Creator company LTK is launching shoppable video features that resemble TikTok and Instagram as competition heats up in affiliate marketing

LTK launched a new full-screen continuous video feature.

Creator-commerce company LTK launched this week a shoppable full-screen short-video feature to compete with platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Amazon in social shopping.

The video feature lives on the LTK app and can be found on a creator’s LTK account. Unlike the short-video feeds in apps like TikTok, LTK’s feed lets users scroll through videos from their selected creator rather than all the creators they follow or an algorithm-based feed.

It’s designed specifically for shopping. Users can shop the content through a clickable carousel of products displayed at the bottom of each video.

The Dallas-based company, formally known as RewardStyle and LiketoKnow.it, is an affiliate-marketing and creator-commerce platform where influencers can earn money from commissions and brand collaborations. Recently, LTK has been facing more competition from major platforms like TikTok and YouTube in social shopping. YouTube recently launched its in-house affiliate program, for example, and TikTok Shop has continued to grow since its launch. By borrowing similar video tools from these platforms and applying them to its app, LTK is keeping itself in the running as a competitor.

Alongside the full-screen video feature, LTK is also releasing a feature called Daily Drops in the coming weeks. The tool will live at the top of the app’s home screen and let users watch and shop videos posted in the last 24 hours in the full-screen video player.

Daily Drops look similar to Instagram’s story tool. Like stories, unwatched Daily Drop videos appear as a ring around the creator’s profile on the homepage for 24 hours. But, unlike an Instagram story, which disappears unless it’s saved to a creator’s profile, LTK’s videos would remain available within a creator’s feed.

How LTK is warding off competitors with rival tools

Allison Yazdian, SVP of creator growth and success at LTK, told B-17 in June that LTK’s greatest weapon is that it isn’t beholden to a single platform, format, or brand.

“The reason why LTK has gotten to be so successful and will continue to be is because we are agnostic,” Yazdian said. “A creator can showcase their whole life. It’s not split up across platforms.”

The company is also betting on video because it offers better results for social shopping.

Shoppers purchase two times more from video posts on LTK than other types of posts, the company said. Video content can increase creator earnings on the platform by up to 46%. And, creator videos on LTK have averaged 64% more click-outs to retailers.

Social platforms like TikTok and commerce sites like Amazon have likewise embraced shoppable videos.

In 2023, Amazon launched a TikTok-like tool called Inspire. Inspire features shoppable review videos and photos that direct users to a product’s page in the app. Although Amazon runs a robust influencer program, this particular tool hasn’t successfully gained widespread adoption from creators and users, as B-17 previously reported.

While LTK’s short-video feature is not a stand-alone tool like TikTok, it could still give the company a leg up since the platform is already used more like a social platform than strictly a commerce site. Many fashion, beauty, and lifestyle creators have shoppable profiles with LTK, and users are accustomed to scrolling through the app to shop.

“LTK is a destination,” Yazdian said. “We see creators saying things like, ‘You can always check my LTK,’ and these followers don’t go to a retail site, they go to their favorite creator’s storefront on LTK, and they are shopping their looks.”