Social commerce platform CommentSold and cloud-based POS provider Lightspeed are teaming up to give boutique retailers a boost in selling products online.
The partnership will allow more brick-and-mortar stores to leverage social media as a selling channel, CommentSold said in a statement on Thursday.
The company provides retailers selling through social channels with easy ordering capabilities. When a user comments on a product post with the intention to buy, they are sent an invoice through the automated platform, while the retailer is provided with a fulfillment order and their inventory is updated in real time.
The platform integration means that Lightspeed’s user network of small-to-medium-sized businesses (SMBs) will now be able to tap into the highly engaged consumer bases that scour Facebook and Instagram to find new brands and products.
Social media’s meteoric rise as a discovery tool has accelerated in recent years, with many new direct-to-consumer companies building out their brand identities almost entirely through platforms like Instagram. More than two-fifths (45 percent) of millennials have bought clothing from brands they found on Instagram, investment bank Roth Capital Partners said in a 2020 survey of millennial shoppers.
And the vast majority (78 percent) of American consumers have discovered retail products through Facebook, according to a 2018 study from venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins. A relentless barrage of targeted banner and carousel ads has become integral to the user experience on the social network.
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According to CommentSold chief operating officer Andy Smith, the newly forged “powerful” alliance with Lightspeed will empower SMBs to grow their businesses through these highly visible channels.
“CommentSold provides a frictionless social shopping experience that allows stores to sell right on Facebook, Instagram and personalized mobile apps,” he added. “Paired with Lightspeed’s scalable point-of-sale systems, these stores can now seamlessly sell everywhere, giving them a chance at competing in an ever-changing marketplace.”
Peter Dougherty, Lightspeed’s senior director of partnerships, said the integration is a response to a need that has been communicated by the company’s retail users. “We are excited to offer our customers easy access to sell on social because it makes something that might have felt intimidating suddenly become attainable,” he said.
The integration will auto-sync inventory from Lightspeed to CommentSold, allowing the latter to automate retail operations like invoicing, along with streamlining shipping and fulfillment for inventory sold on social channels.