If you’re a creator trying to figure out whether ShopMy or LTK is the better affiliate platform, you’re definitely not alone! I’ve used LTK for years and ShopMy for almost a year now, and they’re both great for totally different reasons. In this post, I’m breaking down what each platform does, how they compare, and which one might make the most sense for your content and your audience.

What is ShopMy?

ShopMy is a creator-friendly affiliate platform that lets you build an online storefront full of products you recommend. It works as an open platform, so followers don’t need to install anything to shop your links. You can add pretty much any product link (even if the brand isn’t already working with ShopMy), and when someone buys through your link you earn a commission that tends to be higher than LTK. Usually between 10–30%.

If you need a ShopMy referral to become a creator, click this link here!

You also get access to nice perks like, gift opportunities from brands, transparent dashboards to track clicks, orders, and commissions, and a customizable storefront layout that makes it easy for your audience to shop your favorites and top picks. There’s also a tier/ ranking system for creators that ShopMy uses to assess how active and relevant your posts are.

If you want to learn even more, super in depth about ShopMy specifically check out this blogpost!

ShopMy Features

ShopMy has a ton of different useful and modern features which are all broken down below in an easy to understand way!

ShopMy Look and Aesthetic

Here are a few screenshots of what my ShopMy store looks like! As well as what some of the other features/pages on ShopMy looks like.

Digital Storefront Features

The digital storefront lets you build a curated shop where you organize content by collections (shelves, gift guides, etc.) You can customize each section/ “category” where your collections sit. The only two section/ categories that don’t change and have a set function are the “Popular now” and “Latest links” categories, although you can rename them.

ShopMy Product Carousels

On the ShopMy website you can copy the product collection/carousel link and put it into a website. Below and scattered through the ShopMy features section are what some of the carousels look like!

Flexible linking

You can add products from many brands and retailers. Even if a brand isn’t yet officially partnered, you can still link their products and earn commission if they use your link. Commissions typically range between 10–30% depending on brand/retailer. On top of just searching online or within the app for products, you can paste any product URL and ShopMy converts it into an affiliate link automatically!

Payments

Earnings are paid out each week via PayPal or Stripe! This could change in the future, they could add more payment methods. ShopMy is developing quickly and it wouldn’t surprise me if they made their platform even more accessible and easy to use for creators.

Here’s an example of ShopMy’s embedable product collections!

ShopMy Creator Tiers

Creator tiers are how you rank up and gain more visibility and popularity in ShopMy. Just starting out nobody can search your account. There has to be a direct link to your shop for someone to find it. Once you start ranking up, you gain more features and visibility in the app! Another feature that comes with creator tiers are on top of commissions you can also earn money by ranking up a tier. Here are the things you get from each!

• Enthusiast: Digital Storefront, product linking, 50k+ merchant partners.
• Ambassador: $10 Cash bonus, increased visibility in search results for brands.
• Trendsetter: Ability to chat with brands, $50 cash bonus, ability to request gifting and discount codes, priority consideration for opportunities.
• Icon: Highest visibility, exclusive brand deals, searchable storefront.

ShopMy Gifting Program

Brands can invite you to receive free products or you can request products from them. This has been an amazing feature that I have been loving!

How ShopMy Gifting it works

Inside the Gifting tab, you’ll see when a brand wants to send you products. Each invite includes a message from the brand explaining who they are and why they’re gifting. Most brands are running seasonal campaigns, and many will attach a lookbook so you can browse their products.

At the top right, you’ll usually see a dollar limit or item limit so you know exactly what you can select. From there, you choose the products you’d like and accept the gift.

A few days later, you’ll see when the brand ships your items. Tracking details are added directly in the app, so everything lives in one place. No digging through emails.

And this is where it gets really good. Once your items arrive, you can create affiliate links for the gifted products and monetize the content you’re already creating. Plus, you can keep messaging the brand right inside ShopMy.

It’s basically a one stop hub that simplifies gifting, communication, tracking, and monetization and once you use it, it’s hard to imagine managing brand gifting any other way.

Here’s an example of ShopMy’s embeddable product collections!

ShopMy Creator Analytics Dashboard

You can see clicks, orders, conversions, commissions all in one backend place. This feature is great for tracking performance, statistics, and pitching to brands.

ShopMy Customizable Storefront Layout

You can organize products into customized tabs, collections and themes to make it easy for followers to browse. You can also toggle collections and posts viewing off and on, so while you may be able to see a post or collection, your followers cannot.

Here’s what the ShopMy Full Collection embed looks like!

Embedding using ShopMy

You can embed your ShopMy collections, products, posts, and your ShopMy shop directly on your blog or website, so your recommendations live where you publish content. There’s embeds for YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, etc. ShopMy makes things extremely streamlined for you!

What is a ShopMy Circle?

A ShopMy Circle is a personalized, shoppable feed where your followers can combine product recommendations from their favorite creators into one curated space. Instead of browsing individual profiles like someone would in LTK, circles let them build their own “store” based on the products and creators they like.

They can follow curated groups, see real time finds from creators that they favorite, browse a storefront of all their links, and save products to a central wishlist making it easy to discover, organize, and shop creator recommended picks in one place.

What is LTK?

LTK (Like to Know it) is a very popular affiliate linking platform that helps creators earn commissions by sharing shoppable content across social media and the LTK app. It’s known for being more selective with who they accept to be creators, which is why many creators see it as a premium, fashion forward space in the affiliate world.

If you need a LTK referral link to become a creator feel free to DM me on instagram!

LTK works through retailer partnerships. You create shoppable photos and videos and tag the products. When someone buys through your link, you earn a commission, just like ShopMy! Followers can shop your recommendations either through your shared links or directly inside the LTK app, where many users go specifically to browse influencer curated looks. Creators also get tools like analytics to track clicks and conversions, access to brand campaigns inside the platform, and a dedicated LTK Shop where all your shoppable posts live. Payouts are typically monthly, and commissions vary a ton depending on the retailer.

LTK Features

LTK has a ton of useful features since it’s been around for about 13 years and they’ve had plenty of time to work on their app. Every feature is broken down in an easy to understand way below!

Digital storefront

Creators get an LTK Shop where followers can browse shopable posts, outfits, product sets, and curated looks inside the LTK app or on the website. Here’s what LTK looks like inside the creator app!

LTK Workflow

Most creators manage linking, uploading, tagging products, and publishing posts directly through the LTK app, with additional tools for websites available for use on desktop. Through the LTK creator website you can make different types of product displays for your website! There are tons of different options such as money spots, look books, banners, etc. These are shown throughout the about LTK section!

Here’s what an LTK lookbook looks like!

LTK Integrated affiliate linking

LTK connects with thousands of retailers, letting you generate affiliate links for fashion, beauty, home, lifestyle, and more. Links are pulled from LTK’s approved partner list, so if the brand is not partnered with LTK you can’t link it unfortunately.

LTK Collections

There are two types of LTK collections, the first is a product collection. You can use this for things like if you wanted to make a “My makeup” collection, you would just put all the prodcuts that you use. The other is a gift guide collection, in which you could put things like “Teen gift guide” and list relevant products. Click here for an example of a collection, and click here for an example of a gift guide collection!

Here’s what an LTK shop the post looks like!

LTK Commission based earnings

When someone shops through your link, you earn a commission on the order. The commission rates vary widely depending on the brand and the category that the product is in, but typically LTK offers from 3-14%. Although, it’s not always fixed. Most of the time for 14% or anything higher than 8% you might see a “Up to” added on. Target says “Up to 8%” for example, and this means that the rate varies based on the product being sold.

LTK Posting Options

LTK uses creator style posts like what you would find on Instagram. Photos, carousels, and videos are all available to post with tagged products, making your LTK shop feel like a curated social media feed rather than a traditional storefront.

Here’s what an LTK boutique looks like!

Brand Collaboration on LTK

LTK offers access to paid campaigns and brand partnerships directly through the platform, especially for fashion and lifestyle creators. They can offer collabs where you make content with their products or you could be given a custom discount code to share with your followers, etc!

Visibility Inside the LTK App

Shoppers use the app specifically to browse influencer recommendations, meaning your content can be discovered by users outside your existing social audience. Shoppers can also search for you at any point, since there’s no threshold to meet in order to be found. They can also find you by scrolling their feed, finding your posts on other platforms and clicking that link, and by searching for a keyword and having your post pop up.

LTK Analytics Dashboard

You can track clicks, orders, conversions, and earnings for each product, post, and collections you have.

Here’s what an LTK moneyspot looks like!

LTK Chat New Messaging Feature:

LTK Chat is a brand new feature, but luckily it’s not hard to use at all! LTK chat is a built-in messaging feature inside the LTK Creator app that lets creators send direct updates to their LTK followers. It works like the broadcast channel in Instagram.

Followers receive notifications and can shop any links you include in the message. There’s no two-way messaging, so your space stays clean and focused. It’s designed to increase your reach on the LTK app and keep your audience engaged with you and your account by using the chat to send them exclusive updates, product drops, and behind the scenes content.

The Biggest Difference Between LTK & ShopMy

With ShopMy, you can link any product from any site even if there is no commission on the product. With LTK, you can only link brands & products that are partnered with their platform and offer a commission. LTK commissions often tend to be smaller than ShopMy as well. So, if you want to link a closet or clothes that you have but they don’t offer a purchase commission or affiliate link, ShopMy is the platform where you can do that.

LTK doesn’t have any sort of ranking or tier system, while ShopMy does. On LTK you get immediate follower from a person when they go to your page from a link, unlike ShopMy where you get an immediate follower when they buy from your links.

Ontop of these two things, there’s also something to note about how LTK was built, vs how ShopMy was built. LTK was designed to go hand in hand with instagram, and on Instagram you are dependent on the algorithm. Your reach is limited and your content must change with the algorithm and what Instagram pushes. ShopMy is built to be used in tandem with any platform. Like I stated, ShopMy links work anywhere, giving you far more options. ShopMy is also easily linkable to Pinterest, TikTok, Lemon8, and Instagram.

ShopMy vs LTK: Which is better?

Choosing between ShopMy vs LTK really comes down to what kind of creator you are and how you want to run your affiliate marketing. After using both, I can honestly say each platform has strengths that make them worth trying, but I prefer ShopMy to LTK.

The features that ShopMy offer just fit my lifestyle and creator needs better than LTK, despite LTK being around far longer. ShopMy is growing rapidly in popularity, and for good reason, while LTK seems to be stagnant due to its capabilities which sometimes limit creators.

The LTK affiliate program is still a strong option for creators, and both platforms are worth exploring. As a creator, you don’t have to choose just one. Test them, play with them, and see which one feels like home for your audience and your goals.

Currently I am using ShopMy as our main while still linking items that are higher commission to it from LTK. ShopMy allows you to link anything from wherever and this feature is amazing.

I’m also really enjoying the simplicity of gifting from brands through ShopMy.

Final Thoughts

Whether you’ve been searching LTK vs ShopMy, wondering “what’s LTK?”, checking out LTK app reviews, or comparing ShopMy competitors and LTK competitors to see what fits your workflow best. If you’ve ever asked “how does ShopMy work?” or “is LTK legit?”, hopefully this breakdown answered those questions! If you have any questions feel free to comment them below or DM us on Instagram.