Behind Walmart Creator and its growing role in social commerce

Walmart Creator, a platform launched into beta in early 2023, is now fully up and running with tens of thousands of creators, more than a thousand new ones joining monthly and an increasingly important role in social commerce strategy, according to William White, the retailer’s U.S. chief marketing officer. The far-flung effort is drawing a diverse group of often entry-level influencers, and sometimes pays off big for creators and Walmart alike, White said. Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs “Today we have creators who are doing it here and there to make a few bucks, and we have some who are earning six figures,” he said. “We have a few creators who have driven seven figures in sales for Walmart.” Many marketers tap into creator networks managed by third parties, and many e-commerce retailers pay creators commissions on affiliate sales and establish turnkey custom storefronts for them, which is playing a growing role in driving sales. More: Creator and influencer trends to know about right now Walmart Creator is unique in a few ways as a fully owned and operated network open to influencers of any size. White gave a glimpse into how and why the program works during a June 6 media briefing at the retailer’s Associates Week in Bentonville, Arkansas, where he appeared alongside two of the program’s creators, Keta Wilson and Callie Richards. The idea, White said, is to democratize the creator economy by “helping creators find product, giving them inspiration and access around that product, and making it easy for them to create links, post to their audience, and ultimately earn money.” That includes ready-to-use storefronts, product recommendations and data and analytics to help them build their business, he said. The network also is helping Walmart reshape its business—and its image. “We know that creators are the lifeblood of social commerce,” White said. “We’ve seen a creator economy continuing to evolve and rapidly scale, and that’s informed how we’ve evolved our approach in the space.” The creators, White said, “are helping reframe Walmart as a digital-first destination, and it’s also helping us reframe Walmart as a place of style, a place of fashion.” Creators' different routes to Walmart That includes a range of fashion, he said. “We’ve created a diverse set of creators working on our behalf, which ranges from a creator in Texas focused on style on a budget to someone in California who talks to her audience about accessible, elevated brands.” Wilson, who goes by more.keta on social channels, said her personal history with Walmart goes back to a childhood when her family was “less fortunate, and Walmart allowed us not to feel that way.” Her motto is that “style is not defined by your budget.” “I have always shopped at Walmart, so it was a no-brainer to partner with them,” she said. For Richards, who goes by HotPinkandGlitter on social channels, the route to Walmart was more circuitous. She grew up in California without many Walmarts around, and began her career working for luxury goods retailers. “And I could not shop at a single store I worked at,” said Richards, because she is a plus-size woman. “When I got the opportunity to work with Walmart, I had just in the past couple of years started giving Walmart fashion a chance.” Richards said she focuses on luxury fashion and plus sizes at affordable prices. “Many of my followers are plus-size women, and they have felt excluded not just from fashion but from social media, from visibility and marketing and seeing themselves represented even in traditional media outlets,” she said. How Walmart performs for creators Both creators praised Walmart Creator for the resources it’s provided them. Wilson, who described herself as a “data geek,” said she would like even more data to help her build strategy. Richards gave Walmart high marks for openness. “That’s not how everyone operates,” Richards said. “It’s really a breath of fresh air to be able to speak to someone, and even if they’re not the person who can make that change, you really feel that they took that feedback and will bring it up at the next roundtable.” Richards said she would like to see Walmart Creator evolve from a platform that helps creators sell products to one that helps them co-create product collections. “I think the support behind things like that would be astronomical,” she said. The growing role of storefront programs The growth of influencer storefront programs among retailers such as Walmart reflects the major role creators now play in shaping consumer purchasing decisions. Nearly 60% of consumers across all age demographics look to influencer recommendations when deciding which products to buy, according to a late 2023 study from creator-led shopping platform LTK and Northwestern University’s Retail Analytics Council. That figure jumps to 73% when looking only at Gen Z consumers’ buying habits, and 68% among millennial shoppers, per the report. “From a brand standpoint, [storefronts] are really about brands’ focus on being driving sales, connecting to their audience and being able to leverage the emotional power of creators to tap into the ‘TikTok made me buy it’ trend across all platforms,” said Krishna Subramanian, co-founder of influencer marketing platform Captiv8, which next week is launching a new brand-exclusive storefront offering to assist brands starting influencer storefront programs. “It’s about being able to control more of that distribution of content across their owned and operated [channels],” he continued. “And from a consumer standpoint, [storefronts] are about creating a curated shopping experience from people that you essentially love and trust.” Contributing: Gillian Follett Ad Age Small Agency Conference & Awards Join us July 23 & 24 in Boston Learn more here

Behind Walmart Creator and its growing role in social commerce

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