Walmart, LTK, ShopMy, and the trillion-dollar shift in maker commerce

While traditional retail faces headwinds, maker commerce is experiencing rapid growth. Three companies – a retailer, a platform and a luxury brand – demonstrate the enormous possibilities: Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, has invested in infrastructure to turn thousands of makers into a major sales channel. LTK operates a $6 billion business that provides retailers with a third growth engine beyond their stores and their own websites. And ShopMy, recently valued at $1.5 billion, is building the system that connects luxury brands with curated discoveries.

Walmart CMO William White joined Forbes’ Seth Matlins as a presenting sponsor of the second annual Forbes Creator Upfronts to discuss how the retailer is turning its massive scale into a creator-driven commerce engine

Forbes

How Walmart is turning makers into a core sales channel

Walmart’s commitment to creator commerce was on full display at the second annual Forbes Creator Upfronts in Los Angeles. Chief Marketing Officer William White, in conversation with Seth MatlinsManaging Director of the Forbes CMO Network, explained why Walmart is investing heavily in makers. “Creators are really becoming one of the most trusted outlets in retail,” says White.

Walmart’s scale turns that trust into a competitive advantage. The company operates nearly 10,750 stores and clubs in 19 countries and serves 255 million customers every week. With the ability to deliver within an hour to 95% of the country, Walmart gives makers and shoppers something no other platform can: instant access from discovery to delivery.

Launched in 2022, the Walmart Creator Program enables influencers to run businesses within Walmart’s ecosystem: discover products, track sales, and build custom storefronts. White outlined two recent expansions shaped by creator feedback.

The first is a bonus program that pays creators when they reach sales thresholds in Walmart’s general merchandise categories. This approach treats high performers as sales partners and not just as commission-based partners. The second expands commission options for both Walmart’s inventory and third-party marketplace sellers. The expansion of the market is significant. Creators can now earn commissions from both Walmart and individual sellers, dramatically expanding their product selection and earning potential.

“We always say we’re people-led and technology-powered,” says White, describing how the company balances retail scale with creator-driven commerce.

The strategy works beyond Walmart’s traditional consumer base. “The majority of our recent market share gains have come from households with incomes over $100,000, which historically has not been our sweet spot,” White said. “The changes we have made have made us more attractive to more people.”

Why LTK’s $6 Billion Platform Solves Creator Commerce’s Biggest Challenge.

As Walmart deepens its maker infrastructure, LTK has spent more than a decade building the connective tissue between makers and brands. Since launching in 2012, the platform has generated $6 billion in annual retail sales from 7,000 retailers, reaching approximately 40% of Gen Z and millennial women.

The company identified the challenge limiting growth: visibility, not budget. Research from LTK and Northwestern University shows that 97% of CMOs plan to increase creator budgets by 2026, citing creators as their top investment priority. But algorithmic feeds now limit the reach of creators. On average, less than 20 percent of followers see a creator’s posts. “The constraint is not the budget,” says Amber Venz Box, co-founder and president of LTK. “It’s about visibility. Algorithmic feeds actually determine who sees what.”

This visibility gap challenges the very foundation of how creator marketing works. When creators can’t reliably reach their own audiences on social platforms, brands lose creators’ most valuable asset: consistent access to engaged fan communities. LTK solves this by providing creators with a destination platform where followers actively choose to view their content, rather than relying on algorithms to decide.

However, LTK also recognized that brands faced their own barrier: expensive and fragmented tools. The company’s response was to eliminate subscription fees. Brands now get free access to identify creators, launch campaigns, manage gifting at scale, and track performance across LTK and external channels. “You don’t pay for access, you pay for success,” Venz Box said. LTK earns commission on transactions instead of charging upfront fees.

The model works. One in five searches on LTK contains a brand name: consumers know what they want and are ready to buy. The speed tells the story: LTK creators post Abercrombie content almost every minute. Consumers purchase a Nordstrom product almost three times per second. They buy Ulta Beauty products every three seconds

Brands want to participate. Nearly 600 are on the waiting list to launch their platform profiles, joining Abercrombie, Nike, Nordstrom, Williams Sonoma, Reformation, Sephora, Ulta Beauty, Zara and others already active.

LTK is the global digital shopping platform connecting brands, creators and consumers and generating more than $6 billion in revenue

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ShopMy’s $70 Million Bet on Curated Creator Commerce

ShopMy’s $70 million funding round this month, which brings its valuation to $1.5 billion, signals investor confidence in the premium segment of the creator commerce. Led by Avenir with participation from Bain Capital Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners and Menlo Ventures, the round validates a bet on curation over algorithms.

Founded in 2020, ShopMy has built an infrastructure that connects premium brands with culture-boosting creators through professional tools and performance data. The company has surpassed $1 billion in annual platform sales and partners with more than 1,200 premium brands, including Gucci, Net-a-Porter, West Elm and Therabody, in addition to more than 185,000 creators.

ShopMy, the managed commerce infrastructure for premium brands, recently announced a new raise of $70 million based on a $1.5 billion valuation.

Tyler Joe

“ShopMy is, at its core, a bet on authenticity, where sustainable brand equity comes from curation and taste, not advertising and algorithmic recommendations,” said Harry Rein, co-founder and CEO.

The company’s recent consumer expansion introduced a new feature, ‘Circles,’ which allows users to follow multiple trusted curators simultaneously, combining personalized discovery with sales performance tracking. It’s a direct response to algorithmic fatigue: let people choose whose taste they trust, rather than letting platforms decide what they see.

“Word of mouth has always been the most powerful force in commerce,” said Tiffany Lopinsky, co-founder and president. “We are building the infrastructure to make this scalable.”

The conclusion: the future of retail belongs to Creator Partnerships

The future belongs to retailers who view makers as strategic business partners.

Walmart, LTK and ShopMy approach the opportunities differently, but share a core belief: growth comes from integrating makers directly into the business model. Performance is increasingly driven by trust and not reach, as William White shared: “The creators who work best for us are not necessarily the biggest. They are the ones with the most loyal followers.”

That mentality is redefining the way retail works, powered by both people and technology. The companies that create stronger connections between story and sales will determine what – and how – the world buys next.