Koji, a Link in Bio platform for creator economy, has launched Shopify Storefront app to help creators showcase and sell Shopify products using their Koji profile. Creators can simply put their Shopify store link in their social media bio and sell products online using the API Access Key.
Creators can customise the Shopify Storefront app by selecting a theme and designing layout to match their creative product or Shopify store. The free to install application is available on the Koji App Store.
About Koji
Launched in March 2021, the Link in Bio platform offers hundreds of free apps to creators on social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram and Twitch. These applications help creators engage with their target audiences and connect with fans and supporters. Some of these apps help them monetize the creative product using influencer marketing. In venture capital, Koji has raised $36 million.
Fourth App For Creator Economy
Shopify Storefront is the fourth app by Koji in the last one month with its direct link to creator economy. On September 30, Koji launched the Video Shopping app to help video creators earn revenue by sharing online shopping links in their videos.
With the Video Shopping app, creators can sell their merchandise to the most loyal members of their audience. It provides them the easy options to upload and edit videos. The app ensures each of creative video shows two links to showcase two different products. These links will provide title, description and thumbnail to allow the audience make decision of purchase. Once the audience member click on a tag, the Video Shopping app unveils more details about the product.
Shopify-YouTube Integration
Canada-based e-commerce platform Shopify offers a similar feature to creators based on YouTube. In July, it partnered with YouTube to allow its merchant partners to sell using YouTube videos. The partnership also motivated content creators to launch their own brands and integrate their Shopify stores with YouTube.
The service was initially launched for the U.S., Brazil and India, while other countries will see the feature later this year.
“Commerce today is multichannel, and YouTube is one of the most influential channels on the planet,” Kaz Nejatian, VP of Product at Shopify, had said.
Nejatian promised that Shopify’s integration with YouTube integration will “fundamentally change the opportunity for independent brands in the creator economy”.
David Katz, VP of Shopping Product at YouTube, heaped praise on the integration saying: “For years, creators have built businesses around their YouTube content, often extending their entrepreneurship into building their own brands, but it hasn’t been as seamless to reach their audience with these products directly on YouTube”.
Other Koji Apps
On September 14, Koji launched the Timeline app, which allows creators to design a social media timeline within the Link in Bio platform. Using a timeline, creators can share text, links and videos to engage and interact with fans and followers.
A week later, Koji came up with Check In With Rewards & Leaderboard. This app enables creators to track check-ins by their fans and reward them with set prizes. The prizes can be set as unlockable content, free downloads and fan badges based on check-in milestones.
What is Creator Economy?
Gone are the days when creators used to entertain audience with their content. Now, they additionally make money using their product of creativity. Shopify values this fact more than any other e-commerce platform.
In August, Shopify President Harley Finkelstein congratulated American YouTuber Jimmy Donaldson for completing 100 million subscribers on his YouTube channel ‘MrBeast‘. Finkelstein recalled MrBeast’s journey on Shopify when he had only three million YouTube subscribers.
“Shopify is obsessed with entrepreneurs – Jimmy is one of the world’s biggest creators and one of the most epic entrepreneurs. MrBeast has been on Shopify since he had 3M subs on YouTube – and he just hit 100M. Congrats on 100M Shopify!!!” Finkelstein tweeted along with a video.
Wow, this is huge🚨 @MrBeast just hit 100M subs on YouTube – one of the world's biggest creators and one of the most exciting entrepreneurs on the planet. He’s been a @Shopify merchant since he had 3M subs.
— Harley Finkelstein (@harleyf) August 5, 2022
Congrats on 100M @MrBeast!
Shopify 🤝 Creators
More to come 👀 pic.twitter.com/TZwkx4T2YP
In the video, MrBeast can be heard saying: “I have personally been using Shopify to sell merch since we had three million subscribers, which is crazy because we are on a 100 million. Now, we also use it to sell our chocolate bars and so much more”.
MrBeast uses YouTube to share his creative content and Shopify to sell his merchandise. With a 100 million subscriber base, the YouTuber is planning to expand his Shopify business by introducing a new range of products.
Shopify Collabs
On August 16, Shopify launched Shopify Collabs to connect its merchant partners with content creators. Now, creators can easily discover brands to pitch for paid promotion and merchants can reach the exact audience they target.
Shopify Collabs allows creators design curated shops and share products on their creative content as per the interests of their target audience. Collabs aims to empower creators with entrepreneurship opportunity and avoid the cumbersome process of brand hunting. They can now focus more on making content.
The pay structure on Collabs will differ with each merchant and creator and the remuneration will be directly transferred via PayPal.
“Shopify is where the world’s best independent brands go to build their businesses,” Amir Kabbara, Shopify’s director of Product, had said.
Shopify Collabs aims to make the brand-creator collaboration simple so that both the parties can make more money and reach economic independence. “In the future, Collabs will be fully integrated with Shopify, giving creators access to more parts of our platform and accelerating their journey as entrepreneurs,” Kabbara added.
“For Shopify merchants, Collabs is a new way to find potential customers at a time when it’s never been more difficult or expensive,” Kabbara continued. “By giving merchants the ability to discover and partner with creators that align with their brand, they can tap into the power of community-driven commerce to reach consumers in new and meaningful ways,” he added.
Dovetale Acquisition
In April, Shopify acquired Dovetale, the Brooklyn-based company that has primarily been working for brands to manage influencer marketing campaigns.
“We really see creators as the next generation of entrepreneurs. It is a top priority for us to really help these creators enter commerce and start monetizing,” Kabbara was quoted as saying by Modern Retail.
Shopsicles At VidSummit 2022
Shopify has also established its presence at this year VidSummit. The three-day conference began IN Los Angeles from September 27. The annual meet-up gives a platform to creators to share their views and insights. The e-commerce giant is at VidSummit 2022 with Shopsicles. Shopify’s official Twitter account informed about the same to its followers.
“We’ve landed at #VidSummit2022 along with some of the hottest Creators in the game. and while we’re here, lemme tell you about some of the sweet tools we’ve created this year – specifically with Creators in mind,” the page tweeted.
it’s a Creators 🌎
— Shopify (@Shopify) September 28, 2022
we’ve landed at #VidSummit2022 along with some of the hottest Creators in the game. and while we’re here, lemme tell you about some of the sweet tools we’ve created this year – specifically with Creators in mind 🧵https://t.co/qhONScLais pic.twitter.com/HXM0xGuupj
So, what is it? Well, Shopify is promoting Linkpop through popsicles which it has made for five creators namely, MrBeast, RyanTrahan, Airrack, Glarses, ColinandSamir and Rowena Tsai. Visitors can root for their favourite creator by picking the popsicles from Shopify truck outside the Sheraton. Shopify President Harley Finkelstein informed about this new collab from his official Twitter account.
📍@Shopify is at #VidSummit2022 – the biggest creator conference in the world & we made popsicles for your favorite creators; choose your fighter:@MrBeast@RyanTrahan@airrack@glarses1@ColinandSamir
— Harley Finkelstein (@harleyf) September 28, 2022
Rowena Tsai
Come check out the Shopify truck outside the Sheraton. pic.twitter.com/3IErVlMhdJ
“VidSummit is in for a treat: @Shopify’s “coolest” merchant-creator collab is here and I can’t stop eating them,” tweeted a user. Shopify took the opportunity to not only promote Linkpop but also YouTube shopping.
