As insiders of an industry which is constantly changing, it is hard not to take notice of the all-the-more increasing commercial power and all the ways online influencers are changing the online shopping experience. Driven by the frequency consumers turn to their favorite bloggers for shopping inspiration and the amount of products available on the web, Cirqle, a seed-funded startup based in Amsterdam, created a tool that aims to revolutionize the way we shop online. We sat down with Charley Ambagtsheer, who is part of the Cirqle’s creative team, to discuss their new product and the team’s aspirations.
What inspired you to create Cirqle?
Shoppers have access to products from the entire world and they frequently turn to their favorite bloggers and online trendsetters to decide on what to purchase next.
However, there are many difficulties on the road, between inspiration and purchase, even with the help of the influencers you trust. That is why Steven Lammertink and Daan Nederhof created Cirqle, a system which can turn your blog or site into an online store. Cirqle connects your blog posts with the products of thousands of popular brands and lets you earn a commission on every sale you inspire, and your followers get access to the products they desire with a single click. The startup’s influencers are individuals—often bloggers—who have been able to cultivate large followings on their sites or social networks and are familiar with what resonates with their online visitors. The startup is actively creating the largest product database in the world, making online shopping at the point of inspiration smooth and profitable for everyone.
How exactly does Cirqle work?
Cirqle is really easy to use. Bloggers can load the posts from their content platforms into a structured flow presented in their dashboard. Bloggers can search for relevant products through a database of over 44 million items and connect those products to the photos from their posts. The second you tag a product in a picture it becomes available for purchase through your site.
Cirqle automatically overlays your content with an embedded shopping experience. Their online platform provides you with a direct connection to the retailers of your favorite products. Cirqle then allows your followers to purchase the items featured in your looks instantly when they get inspired on your site. All the pictures posted on your blog have a “shop this” button, so you can shop what you see! An added benefit is the campaigns feature, in which brands with the likes of Adidas, Uniqlo, Topshop and Calvin Klein invite you to post great stuff about the latest product releases.
How is Cirqle different compared to typical affiliate marketing programs?
We have all been subjected to intrusive ads, floods of automatically generated commercial links and deceptive content marketing at one point or another. So, it is a pleasant surprise that Cirqle’s primary commitment is to preserving the integrity of the curated content as a vessel for social e-commerce.
Do bloggers need to fulfill certain criteria to join Ciqle?
Cirqle supports all WordPress, Squarespace, Tumblr and Blogger sites and makes no distinction between online content creators such as bloggers, magazines, fashion, travel and lifestyle sites.
What was the biggest challenge you have faced while setting up your business?
When you build a product that you think is innovative, you try and steer through the opinions of numerous users, friends and investors in shaping your product. Without harming your long-term vision, you are inclined to build a product that will captivate your users’ attention. Since we are building a product for retailers, publishers and consumers at the same time, developing a product that unifies those three segments at the crossroads of content and commerce at scale is extremely challenging.
What does the future hold for Cirqle?
There is a better understanding now of what influencers contribute. At first influencers were viewed as journalists, providing unpaid editorial coverage. Now, many influencers position themselves as professionals with expertise or a service to offer. Brands benefit from working with influencers because they each have an audience. “You have the built-in distribution,” says Steven Lammertink.
What Cirqle is doing with online shopping is filling the gap of the accidental discovery of a product, rather than the deliberate search. Cirqle has combined the commerce power of Amazon, the content of the world’s greatest influencers (take Elle for example) and the visual forward format of existing successful discovery sites such as Pinterest. This combination of concepts looking for new trends through safe and preferred channels is the perfect foundation for a system that operates at the crossroads of content and commerce. We have always held the belief that influencers across the globe have the ability to shape trends and entire industries. Cirqle will on the long run alleviate online content creators from all downsides of retail, be it inventory management or fulfillment or dealing with payment transactions or shipping.
Images © Cirqle.nl
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