‘More than just a link-in-bio tool’: Linktree’s CEO on being an underrated retail player
This Christmas you should probably put up a Linktree, given the raft of incredible statistics the Australian-born company has just put up regarding its retail might.
According to the new research from the company, Linktree drives over $6 billion each year in gross value merchandise sales through its platform – roughly $12,000 per second.
Despite its birth as a way to include multiple links on social media, Linktree has become a commerce force. 15% of Linktree clicks are to online retail hubs, over 200 million clicks per month.
The platform also drives over 1% of all Amazon traffic – that’s an average of $25 million clicks per month to Amazon. It’s not just creators selling their wares; Linktree’s affiliate program allows tastemakers to curate a selection of products and earn commissions off each sale.
Linktree is also launching Store Link, a brand new feature that allows creators to add any shopping link and “elevate the way they visually merchandise their businesses.”
To find out more about how Linktree is secretly helping to drive global commerce (not an exaggeration, as you’d read below), Mumbrella caught up with Linktree CEO and co-founder Alex Zaccaria.
Linktree is clearly an underrated player in the retail space. Can you briefly step out some of the best wins you’ve had in this space over the past year or so?
Shopping on Linktree is huge. In the last few years we’ve seen creators become the new storefront, driving more commerce and sales than ever before.
We estimate our 41 million users are driving over $6 billion in sales each year via Linktree, which is massive. Almost 15% of all Linktree clicks are for online shopping and retail sites too.
We’re keen to keep building on this success in the retail space and equipping creators with all the tools they need to capture more sales and monetise more easily via Linktree. That’s why we’ve introduced the new Store Link feature, ahead of the busiest retail period of the year.
Any creators selling online can now use our new Store link feature to take control of how they list, sell and visually merchandise their commerce and affiliate products, from any retailer too.
As you mentioned, 15% of your links go to retail stores. Was this heavy retail bend part of the plan for Linktree originally, or has that come as a happy surprise?
We’ve become so much more than just a “link-in-bio” tool with now over 41 million people using our platform to link to everything they are.
Our users are diverse and so are their needs. Helping creators monetise has always been a priority for us though. We’re constantly looking for ways to help creators better reach and grow their audiences and to provide them with the tools needed to monetise their craft.
Linktree was originally created to help artists increase their earnings by unifying all their different revenue streams. And commerce has always been a part of this — take merch for instance. We’ve introduced a number of monetisation features over the years and have always been blown away by the uptake from creators.
We care about what creators care about and as more of our users link to online shopping and retail sites we want to help them supercharge their selling efforts. And this Store Link is our first step here in our journey on social commerce – expect a lot more to come from us.
Can you explain how the affiliate programs work?
We’re seeing a growing number of creators linking to products and curated storefronts in their Linktrees, and often they’re making a commission on the number of sales made via these links.
The affiliate economy can be hugely lucrative. At the moment, we’re seeing Linkers making hundreds of millions of dollars from affiliate commissions each year. We exist to empower these creators and are excited to create more economic opportunities for them.
How does Linktree vet what people are linking to, commerce-wise, in this day and age of scams, etc?
The safety of our community, both users and visitors, is and always has been a top priority for us.
We, unfortunately, live in a world where misinformation and scams are on the rise, however, as misinformation continues to grow, so do the lengths we take to identify and address misleading and deceptive content. This includes utilising machine learning to identify harmful players and working actively to scale our moderation team.
We encourage all visitors and Linktree users to flag misleading or deceptive content with us and are always actively implementing new ways of identifying and stopping scams or misleading information being shared.
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Nathan Jolly is the Deputy Editor of Mumbrella. He joined the team in July, 2023.
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