Collaborative shopping platform enables ecommerce merchants to increase on-site engagement, lower customer acquisition costs and increase shopping cart size
Joyned™, a SaaS platform empowering retailers to provide social shopping experiences directly to their consumers rather than through third-party social platforms, announced today $4 million in seed funding to support the growing demand for its one-of-a-kind platform.
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Funding was led by a trio of respected names in the retail and technology industries, including Arthur Stark, former long-time President of Bed Bath & Beyond; Yair Goldfinger, Founder of Dotomi and ICQ; and Rafael Ashkenazi, Managing Director, Executive Chairman, Hard Rock Digital, and former CEO of The Stars Group. The funding will be used to expand Joyned’s U.S. presence and scale its business to help meet the demand for its product among fashion, travel and consumer electronics retailers.
By leveraging natural social engagement, Joyned provides its merchant partners with highly qualified organic website traffic, while increasing profitability and lowering acquisition costs. Moving shopping-related social activity off of traditional social media platforms and onto retailers’ own websites and ecommerce platforms lowers customer acquisition costs, optimizes conversion rates, and builds loyalty. Retailers have experienced an overall sales increase as high as 6%-15% after users invited their friends to engage using Joyned, as well as up to a 250%+ retention rate and a 40%+ increase in traffic for those who clicked to use the platform.
“The ecommerce landscape is rapidly shifting toward social media platforms, and threatens retailers’ ability to build direct relationships with their customers and increases customer acquisition costs,” said Jonathan Abraham, CEO, Joyned. “But by using Joyned, brands can infuse some of the social aspect into shopping experiences within their own ecosystems without having to rely on a third-party platform. Providing brands with a direct ‘social-to-sale’ pipeline not only increases revenue but also increases customer engagement on-site.”
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Joyned’s code is lightweight and designed to use few resources on the back end so it will never slow a retailer’s website, as compared to third-party platforms that may experience unexpected downtimes.
“Joyned is a win-win for both consumers and retailers,” continued Abraham. “Retailers can directly engage native brand ambassadors who are excited to complete purchases and invite their friends to do so as well, while all shoppers get to enjoy a new kind of streamlined social experience.”
While collaborative apps allowing people to work and play together in real-time have been around for years, Joyned is the first tool of its kind filling the gap between offline and online shopping. Allowing consumers to shop and collaborate online with friends and family directly on their favorite shopping sites leads to an overall smoother and more pleasant experience for end-users across multiple demographics.
Abraham concluded, “We ultimately envision an online retail ecosystem connected by Joyned, where consumers can shop socially and collaboratively across a network of retailers that offer the platform. This financing brings us closer to realizing this vision.”
