Influencers are at the sweet spot where content and commerce intersect.

Influencers have fast become one of the biggest drivers of social media trends. When you ask a Gen Z kid what they want to be when they grow up gone are the days of “doctor” and “lawyer”, now you’re more likely to hear ‘Influencer’ ‘TikTokker’ ‘Vlogger’… and why wouldn’t they aspire to this when everyday they scroll the successful lives of influencers.

The influencer sphere use to be dominated by a few big names *enter Kayla Itsines*, one of Australia’s first & most successful influencers.

Kicking things off in 2014 with her Bikini Body Guide e-book and posting before/after images to her social page she quickly gained a mass cult following, which today boasts a whopping 13 million. In 2016 her Sweat fitness app was the most downloaded fitness app and today she has an estimated net worth of $486 million…all from cultivating and curating her life online.

Kayla was one of the first and still one of the biggest Australian influencers, but what was once a small industry dominated by the few, has transformed into a mass democratisation of content and wealth.

Now influencers come in all shapes and sizes, from your nano influencers (you and me…yes you are an influencer, even to your 70 odd followers), kidfluencers, athluencers, to your mega influencers that everyone knows such as the Kardashians. Essentially everyone with a smart phone is an influencer to a varying degree.

With all these various and crazy definitions of influencers, what real impact have they actually had on retail and ecommerce, you ask?

In 2016 the influencer industry was worth $1.7 billion, fast forward 5 years, in 2021 the influencer industry is worth $13.8 billion!

To put that figure into an even more impressive light, in 2020 it was worth $9.7 billion. A 42% YoY increase with COVID propelling the lucrative industry even faster due to more time being spent online.

With influencers cultivating such a profitable lifestyle it’s no surprise that social media apps have had to pivot their offerings to take a cut of the winnings…Mark Zuckerberg didn’t have enough in the first place.

Nowadays with 69% saying they go to Instagram to interact with celebrities and influencers social media moguls have had to develop multiple streams of monetisation within the apps, from branded content ads, sponsored swipe ups, sponsored posts, sponsored stories and recently Facebook and Instagram Shop. All of which has been developed as a result of the evolving purchase behaviours by consumers.

67% of brands also say they use Instagram for influencer marketing! And they get the results off the back of it…still don’t believe in the influence of influencers? Then buckle up.

Influencer marketing has an 11x higher ROI than traditional advertising! Add to the fact that for every dollar spent on influencer marketing generates a $5.78 (US) return, it’s no wonder that more and more brands are pumping their influencer ecommerce budget to jump on the bandwagon.

As with all things social media moving at warp speed, no one is ever the newest kid on the block for long… enter TikTok.

While Instagram and Facebook were the gateway apps for influencer mania, TikTok has entered the game during its prime and is wasting no time joining in on the money madness. Sponsored influencer content on TikTok was incorporated into the app just 3 years after launching on the international market. Most recently they announced their partnership with Shopify to pilot in-app shopping just 4 years after launching (check out our recent podcast with Spotify’s Head of Marketing APAC, Robin Marchant).

Influencers and celebrities alike have been able to hijack the system and build empires all without needing to engage traditional advertising means. Why would they engage traditional media when 92% of consumers globally trust word-of-mouth recommendations more than traditional forms of advertising?

Case in point, Kylie Jenner.

Whether you’re a fan of the Kardashians or not, credit where credit is due. This 24-year-old has created a billion-dollar empire off the back of social media *crying inside I’m not also a billionaire at 24* with her Kylie Cosmetics beauty range.

Kylie Cosmetics will also be one of the first brands to trial the new Shopify feature on TikTok.

While Kylie might’ve come from one of the world’s most famous families, there are other lesser known influencers using their followers to build a luxurious life for themselves all through social media and ecom.

Aussie local Sammy Robinson started off her influencer career as a YouTuber in 2015, creating make-up how to videos. Her social dominance only grew further when she joined Instagram, jumping leaps and bounds in recent years now with over 654k followers.

With partnerships from various beauty brands such as Bondi Sands, MAC and Maybelline she is well established as a go-to beauty influencer.

With a firm footing in the industry Sammy branched out on her own, flexing the influence she has over her followers by launching her very own fashion label One Mile in April 2020.

This shift in career from beauty to fashion was heavily enabled by Instagram’s shift to become a shopping platform, meeting followers in the moments of influence to drive purchase.

With the exception of a few highly anticipated and sold out store pop-up events, all of which were advertised on her social media profiles, she has cultivated a loyal consumer base with no need for traditional Bricks & Mortar.

Another name that springs to mind as a pioneer in the influencer ecommerce space is Zoe Foster Blake.

From her days as both beauty director and columnist for Cosmopolitan, she built a trustworthy reputation for herself as an expert in all thing’s beauty, skincare and self-love cultivating over 783k Instagram followers.

So after years of learning and sharing all her beauty tips and tricks, Zoe took this to the next level with her very own natural skin care line Go-To.

Launched in 2014 her products were strictly DTC until 2019 when Mecca obtained exclusive rights to sell in-store. Now valued at over $177 million she has just sold an $89million stake in her company to BWX, aiming to supercharge her ecom presence globally.

Finding a gap in the market way back in 2013 for natural skincare, Zoe leveraged her authoritative and trustworthy voice to build her ecom empire. Using her social presence to influence purchase decisions when it matters most.

Refusal to acknowledge influencers impact on consumers and ecommerce is essentially like riding a horse and expecting to finish in the same time as a Ferrari - it’s not going to happen in this day and age *insert shrug emoji*.

Don’t fear the change, embrace influencers - reap the rewards as they drive consumers directly to that digital point of purchase.

Sources: Forbes 2020, Influencer Marketing Hub 2021, ION 2021, Images courtesy of Instagram.