Social video commerce startup MikMak is becoming an e-commerce software platform and promising it can help brands like Hershey and Petco drive more sales
- Social video commerce platform MikMa is turning into a broader enterprise software platform and claiming it can help brands optimize their online sales.
- MikMak says it can help brands and retailers understand what channels, audiences, and creative actually get people to buy.
- MikMak claims to work with more than 150 brands and retailers and have Colgate, L'Oreal, Hershey, Petco, and P&G among its clients.
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Until now, social video commerce platform MikMak helped brands and retailers sell products on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. Now, the startup is turning into an enterprise software platform that it claims can help brands optimize those online sales.
MikMak says it can show brands their e-commerce business in one spot through a new product, MikMak Dashboard, that shows what channels, audiences, and creative drive sales, MikMak founder and CEO Rachel Tipograph said.
"I realized that from a product development perspective, I could build something that wasn't just useful to the digital and social team, but also to the CRM team, shopper marketing team, and the consumer insights team," Tipograph told Business Insider. "I wasn't providing visibility for what was happening real-time in the market across platforms and retailers. And that's what I decided to build this product."
MikMak claims it can help companies make better and faster e-commerce decisions
MikMak says the dashboard can help companies manage and track their sales across platforms and retailers based on channels, location, and influencers, and show what products are doing well by platform or retailer.
MikMak claims to work with more than 150 brands and retailers and have Colgate, L'Oreal, Hershey, Petco and P&G among its clients.
Hershey and Petco said that they have seen positive results from using the platform.
MikMak helped Hershey nudge consumers to not just buy products but buy them in the right context, said Doug Straton, the company's chief digital officer. The company has seen conversion rates higher than the industry average while testing the dashboard over the past 3 months, he said.
Petco credits MikMak with helping attract more brand vendors by letting Petco give the vendors control over their shopping experience, said Tariq Hassan, Petco's CMO. It's also helped Petco reduce bounce rates on its own website by 23%, he said.
But competition is heating up
MikMak started out making short and catchy infomercials on behalf of brands on social platforms, then built video technology to enable shopping on platforms. But with platforms like Instagram building their own checkouts, competition is heating up.
Tipograph argued that those checkouts are just those platforms while MikMak is building consistent storefront across channels with standardized reporting.
The company is also profitable, she said. It has raised $3.2 million to date, from investors including VaynerMedia, Luminari Capital, Slow Ventures, UTA Ventures and Brave Ventures, and plans to raise more money in the second half of the year.
