The Affiliate Space is Heating Up
LTK and ShopMy are creating their own universes
Welcome back to Sell! Sell! Sell! 🛍️
I’ll be at Creator Economy East in NYC tomorrow. If you’re around, I’d love to say hello 👋
This week’s newsletter hits a nerve I’ve been thinking about a lot lately: platforms that once made their name riding social are now trying to build beyond it.
From ShopMy and LTK launching storefronts to TikTok loosening the reins on traffic flow, everyone’s starting to ask… is social the destination, or just the discovery engine?
Let’s jump in.
🚨 This Week’s Headlines
(August 5th)
🛠️ LTK and ShopMy want more than affiliate links
LTK just launched a new creator-powered shopping destination—and ShopMy isn’t far behind. Both platforms are moving beyond affiliate catalogs to build their own front doors for commerce.
If creators can drive traffic, why not capture checkout too? These platforms are angling to become the final stop in the journey—not just a pass-through.
📎 Read about ShopMy in Vogue Business and the LTK in Modern Retail
🛒 TikTok Shop gets a major affiliate upgrade
I’ve been talking before about TikTok being a very closed off walled garden but CJ Affiliate just dropped a first-of-its-kind TikTok Shop integration, allowing brands to directly track conversions and commissions from creators. This could signal a broader shift in TikTok’s willingness to let partners drive traffic off-platform—or at least make better sense of the traffic it owns.
🛍️ Walmart steps into eBay’s lane
Walmart just announced a dedicated marketplace for collectibles—trading cards, memorabilia, and more, going head-to-head with eBay’s long-standing dominance in the space. With scale, retail muscle, and a loyal customer base, Walmart’s entry could reshape where fandom-fueled commerce happens.
🍸 TalkShopLive is selling booze now
TalkShopLive is now selling alcohol through its livestream shopping platform, opening the door to a new category of high-ticket, high-loyalty purchases. It also signals a bigger ambition to become a one-stop commerce engine, not just for books and beauty.
🧠 Brand Move of the Week #1
Ty Haney is back at Outdoor Voices and she’s bringing community commerce with her
Ty Haney, the once-exiled founder of Outdoor Voices, has returned to the activewear brand with a new playbook: integrate her startup, TYB (Try Your Best), directly into the brand’s operations.
“We’re back, baby,”
Haney originally launched Outdoor Voices in 2014 and quickly became one of DTC’s most iconic founders, but by 2020, she was ousted following internal friction and boardroom drama. After leaving, she built TYB, a community-powered platform that rewards engagement with perks and limited-edition drops.
Now, five years later, she’s back, and bringing TYB with her. Outdoor Voices plans to use the platform to gamify loyalty and build tighter relationships with fans, without relying on the same old playbook of ads and influencer spend.
I’m loving her formula:
Launch a hit brand centered around yourself
Sell it to private equity, watch it lose the plot
Start a new company
Come back and merge the two on your terms
Genius!
🧠 Brand Move of the Week #2
Desi Perkins takes Dezi Skin to Sephora (launching today)
Desi Perkins, longtime YouTube and Instagram beauty influencer (4.2M followers on Instagram, 630K on TikTok), just launched her skincare line, Dezi Skin, at Sephora.
The debut includes five hero products: the sold‑out Canvas Gentle Detox Cleansing Gel, the Allure-winning Skin So Balm Makeup-Melting Cleansing Balm, the vitamin C serum Claro Que C, Moisturizer, and Pink Nectar Squalane Oil .
Since launching in 2020, the brand has seen 55% year-over-year growth in 2025 and is targeting double-digit to triple-digit growth as it expands retail presence .
What stands out: this is not a flash-in-the-pan influencer label, it’s a community-built brand that waited until it had the formula, storytelling, and fan base to scale into retail.
Landing at Sephora now feels like a natural progression.
🔭 Trend Watch:
From platform to playground - why everyone’s building their own thing
This week, ShopMy and LTK both made moves that signal the same trend: they’re no longer just tools for creators to exist on social media—they want to replace parts of it.
ShopMy is launching a full-fledged shopping site. LTK is rebranding itself as an all-in-one creator commerce platform. And let’s not forget Ty Haney, who’s re-entered Outdoor Voices with a platform (TYB) that’s all about owning the customer relationship through community-driven incentives.
What do they all have in common?
A desire to escape the algorithmic hamster wheel and build ecosystems where they own the traffic, the audience, and the checkout.
Social media might still be the discovery engine—but increasingly, the endgame is what we are all looking for, freedom, independence and owning as much of the customer journey as possible.
See you next week. In the meantime, Sell! Sell! Sell! 🫡