Retail Week sits down with former Not On The High Street (NOTHS) executive Ella d’Amato to talk about her new review-based shopping platform which aims to disrupt the social commerce space.
Ella d’Amato’s new social ecommerce platform, I Love It, aims to redefine shopping by making the experience as authentic as possible. It is designed to recreate that word-of-mouth buzz about brands in the online world, and give people monetary rewards for recommending products they genuinely love.
Monetary rewards are paid in the form of cash in digital wallets or direct payments to sharers.
I Love It, which has a promising team of professionals behind it including from direct competitors Like to Know (LTK) and TikTok Shop, is currently in its closed beta stage, with plans to open it up to the rest of the market later this year.
Here, d’Amato introduces us to the platform and how it plans to compete against giants like TikTok Shop, Pinterest and Meta in the commercial social space.
Tell us more about I Love It and where the idea originated.
“The best way I describe I Love It is ‘people-powered shopping’. We believe that when you genuinely love something and share it, it matters more. We wanted to create a platform where you can shop, share and earn from the things you love.
“Sharing and giving recommendations is something that happens globally. If I’m going travelling, I phone my friend Leanne. If I want any hair advice, I phone my sister Tara. I’ve got my besties group where I ask for recommendations on leggings that don’t fall down. So, that kind of communication and sharing happens all the time, but people get nothing in return for that.
“When I worked for NOTHS, every person in the marketing department or the CEO and the CFO would be like, ‘Oh, we know the most valuable thing is word of mouth.’ We think I Love It will be a much more inspirational and effective way to shop than just clicking on a Google ad and playing into loads of trends.
“So, in summary, it’s a place you can store the things that you love and recommend, and then you can share them with your friends, family and followers. And every time someone goes on to buy from your recommendation, you get rewarded.”
How do you differentiate it from existing review-based platforms like LTK?
“LTK is for creators. We will have creators on our platform too, but our platform is designed for anyone who wants to share. You have to have at least 15,000 followers to get into LTK, so it is definitely for people who make a living on social media. But I guess, you could argue a bit of TikTok Shop, a bit of Pinterest, and a bit of LTK are all kind of our competitors.
“The best way to think about it is, if Reddit and TikTok had a purpose-led baby that would be I Love It. It looks and feels like TikTok and Pinterest, where you’re either searching or getting video recommendations from followers and friends. But the way the algorithm works is more like Reddit, where the best recommendations come to the top.
“On other platforms, like LTK or TikTok, the commission rate is dictated by the brands. We interviewed so many different sharers (giving recommendations) who said they just share the brands that are going to pay them the most rather than the things that they genuinely love.
“Because we’re ad-free, brands can’t determine the commission here. It’s a flat commission; brands keep 80% of the sale, I Love It keeps 10% and 10% goes to the sharer.
Why did you choose fitness and wellbeing as the first category to enter the market?
“We looked at the categories where high trust is needed. What are the categories where there are lots of recommendations? Fashion and Beauty are quite saturated in the market. And so, what we decided is, because we want to be a brand for certain values and about passion and doing more of what you love, the fitness and wellness space actually, for lots of people, is quite hard.
“So to take one extreme: you’re running your first marathon. If you put into Google ‘running my first marathon’, it’s a minefield, right? Or if you’re at a beginner stage and just starting running, what are the best trainers? We want you to actually hear from someone who’s gone on that journey and tell you the things you need.
“We decided to pick fitness and wellness because I think it’s a category people need support in. We want to be an active brand and encourage passions. It’s an Olympic year, let’s start there and learn. Then we’ll move into other places.”
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