CommentSold Moves into DTC Sales with Popshoplive Acquisition

CommentSold, a provider of live selling technology, has acquired the assets of mobile livestreaming marketplace Popshoplive. The newly named platform — Popshoplive, powered by CS — will allow creators to sell products directly to their followers via their own branded storefronts rather than referring them to brands and retailers. The deal coincides with the wide launch of CommentSold’s drop shipping capabilities, creating an end-to-end platform for direct-to-consumer (DTC) sales.

“I am fervently dedicated to providing a seamless and transparent monetization platform for creators,” said Gautam Goswami, CEO of CommentSold in a statement. “CS has stood out in the live commerce sector in the U.S. since 2018, driving massive success for thousands of small businesses, and now our collaboration with Popshoplive allows us to introduce a platform where creators can become businesses and eventually brands in their own right.”

CommentSold has sold more than 147 million items from over 7,000 small to enterprise-sized retailers on its platform. The Popshoplive marketplace, founded in 2018, is particularly amenable to smaller creators and solopreneurs, and its employees and executives have been rolled into the larger CommentSold team. Financial details of the acquisition were not available.

Sellers on the newly combined platform will be able to source items from a large catalog of trending products, with CommentSold automatically managing inventory levels, handling listing details and fulfilling orders from the seller’s storefront. Unlike many traditional social media platforms, followers and shoppers will remain accessible to sellers via direct notifications.

In addition to the storefronts, sellers can build their own websites with CommentSold’s customizable template-driven website builder. These sites will automatically feature seller-curated drop ship items as ecommerce listings.

“We’re thrilled to work with CommentSold, which has made such a remarkable impact in reaching underserved sellers and creators across the U.S.,” said Dan Dan Li, Founder of Popshoplive and Chief Innovation Officer of the joint entity in a statement. “We believe the future of live selling belongs to everyone, so we’ve joined forces to launch an easy-to-use platform that’s accessible to anyone who wants to elevate their brand.”

Earlier this month TikTok teamed with CommentSold to power a new live selling integration with TikTok Shop in the U.S.