Shopify opens platform to content creators
Shopify is releasing a new tool designed to let independent content creators and brands connect with its retailers.
The Canadian e-commerce company is rolling out Shopify Collabs, which builds on existing integrations with social and entertainment platforms to enable content creators to partner with Shopify-based retailers to build curated shops and share products.
Creators can apply for a Shopify Collabs account, and browse for Shopify merchants that align with their audience. Once they find brands they want to work with, creators can partner with those merchants and use Linkpop, Shopify’s free linking solution, to curate a selection of products to share on their selected social and entertainment platforms.
When someone purchases a product using the link a creator has shared, that creator gets paid. The whole process is managed from Shopify Collabs—from discovery to payment.
Shopify retailers can use Collabs to discover and manage their relationships with creators, giving them a new sales and marketing channel. Once retailers install Collabs and make their store and products discoverable, creators can apply to join that retailer’s community.
Shopify Collabs can then be used to manage the relationship with that creator, supplying items like unique links or discount codes, to share that retailer’s products with their audiences. Because Collabs is built on Shopify, the entire process is managed centrally from the retailer’s Shopify admin. This helps ensure that inventory, order, and customer information are kept up to date, giving a real-time view of the retailer’s entire multichannel sales.
Shopify Collabs is available to all retailers on the platform in the U.S. and Canada.
“Shopify is where the world's best independent brands go to build their businesses. With Shopify Collabs, we’re making it simple for creators to discover and partner with these brands so they can make more money and reach economic independence,” said Amir Kabbara, director of product, Shopify. "In the future, Collabs will be fully integrated with Shopify, giving creators access to more parts of our platform and accelerating their journey as entrepreneurs."
"For Shopify merchants, Collabs is a new way to find potential customers at a time when it's never been more difficult or expensive," Kabbara continued. "By giving merchants the ability to discover and partner with creators that align with their brand, they can tap into the power of community-driven commerce to reach consumers in new and meaningful ways."
Shopify partners with YouTube for video-based shopping
In another effort to expand the sales reach of its retailers, Shopify recently began enabling retailers that use its platform to integrate their online stores with YouTube. Shopify’s YouTube shopping feature allows retailers to sell their full range of products via YouTube in three ways: livestreams, videos, and store tabs.
Shopify retailers can tag and pin products at key points during a YouTube livestream, with a picture-in-picture playback feature enabling consumers to watch while they check out. Retailers can also show a curated list of products in a product shelf below on-demand YouTube videos, and a new tab will be added to a retailer’s YouTube channel, featuring their entire selection of products.