ShopLinks is a complete influencer marketing solution that connects stores to influencers and monitors campaign results.
This platform is a personal project created by Rodrigo Bernardes and myself to simplify and help track influencer campaigns. According to research, the return on investment in partnerships between brands and influencers can reach 11x, and every year the number of brands making use of this form of marketing is increasing. However, Rodrigo and I observed so many pain points from both sides when building these partnerships and throughout the entire campaign process, that we decided to build our own platform to try to solve some of these problems.
Pain points observed
• Hard to find the right store/influencer to partner with
• Getting in touch with the store/influencer (finding the contact info and getting an answer)
• Contact is mainly initiated by stores. Influencers hardly seem to take action in finding brands that they would like to advocate for.
• Small/medium businesses believe it’s too complicated to generate specific links/coupons for influencer. They think influencer marketing is only for “big brands”.
• Only stores have the means to access campaign data. The influencer has to trust the commission amount they are receiving is correct.
• How to track sales and commission for each influencer when running multiple campaigns
• Analysis of ROI. Figuring out if a campaign is going well
Our solution
We came up with a two sided solution. For stores, we built a Shopify APP (installed through Shopify) that connects seamlessly directly to the store. And for influencers, we build a website where it’s free to sign-up. It’s an integrated network solution, where both parties (stores and influencers) can find each other, send proposals, start campaigns and track sales.
How it works
Users browse stores or influencers they would like to work with. Once you’ve chosen your future partner, you can send a proposal by filling out a form with all the relevant campaign information. We kept the form short and straightforward, but it already includes all the relevant setting options needed for activation. Our platform works with 3 different commission types: commission over percentage of sale, commission with a fixed value over each sale and one-time fixed commission.
After the proposal is sent, the recipient can decline or accept the offer. If accepted, the campaign is activated immediately and the platform automatically generates a unique url link. The coupon code and the unique referral link are both now ready to be shared by the influencer. Once sales start coming in, both parties can visualize everything on our campaign data panel–stats and graphs display number of products sold, revenue, commission and more. It’s important to state that both sides have access to all of the same data for full transparency. Giving analytics access to influencers, was one of our main project objectives.
On top of that, we also generate monthly statements that are sent automatically through email to stores and influencers. The statements are a summary of the data–it shows a breakdown of all purchases, revenue and influencer commission cost.
Our main focus when we started working on this project was to make a platform that allowed stores and influencers to connect and start campaigns very easily. We wanted the process to be so simple that it would encourage both parties to have multiple campaigns with different stores/influencers running at the same time. It was also very important to us that we empowered influencers, giving them the tools they needed to be the ones to initiate contact and propose campaigns. Plus, provide to both parties all the analytics to measure the success of their campaigns.
This project is ongoing. We hope to build new features in the future and to keep improving the platform so we can give our users an even better experience and to keep growing our network.
INFO:
Founders: Rodrigo Bernardes, Paula Brani, Julia Simek
Developers: Henrique Max, Fabio Coelho, David Manoel
Copywritting: Julia Simek
Year: 2021
My Role: Founder, Logo Design, UX & UI