Walmart may be looking at increasing its use of social media influencers to promote its own products and those of its third-party sellers, having filed trademarks for “Walmart Creator” and “Walmart Creator Collective.”
The filing said these services would provide social media consulting and promotion through influencers, according to a Thursday (Aug. 18) report from Reuters.
Companies don’t always launch services in connection with the trademarks for which they file, and Walmart declined to comment on its plans for these terms, per the report.
Walmart already offers digital advertising services to its third-party sellers, and it has prioritized the growth of its eCommerce business, according to the report.
“The relationship between digital growth, marketplace growth, advertising is something that we’re trying to take advantage of,” Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said Tuesday (Aug. 16) during the company’s quarterly earnings call, per the report.
Walmart has included influencers on its website since at least 2018, when it began working with firms to add bloggers’ photos and other content below select brands’ product information and images.
Also read: Walmart Looks To Influencers To Boost eCommerce
Rival Amazon, too, is looking to attract influencers to promote goods on its platform, aiming to become the dominant livestream shopping force in the U.S.
The company has held several events to attract key influencers, including signing bonuses and beach trips, according to a report in the Financial Times.
See: Amazon Lures Influencers to Fire Up Livestream Shopping in US
Much of the impact of influencers centers on trust, which translates to confidence in the business of social selling, Kit Ulrich, general manager of consumer platform and experience at LTK, a marketplace for consumers, creators and brands, told PYMNTS’ Karen Webster in a July interview.
Read more: High Fashion Meets High Tech as Creator-Influencers Perfect the Art of Online Conversion
“The amazing part is how creators solve purchase confidence in a really unique and valuable way because they’ve already tested and tried all the products, and they’ve done that curation for you,” Ulrich said.
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