Social Commerce platforms recognise that the day-to-day, hyper-connected behaviour of Millennials and Gen Z is different from previous groups. They are designed to incentivise sharing, buzz, and word of mouth and put companies in a position to form lasting-connections with the next-generation consumer. As the category continues to evolve, veterans from successful digital and mobile platforms play a central role.
Stephen Milbank, the co-founder of mobile commerce platform Button, has joined ‘nate,‘ a venture-backed artificial intelligence and social commerce startup, as chief revenue officer. In his role, he will lead the platform’s business-to-business API to integrate its one-touch universal checkout with social networks and media.
nate is introducing the first mobile app that allows users to purchase any item at any online retailer on behalf of a customer. With AI technology that navigates the web the way humans would, nate is the only universal accelerator for mobile checkout focused on transforming the buying experience with greater convenience and speed. The company is committed to preserving the human experience of discovery and the path to inspiration, nate is exclusively designed to facilitate purchases once the individual consumer has identified the product they want to buy.
nate is designed to enable social media users to purchase products instantaneously with no interruption in their digital flow. The platform’s founders believe that by simplifying the social commerce process, purchase, conversion, and revenue generation will increase. To do so, nate facilitates universal retailer coverage without retailer involvement and avoids the process of deep integration between networks and eCommerce sites.
In a short time, social commerce is a $90 billion market today, while global, it’s projected to grow to over $600 billion by 2027. Already, almost half of internet users ages 18 to 34 have made a purchase through social media. As social shopping continues to grow in importance, simplicity will become a premium.
nate’s streamlined online shopping capacity can also be applied to online content, enabling readers to purchase straight from an article or listicle, again, all with one click and without back-end integration with eCommerce retailers. And by controlling payment, fintech partners can find top-of-wallet positioning.
Before joining nate, Milbank was the co-founder and head of global strategic partnerships for Button, the world’s leading mobile partnerships platform. He added more than 100 million monthly active users to the Button Marketplace in 2020 by securing deals with leading commerce platforms — many of which have achieved the coveted #1 position in the Apple App Store. Some of these partners include Cash App, Thrasio, Rokt, Dosh, and Cardlytics.
Milbank’s experience before starting Button was in private equity, where his investment focus lay in real estate, concentrating primarily on hotels and distressed assets. He began his career at Goldman Sachs and worked at Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo, and Ekistics Property Advisors. Milbank received his MBA from London Business School and his BA in History from Yale University.
