Yotpo, an international e-commerce marketing platform, has announced its launch into Australia, following a multi-year platform collaboration with Shopify, considerable market growth with big Australian names, and a plan to help local Aussie ecommerce flourish.
According to the company, the platform relationship would boost Yotpo’s growth and product development, ultimately helping merchants better engage with their customers and expand their businesses through creative marketing tools and solutions.
Yotpo’s Head of Sales, APAC, Enzo Cavaliero, noted that in the previous 18 months, the business had seen a major investment in e-commerce from retail businesses forced to pivot due to lockdowns.
“The nature of bricks and mortar retail has changed over the past decade; we already knew Aussie retailers were savvy and resilient. However, the growth of the e-commerce sector since the start of the pandemic has exceeded expectations,” Mr Cavaliero said.
“Over the next six months, our core focus will be building the team, onboarding new local merchants, and introducing our latest SMS marketing offering.
“SMS is already driving impressive results in pilots we’ve conducted with the likes of Princess Polly, resulting in 64 times return on investment, and an 84% conversion rate, in just three months.
“SMS marketing channels have a 98% text open rate, and 90% of texts are read within the first 3 minutes — yet we believe the value of this channel is underestimated locally.
“This presents a significant market opportunity for both Yotpo and our brands to grow through more engaging channels, as mediums like social media become oversaturated,” he said.
Mr Cavaliero spoke with Dynamic Business.
How can Yotpo assist small businesses that want to sell online?
“An issue we hear time and again from our customers is that they have to use 10-15 apps on a day to day basis to manage different aspects of their online store.
“Yotpo’s mission is to make their lives easier by creating a unified eCommerce marketing platform that allows users to easily manage all the essential pieces of a successful “eCommerce store; ratings, reviews, and visual UGC to drive conversion rates and collect engaging content from your customers, loyalty and referral programs to drive repeat purchase and increase CLTV and finally SMS, to communicate with your customers on their preferred device and channel.
“For small businesses specifically, we have free and self-service plans available, meaning you can manage all these tools from one dashboard. When you start to grow, we have a full team of experts ready to help you with all aspects of the strategy.”
What has changed in Australia’s eCommerce landscape since the pandemic?
“The pandemic accelerated the already rapidly growing Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) trend, so much so that almost every business is now an eCommerce business. This increased competition online has put a real squeeze on customer acquisition channels. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) has continued to climb.
“Most retailers have now realised the importance of Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV) and are putting a huge amount of thought into re-engaging and driving brand loyalty with current customers.
“We’re helping our customers with questions like: How do you build an effective loyalty program that entices customers to purchase again? And which channels should we use to communicate this?
“We’ve also seen a huge shift in the demographics of people who are shopping online, so brands have had to rethink their communication strategy to tailor experiences.
“No longer are we only seeing the digital native Millennial or Gen Z shopper dominate web sales, lockdowns have driven everyday Aussies across generations to shop online, and as a result, brands recognise they need to expand their reach, whether this via email, SMS or socials.”
How will the Shopify integration benefit merchants and e-commerce businesses as a result of the new partnership?
“At a high level, aligning product teams means that merchants using both Shopify and Yotpo will have access to more advanced features to get the maximum performance from their store.
“We already have some exciting releases on the roadmap for the coming quarters that will be as a direct result of this strategic partnership. On a practical level, the integration between platforms will become more seamless, meaning the day-to-day management of Yotpo and Shopify will be easier and more user friendly for merchants.”
What does this relationship mean for Yotpo’s growth and product development?
“A large focus of the partnership is on aligning product teams and roadmaps to ensure that our joint merchants are receiving the very best tools to build better relationships with their customers, especially in Australia, where we’ve seen significant growth.
“The local eCommerce market is expanding rapidly, and Yotpo has identified ANZ as a focal emerging market, which is why we’ve decided to put boots on the ground,” he concluded.
Yotpo has raised over $400m in funding, from investors including Bessemer Venture Partners, Tiger Global, Vertex Ventures, and more.
Brandon Chu, VP Product Acceleration at Shopify, added: “Yotpo is a shining example of what is possible in the Shopify Ecosystem of partners and developers.
“We hope that Yotpo’s story, and our strategic partnership, demonstrates to our ecosystem that there is no limit to the size of the impact you can have on our platform. As you reach scale, Shopify wants to build a product alliance with you, for the betterment of merchants, forever.”
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