SleekFlow allows online sellers to offer checkout on social media chat boxes

Through its One Click Checkout feature, consumers do not need to visit a third-party website to complete their purchase.

When sellers receive orders through social messaging apps, they typically redirect buyers to a website or another platform to check out their orders. But with e-commerce platform SleekFlow, these steps become unnecessary as sellers can directly collect payments through chat, which, in turn, allows businesses to easily convert their prospective customers into paying customers.

“We have a feature called One Click Checkout. The buyers can just DM (direct message) the agent, and they will be given a payment link. Without even logging in, they can receive an OTP (One Time Password) and checkout directly on the social media platform and have the goods delivered to the home,” CEO of SleekFlow, Henson Tsai, told Hong Kong Business in an exclusive interview.

Currently, SleekFlow allows checkout on WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, Telegram, Viber, and WeChat. It plans to add iMessage, and even TikTok, to its list of platforms in the future. “We're seeing exponential growth [of e-commerce] in short videos or live streaming in different countries,” said Tsai.

Data from Sprout Social showed TikTok, Instagram, and Whatsapp are the top social media platforms where most Gen Z shoppers make their purchases.

Based on SleekFlow’s statistics, 20% of e-commerce journeys are completed solely on social media. The number is growing by 34% every year exponentially. According to Tsai, the market size will even reach three trillion in 2028.

Better conversations and conversions

SleekFlow also helps sellers, especially large ones, manage their conversations with customers by “segmentation and intelligent classification” of their concerns which can help companies in their workflows.

“Before, when companies try to collect data from social media, they put everything into an excel sheet, and on the next day, they have to distribute manually to different kinds of agents to follow up with the leads,” Tsai shared.

Through SleekFlow’s namesake SaaS software, Tsai said brands can help manage conversations, orders, payments, and their products across different social channels. 

Data from previous conversations with customers can also be used by sellers for their future campaigns. “They can send out automation, targeted messages, birthday promos, to actually convert the customers,” said Tsai.

Tsai said brands can subscribe to use their solutions for as low as US$70, whilst multinational companies would usually just need to pay US$20,000.

“We charge our customers based on how many customer contacts they have, and how many agents, sales or support agents are using our software,” he said.

Future plans

To further improve their solutions, Tsai said SleekFlow is polishing and expanding its solutions like order management to include post checkout experience.

“We want to provide a full suite of features like payment and commerce, booking, inventory, and even logistics,” added Tsai.

The Alibaba-backed startup is also eyeing to expand in the United Kingdom, France, Netherlands, and Germany.

Currently, that startup has services in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaysia. Amongst its clients include Lalamove, foodpanda, and Bossini.

Tsai said SleekFlow will use its US$8m funding it recently bagged in a Series A round in making their plans come to life.

Tsai said SleekFlow will continue to focus on conversions and stick to its goal of “driving revenue for brands on day one.”