L’Oréal invests in social selling platform Replika Software, Inc.
Clichy, 10 December 2020 – As part of its acceleration strategy in e-commerce, L’Oréal announces a minority investment in US-American social selling platform Replika Software, Inc., made through its corporate venture capital fund BOLD Business Opportunities for L’Oréal Development.
As a turnkey social selling platform, Replika Software enables brands to activate at scale their network of social sellers to sell online, inspire on social media and connect with consumers anytime, anywhere. Founded in 2016 by Kareen Mallet, former Fashion Director at Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman, and Corey Gottlieb, advertising, marketing and tech entrepreneur, the company is based in New York and has offices in Paris.
“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,” said Lubomira Rochet, Chief Digital Officer of L’Oréal. “Today, e-commerce already represents 25% of L’Oréal’s revenues. 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”.
“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. Replika Software 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,” said Replika Software Co-founder Kareen Mallet. “We are thrilled 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”.
For more information about BOLD Business Opportunities for L’Oréal Development: www.lorealboldventures.com
About L'Oréal
L’Oréal has devoted itself to beauty for over 100 years. With its unique international portfolio of 36 diverse and complementary brands, the Group generated sales amounting to 29.87 billion euros in 2019 and employs 88,000 people worldwide. As the world’s leading beauty company, L’Oréal is present across all distribution networks: mass market, department stores, pharmacies and drugstores, hair salons, travel retail, branded retail and e-commerce.
Research and innovation, and a dedicated research team of 4,100 people, are at the core of L’Oréal’s strategy, working to meet beauty aspirations all over the world. L’Oréal sets out ambitious sustainable development goals across the Group for 2030 and aims to empower its ecosystem for a more inclusive and sustainable society.
More information: https://mediaroom.loreal.com/
"This press release does not constitute an offer of sale or solicitation of an offer to purchase L'Oréal shares. If you wish to obtain more comprehensive information about L'Oréal, please refer to the public documents registered in France with the Autorité des Marchés Financiers, also available in English on our website www.loreal-finance.com.
This press release may contain forecast information. While the Company believes that these statements are based on reasonable assumptions as of the date of publication of this press release, they are by nature subject to risks and uncertainties which may lead to a discrepancy between the actual figures and those indicated or suggested in these statements.”
L'ORÉAL CONTACTS
Individual Shareholders and Market Regulators
Christian MUNICH
Tel.: +33 (0)1 47 56 72 06
[email protected]
Financial Analysts and Institutional Investors
Françoise LAUVIN
Tel.: +33 (0)1 47 56 86 82
[email protected]
Media
Polina HUARD
Tel.: +33 (0)1 47 56 87 88
[email protected]
Switchboard: +33 (0)1 47 56 70 00
For further information, please contact your bank, stockbroker of financial institution (I.S.I.N. code: FR000012031) and consult your usual newspapers or magazines or the Internet site for shareholders and investors, www.loreal-finance.com, the L’Oréal Finance app or call the toll-free number from France: 0 800 66 66 66.