SXSWORLD

SXSW.COM | M A R C H 8 , 2 0 1 8 | SXS W O R L D 2 9 back in 2010 that even if her fans appreciated her style, she couldn't get a commission from their purchases, as she would have in the days of offline personal shopping. Fast forward to now. With more than 90 engineers and employees, rewardStyle and its offshoots are leading the charge in social media shopping. "Last year alone, the app drove almost $300 million in retail sales to our partners. As a network, last year as a whole, rewardStyle drove $1.1 billion in retail sales," Box says. "In 2014, when we first launched LIKEtoKNOW.it, about 23 percent of clicks were coming from mobile. Then you look at the 2017 stats, now it's 67 percent. So you think about where to reach the consumer." And that's only from the consumer side, Box adds. "Then think about the creator side," she continues. "In 2014, we didn't work with anybody who was an Instagram-only influencer. But last year, 2017, more than 60 percent of the influencer applications to rewardStyle were mobile-only. That means they run their entire business from their phones." "All of this just has a massive impact," Box explains. "It's shown a shift over time of content creation and content consumption into the mobile device, and that has massive implications for incumbents. And what you see across the retail landscape is there are big winners and there are big losers." Box points out that now it's not uncommon for a "multi-brand chain" to have more value in its real estate holdings than the business itself. "If most content now lives inside of closed mobile social channels, you can't index that content," Box explains. "If you can't search and find content within these social platforms, are you still relevant?" All of this is disrupting "everyone from Google to WordPress to these multi-brand retailers to major media companies that were once too big to fail," Box says. "And honestly, it all comes down to the handset. You can be a creator just by the phone that you have in your hand. You have the platform to distribute your content now. So you or I have an equal chance to dis- tribute our work… Then you have rewardStyle, which gives you the means to wake up everyday and make money by doing it. It's completely a revolution. There is no hierarchy anymore." Amber Venz Box will be part of the featured Startup & Tech Sectors track session: "What Mobile Means for the World's Biggest Brands" on Saturday, March 10, at 12:30pm in Salon H at the Hilton Austin Downtown (500 E 4th St). Transform your workday - visit we.co/sxsw18 1 5 % O F F W E W O R K Valid with 6 month commitment at WeWork US locations WeWork provides refreshingly designed offices, an inspiring community, and meaningful business services to empower you and your team. Experience the Future of Workspace

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