Publisher Spotlight: Lyst

Rakuten Advertising had the opportunity to sit down with Lyst’s Partner Growth Director, Karla Stevens, to chat about the company’s offering and its exciting plans. Join us as we dive into all things Lyst.  

Tell us about Lyst

Founded 12 years ago in London, Lyst is the world’s biggest and most intelligent shopping platform. Instead of browsing different stores individually, the customer can see and shop all of fashion at once. Our 200 million members span the globe and are a mix of deep fashion insiders plus a much broader group of highly committed, curious fashion shoppers who shop often and are always open to inspiration. We partner with our customers’ favourite fashion stores to offer over 12,00 brands, including everything from High Street to High End Luxury.  

What sets you apart from other publishers?

We know that it’s never been harder for fashion businesses to capture, convert and sustain customers’ attention. Our scale and technology means we can point fashion audiences towards our partner brands in ways no one else can.  We map our global audience not just on what they’re buying but also on their depth of knowledge and interest in fashion. We don’t simply expose our partner brands to bigger, better new audiences. We make sure you connect with them in rich, deep, real ways with our suite of ad and storytelling opportunities.  

Outside of our scale and technology, we are best known for our industry-leading insights and account management, from The Lyst Index report into the most popular brands and products each quarter to the bespoke reporting our account management team provides partners to support their business growth. Our data scientists are continually cutting and analysing our data, looking for insights our partners can use to fuel their decision-making, deepen their audience understanding, and see things coming. 

How do you help advertisers add value and drive incrementality?

We have spent the past 2-3 years developing our content placement opportunities in collaboration with our partners. We’ve found content placements to be one of the most powerful tools for growth on the Lyst platform, where every partner, from small up-and-coming brands to prominent global players, can impact their visibility and performance. Coupled with our data insights, we can guide partners in running the most effective campaigns to meet their goals. For example, for a partner who wants to increase their conversions, with our PBA Banner Ads, we can target their campaign to appear in shopping feeds which have the highest intent customers. Or if they have a lofty ROI goal, with our Collections Ads, we can tailor their best converting and highest margin items to be given additional visibility above their competitors. 

What excites you about the affiliate marketing industry and its direction? Are there any new innovations we will see from you in the coming months?

I’m most excited about the breaking down of silos that have existed with teams in our industry. When I joined the Lyst Partnership Team in 2018, it was unusual for me to be working with anyone but our partners’ affiliate teams – which, of course, I love to do, and these teams are still the core of our relationships. But now I have the opportunity and the pleasure to add to this by working with so many different teams and experts to bring them the best of what Lyst has to offer. The day-to-day is now anything from collaborating with creative brand teams on bespoke content opportunities to presenting data insights to strategic commercial teams, buying teams, etc. As someone who loves all aspects of fashion, marketing, and tech, this makes me extremely excited for the future, as I know we are only just scratching the surface of what we can achieve with our partners.   

At Lyst, we continuously innovate our shopping platform to give the best customer experience, as well as with our partner tools. One of the exciting things we are working on now is the very first Lyst Trend Insights Report for partners, to be launched very soon! These insights will arm our partners and their teams with the latest fashion intelligence to help them navigate the ever-changing landscape. We’ve also been improving our content placement opportunities with lots of testing and partner feedback groups. We love to work with our partners on everything we build to get their true thoughts and deliver them the most value. 

Why did you choose to partner with Rakuten Advertising?

Not only are Rakuten Advertising partnered with many of the world’s best brands and stores that our customers love to shop, but their account management team are experts in their specific areas. We visited the team last month, and I was blown away by their passion and knowledge of their partners. Each question the Rakuten team had was from a new perspective and challenged us to think differently for every partner. Our teams work extremely well together, and with this approach, we can solve problems and explore new opportunities for our partners.  

I always look forward to the Rakuten Advertising Dealmaker, where their team does an amazing job of bringing together teams from all around the world to connect and celebrate. Each time, I leave the day having discussed many different topics, learnt about new challenges or goals for our partners, and most importantly, spent time with the people who bring our industry to life. 

Want to work with Lyst? Visit rakutenadvertising.com today or speak to your account representative.