eloelo, an influencer-driven Lifestyle Social Commerce platform for India has recently onboarded 5000 influencers on their platform paving the way for a video 1st social commerce platform in the lifestyle category.
The company is founded by Saurabh Pandey (Ex-Category Head at Flipkart) and Akshay Dubey (Ex-Supply Chain Product at Flipkart),
“We believe the future of commerce in this country will be recommendation-driven and Influencers will be at the forefront of driving this. Onboarding 5000 Influencers is just 0.1% of our Journey & we are super excited for our content-to-commerce launch”, says Saurabh, the CEO & Co-founder of eloelo.
Since its App Launch in September, the platform has recorded 100,000 downloads mostly driven by Influencers who are a part of it. The App is available in Hindi, English & Telugu (beta) & offers a blend of Visual content, Influencer-driven Community & Gamified Offers to claim. Users can watch short format lifestyle content created by their favourite influencers, Vote for videos they like & help improve the community – thus earning coins which can be redeemed through shopping offers on the App. Influencers can create content on the App which will later become directly shoppable. Launch of full-fledged e-commerce on the app is in full swing with 5000 Influencers onboarded & over 50,000 pieces of video content created. What’s more- eloelo’s social community is about to cross 2 Lakh members with off-platform presence across Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Sharechat, etc.
“Influencers have a natural storytelling ability that is critical for categories like Beauty & Lifestyle so we are really proud to partner with 5000 of them to begin Social Commerce 2.0 for Bharat. Blending engaging short videos with recommendation-driven shopping will truly change the Social commerce landscape of the Country & we hope to pioneer it”, says Akshay, the COO & Co-founder of eloelo.
Saurabh & Akshay started “eloelo” during lockdown in May as a Community on Facebook & Instagram (@eloelo_app) to share Lifestyle Tips in a visual 1st manner. The idea was to use Short format content to drive trust & gradually build commerce outcomes.
Backed by the confidence of the eloelo social community, the duo started working on their App & raised their 1st round backed by Waterbridge Ventures, Sequoia Scout and Angel Investors like Ramakant Sharma (Co-founder of Livspace) in August 2020.
eloelo is at the cusp of 3 of the hottest spaces in India at the moment – Influencers, Videos & Social Commerce. According to Saurabh, who was a part of Flipkart’s category leadership- “An Average user reads 6 reviews before deciding to make a purchase & still ends up unsure because categories like Lifestyle & Beauty are emotional purchases which require Social proof from your network. A recommendation or tip from someone in the user’s 1st or 2nd network like a relatable micro-influencer solves this trust deficit. And that’s what eloelo will solve for with a content & community 1st approach”.
The road ahead looks promising with eloelo becoming a potential destination for Influencers to create lifestyle content & for users to get entertained and shop in an engaging manner.