In chapter 25 of the we bring you a fantastic example to talk about Social selling. This is the case of Barcelona, a vertical fashion social network in which each user uploads their outfits by tagging some of the clothes and accessories they are wearing. In this way, whoever accesses the tagged photos discover, be inspired and can make a direct purchase of the product you are interested in.
We tell you all the details of 21 Buttons with the help of Cristina Llibrebusiness manager of the .
Interview with Cristina Llibre (21 Buttons)
02:49 What were you doing before you came to 21 Buttons?
I was working in London. For two years I was in charge of the Spanish market to houzz, American decoration company. An inspiration platform where you can find everything you need to decorate your home. In that sense it is very similar to 21 Buttonsthat you offers everything you need to make your purchase decision in fashionfrom inspiration to the product you’re interested in, plus click-to-buy.
03:33 How did you get on Houzz?
I was in Barcelona, I had worked for five years and by chance, after a LinkedIn message, I ended up in London. And I adapted very well.
04:32 What was it that brought you back to Barcelona?
Personal issues, on the one hand, and the 21 Buttons project, which looked very good. After sitting down to talk a couple of times with Marc Soler and Jaime Farrés, the founders of the company, it was very clear to me that this was my thing.
04:50 Tell us how 21 Buttons works.
It’s about a Social Commerce where you have what you need from the moment of inspiration until you find what interests you, you go to the brand’s eCommerce and buy it. The key is that you connect inspiration with sales in a single click. The big difference, because no one is doing the same as us, is that in a single photo you can see all the tagged products that the user or influencer is wearing, and there are 7,000 using 21 Buttons. You can see all the products, know what brand they are, how much they are worth, and access the direct link to buy them.
We have that part of community, where you can follow influencers and users, find the style that you like the most, the product and the possibility of buying it; and also, another part to discover. You can filter by brand, product type, price, colors. It is about making the inspiration part very accessible to the user. At 21 Buttons you can find everything you need to decide what to buy in fashion in a single application.
06:42 There are those who could say that 21 Buttons is a platform of .
In the sense that we generate traffic outwards, towards the eCommerce of fashion brands.
And that eCommerce pay influencers a percentage for each sale they generate.
There is an important difference. We do not promote branded content. We base everything on user-generated content, which we know has seven times the power of recommendation than what brands create. So it is the users, influencers or not, who act as prescribers of the product. Anyone could do it. You have your profile, you tag your clothes, the brands you wear, and your friends or people who like your style follow you and can buy the same thing you wear. Also, all users or influencers who use 21 Buttons have the option to monetize their outfitsto obtain a percentage for each sale.
08:18 21 Buttons started in Spain in 2015 and soon began to internationalize.
It is present in Spain, Italy, , Germany, the United States and . In all countries the launch has worked very well but it should be noted that in France it is being a boom. We have been number one downloader in the App Store for several days. There is a spectacular 21 Buttons phenomenon. So building on the success of France we have launched Belgium and Austria, and Russia, and now we are going to launch Mexico and Turkey. The platform is being very well received in different markets, we see how users use it and consume it, and that is why we are growing.
10:12 What global numbers does 21 Buttons move by?
They change almost every week. right now they are 11 million downloadsmore than 7,000 influencers, we work in collaboration with more than 700 eCommerce, more than 20,000 photos uploaded every day and more than 40,000 tagged products per day.
10:58 Can I tag an eCommerce that is not in your list of collaborators?
Yes. We have a list of the most tagged. We handle a lot of information: which product is tagged the most, which brands, who are the ones that tag the most, which ones have the best, even what percentage of conversion each of them is generating. We have the ability to measure traffic and view all sales data.
Beyond the fact that it is a social platform and we are interested in likes and comments, because the community interacts, for us it is very important what interest the user shows for the product, for the brands and how much traffic we are generating to the websites of the marks. Then the brand is responsible for converting that sale. We cannot work miracles in all eCommerce but we are a major source of traffic and, for many brands, we are a new channel to make themselves known in certain markets.
12:47 What is the country with the most users?
By seniority, Spain is the one with the most downloads. France is having a journey that hopefully the new countries will all go along that line. As for user activity, what is interesting is that it is recurring and above all that it participates, that it uploads content, that it labels a product. There are younger users who are very active and they generate a lot of content. There are older users, like me, who come in looking for inspiration. We are more of consuming the content and less active when it comes to sharing it.
14:00 What do you call influencer?
We work with all kinds of profiles, from the supertops to the smallest. We consider influencers those who have more than 15,000 or 10,000 followers on Instagramwhich is a parameter that everyone understands.
But there are many of them who right now have more followers on 21 Buttons than on Instagram, and just by tagging the clothes they wear, they can monetize their outfits through the sales they generate in their own community. Also we are identifying new profiles to whom we see a lot of potential. Newfaces. They have about 5,000 followers on , they are not known, but we think they can work; That is why we have a program in which we work with them to see if they have a long-term path. At the same time we generate business for them.
We work with many fashion industry brands who contact us for help in their influence marketing. We know what their objectives are, what target they want to reach, and based on that information, we can activate a series of profiles that fit with that strategy.
Every influencer has a purpose. The biggest ones will give you a lot brand awarenessbut if that’s not what you want, there is micro influencers either mid-influencers that have a very high power of recommendation because their followers feel more in tune with their style, with what they buy, with their purchasing power. The important thing is that you generate value, that the audience has engagement with them, that you believe in them, that you trust their recommendations.
17:58 More and more influencer marketing projects are emerging that copy the 21 Buttons model and bet on video as a differential format. Have you considered introducing the video?
Yes, we have considered it. There are many formats and the diversity of content will always help the user to be inspired. There are many channels you can activate, the video is one of them and it’s on our roadmap implement it, because it is content that works. And when we are there, product labeling is not going to be a problem.
20:02 Do you also contemplate the Live Streaming option?
You have to take into account how the user consumes the content. If you go to Instagram, you are looking for a distraction, it is a one-way consumption. In 21 Buttons you don’t enter to be entertained. Our audience likes fashion and when they enter the app they are looking for inspiration. But behind there is always an intention to buy.
This explains why the types of content are different on one platform and another. When you consume content on , you watch and the video helps you. When you look for inspiration, product consideration, and data that tells you how much it is worth and where you can buy it is when the type of content that you show to the user changes. So after the video, you’ll see.
22:27 Instagram Shopping only allows eCommerce to tag the product of one website, not several. What is the risk that he will do the same thing to you that he did to Snapchat?
Obviously Instagram is doing it right. Brands can sell, they label their product. Everything happens within Instagram, it does not drive traffic out, which is one of the differences. And it’s limited to a number of brands.
21 Buttons is open platformyou can tag anything you want. Instagram is more geared towards content consumption, you can buy; we go more to the inspiration part, you can find products aligned with your style, your look and feel, continue to interest you. Here everything is focused on fashion. And we don’t see any threat.
25:46 What are your next steps?
The internationalization it is one of our priorities and, at the moment, we make new releases from here. We have offices in Barcelona, New York, London and Paris. As we open up New markets and we see how they work, we study the convenience of creating new ones. Right now we are about 140 workers.
26:26 And what is the business model?
We have an agreement with many brands, affiliation by or by CPC, where we monetize all our traffic. On the other hand we have marketing services for brands, which consists of helping brands to achieve their goals in each of the markets they are in. If we do a campaign with a brand, we have 10 influencers who are going to generate content, go to an event, to a collection presentation. What we get is that they activate their channels.
27:30 How do you think 21 Buttons will be in three years?
We want to be the destination platform for all the people who seek and are inspired by fashion. Being able to offer the user everything they need in terms of inspiration, filtering, customization, finding everything they need.
29:07 Have you considered having brand profiles?
The brands already have their own profiles within the application and can generate their communities. They are verified users with certain functionalities. Basically they can upload their branded content and see the users who tag them.
30:03 What does 21 Buttons mean?
It is the translation into English of an expression both Catalan and Spanish that is go dress 21 buttons, which comes from the 21 buttons on the military uniforms when they were in full dress. It is very elegant dress.
The last five with… Cristina Llibre
iOS or Android? Android, and already for years. Although I use both. I use Mac for work.
A hobby…
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