.
Everything we do is about building a better human relationship between customers and brands by empowering the function of sales associates/social sellers.
How is Replika different?
The platform was conceived with the 3 stakeholders in mind: the brand, the social seller, and the consumer. With retail foot traffic declining, and the commoditization of online shopping rising, there is a loss of consumer loyalty online. Replika Software enables brands to activate a new selling channel while controlling the brand identity/messaging and having complete oversight of the experience.
What market does Replika target and how big is it?
The entire retail and e-commerce industry. Our current clients are fashion and beauty brands, but we are now in negotiation with pharmaceutical groups, the wine/ spirit industry, and anyone selling products and services online.
What is the business model?
Integration fee + percentage of sales.
Who do you consider to be your primary competitors?
Clienteling tools. Affiliates programs.
What are the milestones that you plan to achieve within six months?
We were recognized by both L’Oreal and LVMH as one of the most innovative solutions for the consumer experience of tomorrow. As a result, we are in the process of worldwide deployments with those two groups in the next couple of weeks.
What is the one piece of startup advice that you never got?
Everything in a startup is sales! Fundraising is sales, biz dev is sales, revenue is sales.
Perfection is your enemy in a startup! You can launch with less than you think and validate your core value proposition.
Everything in a startup is sales! Fundraising is sales, biz dev is sales, revenue is sales.
Perfection is your enemy in a startup! You can launch with less than you think and validate your core value proposition.
Quickly launching an MVP that addresses a problem and then iterating on features based on customer feedback is key.
If you could be put in touch with anyone in the New York community who would it be and why?
Jay Z for his entrepreneurial vision. He founded/owned many ventures including in the fashion industry.
Why did you launch in New York?
I am French and did all my career in NYC. My cofounder grew up here and created the screen in the back of NYC taxis. The NYC community of entrepreneurs is very diverse. As a woman coming from the corporate fashion and retail industry, I received several rolled eyes from the tech and VC communities in Silicon Valley but over here, in NYC, it is much more open to diversity in terms of gender, age and background. Therefore, it was only normal to create our company here. Since then we have also opened an office in Paris at Station F.
What’s your favorite restaurant in the city?
Pastis, because it’s a little bit of France in NYC. My favorite 2 cities.
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