In the last couple of years, Instagram’s strength has increased, and its impact on our lives has grown to be much more than just posting pictures with cool hashtags #instagrammablemoments.
Among others, Instagram has launched shoppable posts features that are marked with a small shopping bag icon in the bottom left corner of the post. If you are scrolling through an account’s profile feed you will recognize posts with shoppable features if they have a white shopping bag in the top right corner of the post. When users tap on the image, they can see further product details including the product name, the price, and other product information. If interested, users can then click on the desired product to be directed to a new page where they can see more details about the product purchase.
Yet, Instagram’s shoppable opportunities do not stop there. Whether you are a consumer, an influencer, or a brand, there are various platforms that can help you create a website and integrate Instagram and other platforms into it to drive more sales. Let’s have a look at some:
1. RewardStyle
RewardStyle is an invitation-only content monetization platform for lifestyle influencers all around the globe. If you are an influencer and you get accepted, you will be granted access to some of the most popular advertisers like asos.com, Etsy, Bonobos, Reebok, and many others.
What does it take to become a part of the RewardStyle community as an influencer?
When applying to join the RewardStyle you will be asked to fill in your contact details and social media username, along with a couple of questions in regards to your primary content area and channel of your interest. Your application will then be submitted for review which might take a while due to heightened volumes.
What are the pros and cons?
RewardStyle has become one of the most widespread content monetization platforms for fashion and lifestyle bloggers and provides access to numerous advertisers. The app is fairly easy to use and navigate through, and it also provides different widgets that help you create appealing images for your posts. The list of advantages doesn’t stop here, but we have provided you with the ones that we deemed the most important. Yet, on the negative side of things, getting accepted at RewardStyle is quite hard and the approval process is very slow. It might actually take several weeks or even months to be completed. Also, in most cases, higher-earning publishers are the ones who receive the most attention and opportunities.
So… is it worth it?
RewardStyle is a sub-affiliate network which means that it acts as an intermediary between you and advertisers. Of course, you can make some money out of it, but make sure that you first understand all the rules of the game, including the commissions and rates.
2. LikeToKnowIt
LiketoKnow.it is basically a website created by RewardStyle, so you will need to be part of the RewardStyle community in order to enter the platform, which is actually one of the largest influencer shopping channels and consumer media platforms.
What is the user process like?
The process is simple. Users will need to download the Liketoknow.it app and create their profile to instantly access amazing shoppable content from different influencers and bloggers who are a member of the Liketoknow.it community.
What does it take to become a part of the Liketoknow.it community?
To be able to use Liketoknow.it, you must be a RewardStyle approved Influencer. So head to rewardStyle.com and apply for an influencer account first.
3. Yotpo
YotPo is one of the most popular content marketing apps that is specially designed for e-commerce and retail businesses. Yotpo helps firms improve their long-term marketing performance by boosting traffic, enhancing the user experience, and turning visitors into buyers.
What’s hot in YotPo?
YotPo has recently introduced a social curation feature, which gathers the best user-generated content on Instagram, and in turn boosts it with shoppable feeds, Instagram ads, and rights management dashboards.
How can someone join YotPo?
Joining YotPo is very easy, head on to the website and follow the steps. YotPo offers several different plans including a free plan which includes:
- Product & Site Reviews
- Smart-Review Reminders
- Import Existing Reviews
- Star Ratings
- Reviews Badge
- Reviews Tab
- SEO page
- Commenting on Reviews
- Coupons
- Email Upselling
- Social Sharing
- Manual & Automatic Social Push
- Dashboard
- Moderation
4. ShopStyleCollective
ShopStyle Collective is a sub-affiliate network that allows you to monetize your content and grow your audience.
How much can you earn if you are an influencer?
What makes ShopStyleCollective different is the fact that you are paid based on a Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) structure, which means that you are getting paid for every sale you drive. In other words, anytime someone purchases from your link, you are getting paid. So, as you might have guessed your earnings will depend on the number of sales. Do your homework and watch those purchases coming!
Is it really that good?
As with every platform, ShopStyle Collective has its pros and cons. On the positive side, this platform offers a variety of tools that can help you monetize your content, including widgets for shoppable posts, Looks & Collections for Instagram, and Shop The Look for Pinterest. Moreover, it provides easy to understand and in-depth analytics while it is very easy to navigate through the site. Nevertheless, ShopStyle Collective has its bad side as well. It has been claimed that customer service isn’t the best out there. Also, some of the widgets might be a bit confusing at first. Yet, as soon as you get the hang of it you should be just fine!
Aftermath: ShopStyle Collective is a great way to enter the game of affiliate marketing.
5. Stackla
Stackla is another platform that makes use of user-generated content (UGC) for branded assets in order to create appealing and eye-grabbing content.
What are some of the benefits of Stackla?
The best thing about Stackla is that it uses the latest tools and features to drive real results and sales. For instance, it uses a visual recognition technology in order to identify and tag over 11.000 different attributes, including objects, locations, and even languages. As a result, they offer real-time recommendations based on predictions and projections.
6. Linklay
If you are looking for shoppable images, then Linkay is the place to be. This platform is great for e-commerce, blogs, and online merchants who want to introduce interactivity into their business with shoppable images.
How can I get started?
To get started first create your free account at linklay.com. You will get 10K images views for free. After that, you can choose one of the pricing plans available or you can just play for the image views you need.
7. Soldsie
Soldsie is a social e-commerce platform that allows brands to sell on Facebook and Instagram using comments. The idea behind this is that you will be posting some photos of your product and then customers can buy it by posting “SOLD” in the comments. Sounds simple right?
How can I start using Soldsie?
In order to get started, you will need to fill their contact info form and create an account. Before starting out on Soldsie, makes sure that this approach is suitable for your brand or business. Also, think about your objectives. What are you trying to achieve and is Soldsie going to help you?
It is advised that you already have good and active engagement in place before you start using Soldsie. Moreover, it is better to choose Soldsie if you are selling lower-priced products – this is the price range at which you might gain some impulse shoppers.
What are the pricing plans?
Soldsie offers quite a few pricing plans to suit all budgets, including:
-
- Basic at $49 per month: Here, you get the benefit of comment selling using ‘sold’ as the purchase word. There is a 5.9% transaction fee. Soldsie inventory.
- Connected at $99 per month: Again you are enjoying comment selling using ‘sold’ as the purchase word at a 4.9% transaction fee. Shopify or Soldsie inventory.
- Branded at $199 per month: The transaction fee here drops at 2.9% and the purchase word is branded. Shopify or Soldsie inventory.
8. SkimLInks
The next trending platform is SkimLinks which is designed to power all commerce content based on specialized commerce strategies for every channel, including web, mobile, social, and mail. Once connected to SkimLink, you instantly connect to thousands of merchants all over the world, including wal-mart.com, Target, Wayfair, Nordstrom, and many others!
Who should be using SkimLinks?
Any blogger can utilize SkimLinks as an affiliate network to put some extra money aside from their blog. SkimLinks takes away all the hard work from you since they have over 60 000 merchants available so you don’t have to go on and apply to each one of them.
What are the pros of SkimLinks?
SkimLinks is fairly easy to use – all you need to do is to install a code which will be given to you, and you are ready to go. If you are using WordPress, you can install and setup the SkimLinks plugin. Simple as that!
Moreover, this platform provides a great insight into analytical tools that they synergistically help you manage your affiliate clicks, revenue, commission, and so on.
Last but not least, considering the scale of SkimLinks operations, you can often get a better deal on a commission rate. This means that you have a good potential earning fairly good money each month.
9. VigLink
VigLink is one of the best ways to monetize your blog. This platform converts your outgoing links into affiliate links, and If users complete a purchase you will earn a referral commission.
Who should use VigLink?
VigLink is ideal for bloggers, editorial sites or even social influencers. The technology employed will work in the background to convert ordinary links into monetized links – returning revenue from the resulting click or sale. Many well-known publishers have been using VigLink, including MSN and Daily Beast.
What are the pros of VigLink?
One huge benefit of VigLink covers almost every niche with numerous merchants in each field. This gives enough flexibility for whatever product category you are using links for. Moreover, the platform chooses only the highest paying merchants in order to secure high revenue. And, on top off all, there is minimal effort needed from your side – VigLink does the hard work for you.
What are the cons of VigLink?
One disadvantage of VigLink is that it sometimes redirects users to broken links which can be really frustrating sometimes. Moreover, it doesn’t work on browsers who don’t support javascript.
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