iOS 14 update

If you haven't read my post on the latest iOS update and what it cold mean to small brands I suggest you do so. For Comoditi it's served as a wake up call that there is an over reliance on the two big digital advertising players - Facebook and Google. As economical and convenient as it is to pick the low hanging fruit by simply targeting users already in the market for a product, it's caused a  neglectfulness to the fuller spectrum of customers who might not need our product now, but perhaps in 6 months time. 

Apple ending apples

There's an irony in that a company called Apple could be spelling the end for low hanging fruit such as apples. What many don't realise about this though is that they're potentially cutting off the life-blood of small businesses and start-ups to get off the ground. If this ability is removed then it leaves many small brands struggling to make a sale in a competitive marketplace dominated by big players, potentially becoming cash insolvent due to poor return on ad spend. These digital channels are volatile enough anyway, so any more disruption potentially makes it impossible to continue with and it won't be the big players that suffer.  It's becoming clear that a more reliable source for finding customers is mandatory to prosper.

The rise of the Influencer

This is obviously nothing new, Instagram and YouTube influencers particularly have been around for a while now. It's something Comoditi have dabbled in the past but steered away from due being asked to give away too much free stuff. Plus we're not big fans of your typical social media influencer, we get approached by them quite often. They seem to us to be a bunch of vanity obsessed, self-absorbed promotionalists who's only goal is to steer away from doing any work for a living and to be lavished with faux-love from total strangers. 

But hey, they that's just our opinion. 

On the flip-side however, I also hate paying a large chuck of our revenue each month to these tech giants who have never even heard of us. In what world do you take 10-50% of a businesses revenue without even knowing them by name? This one apparently.

There's got to be a middle ground somewhere right?

You can be special too

Everyone has some influence somewhere right? What difference does 100k uninterested followers on Instagram make when you're recommending a product to just one interested party. If you happen to mention a great product to a friend in passing and they go out and acquire said product, why shouldn't you get paid for that. If we as brands and businesses are willing to pay 10-50% of the RRP of a sale to Google or Facebook for making that sale happen, why shouldn't we pay the same to anyone else? 

That's out thinking here at Comoditi.

How to become an Ambassador

We're making this as easy as possible with very little setup and the lowest degree of friction. At the moment you can simply send a friend to a sign-up page where they simply need to name the person who referred them there. The referrer gets paid AU$25 cash (via PayPal) when that friend makes a purchase. Simple.

There is a couple of obvious caveats that the whole idea relies to run successfully. These are:

• The original referrer must be a previous customer of Comoditi.
  That is, you need to have owned and worn our jeans in order to recommend them. When your friend names you at signup, we'll look in our system to make sure you already exist in our system.
• The referrer is only eligible for payment after the returns period is over.
  This is 30 days for Australian orders and 45 internationally.

As this gains some traction we'll add more incentives to refer a friend such as extra discounts and free promotional items. 

Any questions, get in touch at info@comoditi.co