A novel e-commerce platform is helping Benelux vendors attract new customers through the joint appeal of influencers and live events. Xuppi co-founder Anshul Gupta explains.
Jess Bauldry: You describe Xuppi as an e-commerce 2.0 platform that relies less on algorithms and SEO techniques and more on influencer power through live shopping events and video streaming. How has it been received in India where you launched the beta version?
Anshul Gupta: We launched as a content monetisation platform in 2021 and received a good response with more than 0.5 million signed up users, 5 million visits and over 2,600 verified influencers signing up and monetising their content.
For the commerce side, we did a soft launch of Xuppi in November 2021 and started actual sales of products in late January 2022. We have onboarded more than 200 brands so far and generated a decent revenue.
The Xuppi platform is a social media platform that aims to create a shift from need-based to impulse-driven purchases by leveraging the audiences of influencers. How are influencers remunerated in this transaction?
Influencers are remunerated via our automated payouts dashboard (which accommodates more than 44 currencies across 66 countries) e.g., if an influencer makes $500 via a brand collaboration and $300 from his e-learning course, he is remunerated $800 in total at the end of the month in his bank account/paypal. Influencers make up to 80% revenue on content monetisation and brand collaborations.
How does Xuppi verify the 2,500 influencers in its system? And what is the system for verifying vendors?
We have a video KYC application, similar to what you have in the banks. It consists of manual and automated checks to ensure we are dealing with a verified creator and a brand.
In 2022, Xuppi will be onboarding sellers and creators in the Benelux region. Why did you decide to target this region specifically?
We are already present here in this region for the last six years and we understand the dynamics and partners here. We are confident we will be able to onboard sellers here in this region in the second half of 2022.
Will Xuppi establish a physical presence in the Benelux region? If so, where and within what timeframe?
Yes, we will establish a presence here very soon.
Besides the UK in 2023, what other regions is Xuppi targeting for SME sellers/vendors or customers?
For now our focus is pretty much India and then Benelux and the UK. This itself is a huge task and we aim to be a 50-member team by the end of 2023.
