Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, more people around the world are being forced to stay inside their homes. Not only are people working from home or furloughed from their jobs, but others have become homeschool teachers or unemployed all together. Regardless of their reason for being at home, it has left them with more time to use their phones and surf the web. This increase in online time has allowed more access to social media influencers and more opportunities for people to become influencers.
We are now in a time where exotic travel and dining in restaurants has been severely disrupted. Now, rather than seeing pictures of people visiting faraway places, we’re getting content about decorating your living space for quarantine, working out from home or creating at-home versions of your favorite fancy coffee.
Additionally, since more people have the time to find their social media influencer niche, platforms like liketoknow.it (an influencer-powered shopping app) are gathering a stronger foothold on influencing the products we’re buying online.
Liketoknow.it isn’t just influencing little known online shops. The app is owned by RewardStyle, a blogger monetization platform. RewardStyle is the host for more than 100,000 content creators who work to influence the sales for more than 5,000 retailers around the world. These retailers include the household names of Apple, Chanel, Ulta and Walmart.
In fact, Amber Venz Box, the co-founder and president of RewardStyle and Liketoknow.it, suggested that Liketoknow.it has seen an increase in content over last year—by as much as 43 percent. Honestly, this isn’t much of a shock. The global shutdown to attempt to curb the spread of COVID-19 forced thousands of brick-and-mortar stores to close their doors. These closures left shoppers scrambling for new places to purchase the things they wanted.
The online retailers who came out on top were those who were able to convince influencers to showcase their products to the masses stuck at home. Products that saw an increase in sales included beauty products (specifically skincare products), home design products and home fitness equipment.
Let’s look at the example of beauty products. While makeup sales are on a decline (markedly because it isn’t seen as acceptable to show up to a zoom meeting with a full face of makeup) the sale of skincare products has seen a reported 140 percent increase. Likewise, with gyms closed, fitness buffs were forced to find other alternatives to workout at home. This drove up the sales of gym equipment.
Many of the changes to our way of life due to the COVID-19 pandemic are likely to stick around long term, it is likely that we will continue to see social media influencers have a large impact in the way we choose the products that we use in our lives. For this reason, it would be beneficial for businesses to embrace their usefulness.