🇫🇷 From Cannes to Coach: Everyone’s Selling
Coach’s smartest move yet, Try Your Best gets funding, and China’s looking back at us.
Welcome back to Sell! Sell! Sell! 🛍️
👋 Tobias here. Reading this with a spritz in one hand and a Cannes hangover in the other? Thought so.
This week we’re watching creator platforms eat traditional media, agencies invest big in livestreams, and brands blur the lines between content and commerce. Plus, Ty Haney returns, Coach gamifies shopping, and live video continues its takeover.
Let’s get into it.
🚨 This Week’s Headlines
(June 17th)
💰 Creator Platforms Overtake Traditional Media in Ad Revenue
A new report confirms it: creator platforms are now pulling in more U.S. ad dollars than traditional media outlets. That includes YouTube, TikTok, Meta, and Snap — officially crossing the $40B mark in annual revenue.
The shift isn’t just spend — it’s mindset. Advertisers now treat creators as full-stack media channels, not just distribution.
📦 Live Selling Heats Up in Europe — and Becomes the Side Hustle of Choice
A TNW feature shows that live selling is booming across Europe, with platforms like TikTok Shop, Whatnot, and Galax giving creators a chance to earn meaningful income from part-time hustle.
Highlight: Average livestream sellers are earning €800–€1,200/month, with the top 10% clearing €5,000+.
📺 Omnicom, Amazon & Meta Double Down on Live Shopping
Omnicom has inked new partnerships with both Amazon and Meta to scale live commerce campaigns — focusing on shoppable content, influencer activations, and full-funnel measurement.
This isn’t just about content. It’s about control. Big agencies want to measure everything — even memes.
and while I’ve got you…
Where do you want deeper Creator Sales data?We’re building something new: a tool that tracks which creators are actually driving sales |
🎤 Seller Spotlight
Ty Haney’s Comeback: Try Your Best (TYB)
Ty Haney raising $11M Series A for TYB
Ty Haney is back — and she’s doing it her way. The Outdoor Voices founder just raised a Series A for Try Your Best (TYB), a community commerce platform designed to reward users for participation, not just purchases.
After a rocky OV exit, Ty’s re-entry is all about direct consumer relationships. TYB lets users test products, give feedback, and earn loyalty perks — all while brands own the first-party data.
📈 Why it’s working:
40+ brands already onboard
Focus on loyalty, not likes
Web3 foundation, but no jargon
Haney’s betting on loyalty as the new acquisition, and so far, investors (and brands) are buying it.
🧠 Brand Move of the Week
Coach leaning into AR after TikTok Trend
Coach Turns “What’s In My Bag?” Into a Conversion Engine
Coach has flipped a TikTok trend into a surprisingly useful e-commerce tool — and it might change how we shop for bags online.
It started with a simple question: “What’s in my bag?” The trend has been a staple of creator content for years. But Coach saw something more than just a vibe — they saw a friction point in the D2C shopping journey.
@monicaeldin #whatsinmybag #essentials #coachbag #coachsohoflap
🛍️ The problem:
When buying bags online, there’s no try-on. No real sense of size, scale, or what actually fits. Sure, there are product dimensions… but do they help you figure out if your book, lip gloss, or emergency snacks will fit? Not really.
💡 The solution:
Coach launched a new site feature called See My Bag — part content, part game, and very much a conversion tool. Here’s how it works:
👜 Drag-and-drop common items into a virtual bag to see how full it gets
📏 See the % of space used in real-time
📐 Input your height and size to preview how the bag looks on your body
It’s clever, playful, and genuinely solves a real D2C challenge — while piggybacking on a trend that already had cultural traction.
💬 Why it works:
Coach didn’t just build tech for the sake of innovation. They built it around real buyer behavior — merging social content, community insight, and interactive UX to close the confidence gap before purchase.
Smart, on-brand, and very shoppable.
🔭 Trend Watch
Want to Know Where U.S. Live Shopping Is Headed?
Look East.
Live shopping is no longer an experiment in the West — it’s a movement. From TikTok Shop’s creator-fueled flash sales to Whatnot’s thriving niche auctions, the U.S. market has clearly caught the bug. But if you want a glimpse of where this could all go next… look east.
🇨🇳 In China:
Livestream commerce accounts for ~20% of all online retail sales
Top influencers regularly drive millions in GMV in a single session
Platforms like Douyin (China’s TikTok) have entire shopping ecosystems — from native checkout to fulfillment and customer support — all built around live video
🇺🇸 In the U.S.:
TikTok Shop is expanding creator tools and monetization incentives weekly
Amazon and Pinterest are quietly investing in always-on livestream content
Events like eBay’s Live Shopping Tour are blending physical + virtual commerce
📌 What’s next?
Expect more creator-first infrastructure: tools for hosting, monetizing, and fulfilling directly from livestreams. Also: category expansion. Beauty and collectibles led the way, but now we’re seeing fashion, CPG, home, and even B2B brands dip into live formats.
💡 The shift isn’t just about selling — it’s about showmanship.
In a saturated feed, attention is the new inventory. And live video? It’s stocked.
The U.S. isn’t trying to copy China’s model wholesale — but the roadmap is clear:
Make it entertaining. Make it seamless. Make it real-time.
Because the future of commerce might not be a store — it might be a show.
See you next week. In the meantime, Sell! Sell! Sell! 🫡