Publisher Spotlight: Carrot

Rakuten Advertising had the pleasure of sitting down with George Yuhba, Head of Partnerships at Carrot, an exciting new publisher that brings shopping carts from all your favorite shops into one! George talks about breaking into the market and bringing Carrot to the forefront of affiliate marketing.

Tell us a little bit about Carrot.

George: At Carrot, we are building a social shopping and discovery platform for our users and for brands!  Our users can collect products online that they love, use, or are just thinking about and curate them into collections for themselves or share their collections with friends, family, and even social media followers. This creates a shopping social network—as one of our reviews says, “Pinterest with products, not just pictures.” Recent upgrades include price drop alerts, text-to-Carrot for mobile users, and Facebook (not just Google) login functionality. With more user-focused features coming up in 2022.

What is great about Carrot is that we work with every category of advertiser, not just retail!

What sets you apart from publishers in your category?

George: Carrot uses our browser extension to “pull” information that our users can use to create beautiful collections. Other extensions in affiliate “push” information like coupons and cashback, which we do not do. This makes Carrot very unique in the affiliate world.

How do you help advertisers add value and drive incrementality?

George: Currently, our users who add brands will have a chance to shop their collections or introduce their favorite products to their family, friends, and followers. This gives brands that additional exposure as an advocate, not an ad. This is a more authentic story.

We will be focusing on how brands can be discovered, shortly. This may include brands having access to create accounts, be verified that you are the brand on our platform, and using our collections technology to tell our users your story.

What excites you about the affiliate marketing industry and where it’s headed? What new innovations will we see from you this year?

George: After 20 years in affiliate marketing, Carrot is exciting to me and it exemplifies what makes affiliate so great. Affiliate brings a sense of community and ingenuity. Carrot is bringing that sense of community and ingenuity. Having that match creates an environment where the brand, Rakuten, and Carrot can work together to bring together a cohesive story.

Why did you choose to partner with Rakuten Advertising?

George: Rakuten Advertising’s brand list matches our consumers and gives us access to partner with several key brands, including fast-fashion and luxury brands, that our users will want to learn about or use in their collections!