Storr, a new marketplace have launched last week to allow consumers directly shop from social-media influencers they follow as well as their friends and family. But, merchants are only able to sell from the brands they’ve chosen and not their own products.
Merchants are invited to join a vast array of 125 brands with endorsed products as the move towards authentic influencer retailing are gaining momentum. So suggest a study by the Affilinet network, with 51% of Millennials saying they had bought an item their influencer promoted on their platform. Some 9% of the surveyed groud admit buying a product in a bid to replicate celebrities look or style. This presents a chance for merchants to tap into the consumer market of tomorrow and mirror consumers’ shopping habits with their selling offering.
New-entrants in the field will be able to compete for shoppers’ attention against wellness influencers including Allie Hiller of HealthyAlibi.com, who have nearly 39,000 followers on Instagram, fashion and beauty influencer Ashley Robertson, who have 300,000 followers, and model-blogger Rocky Barnes, with an audience of 1.5 million followers.
“There’s a Robin Hood feel to the platform. Consumers have largely purchased from these large and impersonal distribution channels like Macy’s, Nordstrom and Amazon, but that is changing because younger consumers want something that is more personal and for them. ”
-Eric Senn, founder and chief executive officer of Storr
Storr is also working with more than 150 leading retailers including Adidas, RE/DONE Denim, Solid&Striped, La Ligne, Jonathan Simkhai, Naadam, HillHouseHome, Spiritual Gangster, Rothy’s, Alex Mill, Pop&Suki, Galvan, and DL1961.
“Adidas is the creator sports brand. We’ve always found inspiration in the creative community. Our strategy going forward is to democratize creativity, to empower creators to make an even bigger impact and make sure they have tools like Storr to create the new.”
-Scott Zalaznik, senior vice president of Digital of Adidas
As an incentive to attract more sellers to join, Storr gives social media influencers a 15-30% commission of their sales for using their endorser image to promote their shops. The marketplace themselves, take a 5-10% share of sales.
“It’s a rare win-win-win situation. The person selling is earning money from conversion, the person buying is having a more connected and humanised shopping experience, and the brand is then empowered about the data we are collecting from our sellers and shoppers.”
-Torie Crown, head of business development of Storr
Storr are expected to have 5m users on their marketplace and to create $2.5bn (£1.90bn) in sales by 2020. For sellers, that means $445m (£337m) in revenue and $1.8bn (£1.37bn) for participating brands.
The marketplace launched last week to a limited number of sellers on IOS, Android and web. Storr is now adding more sellers to a waiting list, with plans to open the platform for anyone in one or two months.
How to join Storr?
- Download the Storr app
- Add products from any of Storr’s partners to your store
- Share the link to your store
- Shoppers can buy directly from social media channels such as Instagram, Twitter or Facebook
