Creator-Driven Commerce is Still The Opportunity

My colleague Susannah Shipton recently wrote a brilliant must-read post about two types of attention brands and marketers need to cater to: humans and agents.  Once again something (AI) is attracting all the hype while we real top of the funnel gets de-prioritized.

I’ll pause here because you really should read Susannah’s post (and subscribe—she’s terrific).

As I watch my kids spend all their time watching YouTube and Instagram Reels, it’s clear that the future of commerce is not just AI - it really is about where consumers are and where all their attention is going: creators.  They use AI for search, image and video creation, “weird stuff” (whatever that is—not sure I want to know) and probably some homework (but they say only their friends do that…).

But they discover, feel, and are entertained by creators, and ultimately this is most of commerce outside of replenishment purchases.  Brands, companies, and anyone else wanting to reach or sell to younger audiences must not just pay attention to, but also really dedicate focused attention to creators. That shift is happening: creator advertising revenue will exceed professionally produced ad revenue in 2025, per Marketing Week.

Social commerce GMV grew from an estimated $492b in 2021 to a projected $1.2T in 2025, and the generation coming up is about to add more fuel to that fire.  

It’s why Susannah and I are very long creator-driven commerce with multiple Alleycorp investments already in each of the amazing teams at ShopMy and Agentio, and we expect to make more investments here in 2025 and beyond.