Yotpo is officially expanding into Australia, off the back of significant market growth with massive Aussie names, a landmark investment from Shopify and a plan to help local Aussie e-comm explode.

Yotpo’s ANZ userbase includes names like Zoe Foster Blake’s $180M Go-To Skin Care,  e-commerce fashion queen Princess Polly, and billion-dollar streetwear brand Culture Kings, and more.

Yotpo has identified Australia as one of its fastest-growing markets, having already been used as a growth-driver for female-founded multi-million dollar e-commerce upstarts such as:

• Frank Body
• Beginning Boutique
• Meshki
• Princess Polly
• JS health

ANZ brands already comprise 5 per cent of Yotpo’s customer base (of over 35,000 paying customers and hundreds of thousands of free users) and they plan to ramp this up significantly.

With new hires including Enzo Cavaliero, head of sales, APAC (pictured), Rad Mitic, head of partnerships, APAC and Carmel Zein, senior marketing manager, APAC Yotpo is now opening and hiring for its Sydney office.

Yotpo intends to establish itself as the marketing platform of choice for Australian e-commerce companies, whether emerging or internationally renowned and is banking on the growing popularity of SMS marketing in ANZ as a core growth strategy.

This expansion is buoyed by a strategic platform partnership and investment from Shopify. The integration will allow e-commerce businesses to better understand their customers through proprietary marketing tools, and develop unique, market-first shopping experiences.

Enzo Cavaliero, head of sales, APAC at Yotpo said, “over the past 18 months, we’ve witnessed a mass investment into e-commerce from retail brands that have had to pivot as a result of lockdowns.”

“The nature of bricks and mortar retail has changed over the past decade; we already knew Aussie retailers were savvy and resilient. However, the growth of the e-commerce sector since the start of the pandemic has exceeded expectations, and we’ve seen activity on the platform grow exponentially.

“Yotpo is committed to supporting the success of Australian e-commerce businesses, which is why we’ve decided to invest in a physical presence in Sydney. Over the next 6 months, our core focus will be building the team, onboarding new local merchants, and introducing our latest SMS marketing offering. SMS is already driving impressive results in pilots we’ve conducted with the likes of Princess Polly, resulting in 64 times return on investment, and an 84 per cent conversion rate, in just three months.”

“SMS marketing channels have a 98 per cent text open rate and 90 per cent of texts are read within the first 3 minutes- yet we believe the value of this channel is underestimated locally. This presents a significant market opportunity for both Yotpo, and our brands to grow through more engaging channels, as mediums like social media become oversaturated.”

Yotpo’s multi-year platform partnership with Shopify is designed to accelerate the company’s growth and product development, ultimately empowering merchants to better connect with their customers and grow their businesses through innovative marketing tools and solutions.

This stronger alliance will position Yotpo as one of the early launch partners for new Shopify development features. In this role, Yotpo aspires to develop first-to-market technologies that help merchants of all sizes stand out in a competitive landscape.

Aligning product development roadmaps, the two companies will work to develop shopping experiences that are seamlessly connected between touchpoints and improve the one-to-one relationship between merchants and their customers.

Tomer Tagrin, CEO at Yotpo, said, “this new platform partnership is a significant milestone in our company journey, in our longstanding relationship with Shopify, and in service to our customers.

With the last year’s addition of SMS marketing to the Yotpo platform, we now have five cutting-edge products available to Shopify merchants. We look forward to working even more closely with Shopify to provide smarter, more connected experiences that create real value for our mutual customers.”

“Our two companies share a common belief that, for the future of commerce to thrive, merchants must be able to own direct relationships with their customers. This platform partnership directly responds to the enormous amount of time and energy merchants currently are required to spend competing for customer attention. Through deeper integration between our two technologies, Yotpo and Shopify are working together to innovate on the marketing tech stack and dramatically recode the infrastructure of eCommerce.”

Brandon Chu, VP product Aacceleration at Shopify, added, “Yotpo is a shining example of what is possible in the Shopify Ecosystem of partners and developers. We have watched the team deliver incredible value to merchants and have admired their tenacity and passion for building a better version of eCommerce where independent brands own relationships with their customers. Their marketing technology solutions have become trusted by thousands of merchants, and we are thrilled to invest in their growth and create even more impact, together.”

“Our hope is that Yotpo’s story, and our strategic partnership, demonstrates to our ecosystem that there is no limit to the size of impact you can have on our platform. As you reach scale, Shopify wants to build a product alliance with you, for the betterment of merchants, forever.”