For beauty brands using Shopify, connecting checkouts directly to influencer promotions is the latest development in influencer-to-retailer transformation.
On August 16th, Shopify announced the Shopify Collabs tool, which allows approved creators to partner with Shopify merchants and earn money. The launch of the platform, which is open to creators and brands based in the US and Canada, is the latest development by Shopify, which acquired influencer his marketing software startup Dovetale in April. The move comes as influencers increasingly evolve into merchants, with an increasing number of affiliate programs allowing brands to track sales directly.
Shopify’s vice president of products, Daniel Debow, said the beauty category is “close to the top of the traction today.” In April, after Shopify acquired Dovetale, he made his Dovetale service free to existing Dovetale clients on Shopify. Its platform is now fully integrated into the Shopify dashboard.
Among these clients is body care brand Nécessaire, first with Dovetale and now a Shopify Collabs user, increasing their spending on influencer marketing. When the brand launched in his 2017, there was no budget allocated for influencer marketing for nine months. Influencer marketing currently accounts for 20% of marketing spend.
Randi Christiansen, co-founder and CEO of Nécessaire, said: Shopify Collabs is “a tool that enables businesses to create communities very effectively,” and manages creators’ marketing with a “more systematic approach than they would take in-house.” In addition to its website, Necessaire is available at retailers such as Sephora, Violet Grey, Nordstrom and Net-a-Porter.
Meanwhile, influencers who have been approved through Shopify’s application process can use the platform to choose from a variety of brands they would like to work with and submit another application within the app to apply to a brand’s affiliate program. . If approved, you will receive a welcome her package containing the products to be reviewed and affiliate links to earn commissions.
“Shopify Collabs helps us with more seeding, affiliate programs and these kinds of tactics [that let us work with] Come on, knock on our door and say, ‘Hey, we want to represent your brand,'” Christiansen said.
The platform’s beauty influencer Cathy Nguyen, who is interested in applying to work with Danessa Myricks Beauty and Kim Chi Chic Beauty, said the platform is “user-friendly and a niche that my audience really enjoys.” We have a brand,” he said. She plans to use the platform on both TikTok (348,000 followers) and her Instagram (45,000 followers). To participate in the program, an influencer shares a link to her list of curated items on her Linkpop, Shopify’s Link in Bio her platform, in her directing bio. A user can click an item to check it out on Shopify.
According to Debow, Shopify’s platform is different from existing influencer affiliate platforms like LiketoKnowIt because it integrates directly with Shopify checkout. “This was actually purchased through a marketplace set up by a creator,” he said.
The new launch comes just a week after Instagram announced shut down Unique Influencer Affiliate Shopping Program Released in JanuaryDespite the benefits of product links in the feed, participating creators were unable to tag products from brands that were not part of the affiliate shopping program.
But Shopify Collabs isn’t the only affiliate marketing platform that sees a much bigger opportunity for influencer affiliate sales. July 2021 Influencer marketing platform Emcee It also relies on a link-in-bio setup along with LiketoKnowIt.
The demand for affiliate networking is due in part to brands looking to measure the ROI of influencer promotions in exact sales numbers.
“Once creators became channels, people worried less about conversions,” says Debrow. “It’s probably fair because the market is mature. Marketers are interested in finding measurability of how well influencer promotions work. Clear measurement of sales performance tracked in , leads to a larger influencer marketing budget.
Additionally, Debrow predicted that this would lead to a larger shift away from measuring influencers by follower count.
“We can see that multiple small micro creators can achieve as much or more sales than the large macro creators,” he said. “[Shopify] Collabs is transforming the way influencer marketing works. ”
Shopify’s announcement of partnerships with social platforms like TikTok, Snapchat and Pinterest and the launch of Collabs are part of Shopify’s big bet on expanding the role of influencers.
“This is undoubtedly a huge future frontier for how people sell things. The ability of relatively small influencers to make a huge impact on both audiences and merchants cannot be underestimated.
