According to a recent report, 92.4% of consumers use reviews when making a purchase decision. It is understandable. They want to feel confident in their purchase choice before buying a product online.
A Seoul-based startup called Indent wants to help these shoppers by providing access to video reviews and product ratings, while also boosting sales for e-commerce sellers by providing them with the same valuable customer feedback. The video review marketing tool is called VREVIEW, and it works by sending a chatbot to a merchant’s customers to collect their video reviews and product ratings. The sellers can then upload these customer-generated video reviews and product ratings to their websites to attract more potential buyers and consumers.
Investors apparently like Indent’s conversion rates. The startup just raised $8.1 million (won 10.5 billion) in a Series A led by SV Investment, with participation from strategic investor LG Uplus (a telco part of LG), Korea Investment Partners and others, among others. Crit Ventures. The round brings the outfit’s total funding to $13.7 million to date and will be used to that further develop its video platform.
According to Indent CEO Morgan Yoon, Indent already has about 40 customers in the US, China and Japan and plans to enter the US market in the second quarter of this year to attract more foreign users. Within those geographies, it works with 3,800 online sellers, mostly direct-to-consumer brands. In addition, South Korean companies, including LG Uplus, Korean maker of cosmetic brands Love Pacific And MLB Korea use Indent’s services, Yoon said.
Indent claims it has over 12 million registered users, accounting for about 60% of total online shoppers in South Korea. According to tests conducted by Indent, consumers using the video review platform showed an average 6x higher order conversion rate.
The company has many competitors; Other marketing tools also allow sellers to show their reviews on their websites. To stay ahead of its rivals, Yoon says the company is about to launch a new service designed for B2C users called spray, which the startup unveiled in beta last April. Spray is a TikTok-like video review service that allows individual consumers to upload their customer-generated video reviews and share feedback, Yoon said, adding that Spray users can earn money when new customers purchase products through the Spray service.
In addition, Spray analyzes users’ shopping behavior and preferences and advises sellers (or influencers) which products are best suited for them to sell, explains Yoon.
Indent, which has collected data about buyers’ actionscan recommend about 66 million products, Yoon added.
The company currently generates revenue through VREVIEW subscription fees from its trading clients. It also charges licensing fees from D2C brand vendors when they purchase User Generated Content (UGC) from their consumers.
The company employs 27 people in South Korea.
Image Credits: indent
