This isn’t the influencer marketing you think you know. At VaynerMedia, we’ve been working with creators, affiliates, influencers, and talent for years, but between the rise of affiliates, the explosion of TikTok Shop (they’re pulling in over a BILLION dollars a month in the U.S. alone 👀), and the fact that people can now buy from their feeds in seconds instead of weeks, the game has officially changed. Every swipe is a signal, and every signal can turn into a sale.
I sat down with our EVP, Commerce, Zubin Mowlavi, in a recent webinar. Zubin is an absolute fountain of knowledge in the commerce space and we dove deep into what’s really happening and why live shopping is shaping up to be one of the biggest brand opportunities we’ve seen in years.
If you’re ready to put this into action today, keep on scrolling for the highlights.
The Funnel Flip
For years, the buyer journey looked like this: discover a product → think about it → see a retargeting ad → maybe get an email…and then eventually hit checkout. That whole process used to take days, or (omg can you believe it)…weeks.
Social commerce has compressed that into seconds. On TikTok Shop, a product can go from “never heard of it” to “delivered to my doorstep” with one thumb swipe on a video. The funnel hasn’t just changed, it’s been turned completely upside down.
Affiliates: The Keys To the Future of Live Shopping for Your Brand 🔑
Affiliates aren’t just sharing links. They’re the people talking to your consumers on a daily basis. Having real conversations, building trust, and sharing insights at a scale brands could never pull off alone.
Think of affiliates as curating mini storefronts that consumers actually want to shop. Each creator builds their shelf with products they genuinely love, and their audiences discover (and buy) based on that trust.
The brands leaning into this shift in influencer marketing aren’t just selling more, they’re driving discovery in a way that feels authentic, and earning long-term loyalty.
The Flywheel Effect
Winning in live shopping is all about running a tight playbook.
Here is a four-step flywheel:
- Select partners with real cultural fit and sales history.
- Coach them with briefs that feel more like sales tips than brand manuals.
- Capture both the metrics and the qualitative insights and discover why something worked, or didn’t.
- Scale what’s working and tweak what isn’t.
It’s fast, scrappy, and built for constant learning. What once took six months to test now happens in a single week.
Rethinking Brand KPIs
ROAS and CAC aren’t going away, but social commerce comes with its own scoreboard. We’re talking about:
- Affiliate conversion rate (how many say “yes” to your outreach)
- Revenue per video (because every TikTok video has a dollar sign attached)
- Creator lifetime value (not just one post, but the ripple effect over time)
Small signals add up quickly and they can reshape your entire business growth model if you’re tracking the right ones.
Rewarding Creators the Right Way
In 2025, brands should be thinking about affiliates like they’re your business partners. That means thinking beyond flat commissions. Some brands are experimenting with performance-based equity, while others are giving affiliates deeper data access to help them sell better with their niche, trusted audiences.
The point is when you treat affiliates like co-strategists of the brand, the loyalty (and sales) are MASSIVE opportunities.
You Got the TL;DR. Now Where Do You Start?
Keep it simple:
- Identify 15 affiliates who fit your brand and already drive results.
- Test 5–7 products or bundles before trying to sell your entire catalog.
- Hold weekly insight standups to capture what’s working and why.
Remember, every swipe can be a signal. Every signal can be a sale. And the brands that lean into this shift now will be the ones setting the pace for 2026.
👇 Want the full playbook from our team? Catch the live replay on our YouTube.
👉Want to partner with us? Drop us a line!