Influencer gifting works best when brands give creators everything they need to make great content, and nothing more. That was the core lesson when #gifted founder Taryn Williams joined host Nathan Bush on Add To Cart, Australia's ecommerce podcast . Scripted, over-briefed gifting produces content that looks like an ad. Gifting that hands creators real creative control builds trust, sparks genuine conversation online and offline, and delivers content audiences actually believe. The brands that win treat gifting as an ongoing program with clear goals, a set budget and a system that removes the manual work. That's exactly what #gifted, the influencer gifting platform built for Shopify brands, is designed to do.
What is the Add To Cart episode about? Add To Cart is one of Australia's leading ecommerce podcasts, hosted by Nathan Bush, who interviews the founders, marketers and operators behind Australian online brands. In episode 658, Nathan and Taryn dig into why gifting so often turns into a messy, hard-to-measure exercise, and what brands like Koala, ghd, Bondi Sands, Grilled and Temple & Webster do differently on #gifted.
Nathan opened with a point most marketers will recognise: every brand wants creator content, few want to pay influencer rates, and so gifting gets treated as the easy option when it rarely is. The rest of the conversation is a practical playbook for fixing that. Here's what brands should take from it.
Why should brands relinquish creative control? The biggest mistake brands make with gifting, according to Taryn, is trying to control the creative. The instinct is understandable: handing over your brand's narrative feels risky. But creators have spent years building trust with their audiences. They know what their followers respond to, and content that suddenly sounds like a script jars against everything that audience trusts.
Give creators what they need, and nothing more. That means your brand colours, two or three key messages and a little about who you are. Then step back and let the creator make you part of their world in a way that feels natural.
Keep the ask realistic. Taryn described brands gifting a modest product while requesting an in-feed post, a recipe, three stories and content approval. Every extra requirement raises the barrier, and creators simply move on. A simpler brief such as "use it the way you normally would and show us what you come up with" gets better engagement and more authentic results.
Invite honest feedback. The beauty and skincare brands earning the best results on #gifted actively welcome genuine opinions. A creator saying the serum was brilliant but the moisturiser didn't suit their skin is far more believable than a claim that every product is the best they've ever used. That honesty is what makes consumers trust the recommendation.
Creative freedom earns better reviews, too. The brands receiving five-star reviews from creators on #gifted, such as Koala and Temple & Webster, are the ones giving full creative control. Nathan's own takeaway was to agree the deliverable, then get out of the way, because once you tell a creator exactly what to say, you've made an ad rather than content.
How do you make a gift creators want to say yes to? Giving creators what they need also applies to the gift itself. Nathan's first takeaway from the episode was to gift for the scenario, not just the product.
Taryn shared the example of a tea brand that planned to gift a large volume of tea. Instead, she suggested a couple of packets alongside a teapot, cups and a serving tray in the brand's colours. The creator can immediately picture the content, and the brand quietly shapes the look of what comes back, without writing a single line of script.
As Taryn put it, gifting is about "putting the control in the creator's hands" to decide what they want. Make the offer genuinely appealing and creators will opt in because they want to, which is where the most natural content comes from.
Is product seeding worth it if creators don't post? Yes. One of the most useful reframes from the episode is that social coverage is only part of gifting's value.
When a creator genuinely loves a product, they talk about it. They mention it to friends over lunch, recommend it at the gym and bring it up in conversations that never appear on social media. Taryn calls this dinner party conversation, and it's the kind of word of mouth brands have always chased.
She compares it to the product sampling that used to happen at train stations and events. Social media has become the new town square, and gifting is how brands put products into the hands of the right people at scale. Even when a gift generates no posts at all, seeding people who are influential in their own circles still builds awareness and advocacy. It can't be tracked precisely, but word of mouth remains one of the most powerful drivers of purchase.
How should brands measure influencer gifting? Taryn is clear that there's no silver-bullet framework. Brands that declare influencer marketing "doesn't work" after one post rarely had a goal or a way to measure it. Success comes from discipline: knowing who you're targeting, why, and how.
Who are you targeting? Define the audience first. On #gifted, brands can filter creators by detailed attributes such as hair type, skin concerns, family situation or lifestyle, so gifts reach people who match their customers.
Why are you targeting them? "Drive sales" is where brands tend to stop thinking, when it should be where they start. Are you launching a product, reaching a younger demographic, repositioning the brand or growing your email list? Each goal needs different creators and different messages.
How will you reach and measure them? Match the mechanism to the goal. That could be discount codes, UTM links, a database competition, or strong creator content on product and checkout pages. The most sophisticated brands also repurpose gifted content in paid ads and track which creators perform best. Koala has seen some of its highest-converting ads come from gifting content, and Grill'd reached 2.1 million people from a $150 voucher.
Why does influencer gifting need to be consistent? If there's no silver bullet, the answer is repetition and refinement. Gifting isn't a one-and-done campaign. The brands that get lasting results treat it as an always-on program.
Seed consistently. Regular gifting keeps your brand in front of creators and their audiences, builds a growing library of content and creates the "I'm seeing this brand everywhere" effect that single campaigns can't.
Set aside a dedicated budget. Allocate product and budget for gifting every month, the same way you would for paid social, so the program doesn't stall whenever priorities shift.
Iterate constantly. Review what worked each cycle: which creators, gifts, formats and messages drove results. Then adjust.
Keep up with trends. Influencer marketing, social platforms and consumer behaviour change quickly. New formats, new creator niches and cultural moments all create fresh opportunities, so your gifting framework should be updated continuously rather than set once and forgotten.
A structured platform makes this sustainable, because consistency is hard when every campaign means rebuilding spreadsheets from scratch.
How does integrating Shopify make influencer gifting faster? A key part of the conversation was why #gifted was built as SaaS with a Shopify integration from day one. Gifting at scale falls over when it's manual. Think spreadsheets of addresses, endless back-and-forth about sizes and stock, and team members sliding into DMs all day. #gifted's Shopify integration was designed to remove that friction for both brands and creators.
Create gift bundles from your store. Brands set up a gift directly from their Shopify products. That can be a single product, a bundle (such as any top and pant from an activewear range) or a gift card or voucher that lets creators shop site-wide.
Creators choose their own SKUs. Creators select the sizes, colours and styles that suit them, so there's no negotiating over email.
Inventory updates automatically. Orders flow straight through Shopify and stock decrements in real time, so creators can't pick something that's sold out and nobody has to send an apology email.
Every gift is tracked. Because gifting runs through your store, brands can see exactly how much product they've gifted in a period and weigh that against the content, reach and results it produced.
Deliverables are agreed up front. Brands and creators chat before a gift is confirmed. A brand might need TikTok content, a creator might only post Instagram stories, and the two settle on an exchange that works.
Content is captured automatically. This is the feature Taryn called the big "aha" moment for brands. With contra gifting, you never know exactly when a creator will post, and brands with lots of mentions easily miss stories and posts. #gifted pulls creator content into a content library in real time.
See who has posted and who hasn't. Brands can see at a glance how many creators have delivered, and creators receive automatic reminders. No manual tracking lists are needed.
Usage rights are standardised. Instead of negotiating usage rights creator by creator, content licensing is built into higher-tier plans. Creators can see up front which brands include it, so brands can take content straight into Meta ads, email and product pages.
Reviews run both ways. Brands review creators and creators review brands. As Nathan noted, your reputation with creators is now effectively a public rating, so replying quickly, being clear and delivering what you promised directly affects how many creators want to work with you.
The takeaway for ecommerce brands The Add To Cart conversation boils down to a simple formula for gifting that works. Give creators what they need and let them lead the creative. Value word of mouth as much as posts. Set clear goals and measure against them. Gift consistently with a dedicated budget and keep refining as trends change. And use a system that connects directly to your store so the admin never gets in the way.
That's what #gifted was built to do.
🎧 Listen to the full episode: Add To Cart Ep 658: Influencer Gifting Done Right
Frequently asked questions How do you make influencer gifting work? Give creators what they need to create content, such as brand colours and two or three key messages, then let them lead the creative. Keep requirements realistic, welcome honest feedback, set clear goals and gift consistently rather than as a one-off.
Should brands script influencer content? No. Scripted content feels like an ad and undermines the trust creators have built with their audience. Brands that give creators full creative control typically get more authentic content and better engagement.
Is product seeding worth it if influencers don't post? Yes. Seeding the right people creates word of mouth offline, as creators recommend products to friends, family and colleagues. That advocacy has value even when it doesn't appear on social media.
How do you measure influencer gifting success? Start with a specific goal and define who you're targeting, why and how. Then track results with UTM links, discount codes, sign-ups and the performance of gifted content in paid ads.
How often should brands do influencer gifting? Consistently. Gifting works best as an ongoing program with a dedicated monthly budget, regular review of results and updates as social and influencer trends change.
How does influencer gifting work with Shopify? With #gifted's Shopify integration, brands create gifts or bundles from their store, creators choose their own sizes and styles, and inventory updates automatically, with no spreadsheets or manual orders.
How do brands track content from a gifting campaign? #gifted captures creator posts automatically into a content library in real time, shows which creators have posted, and sends reminders to those who haven't.
What makes a gift appealing to creators? Gift a scenario, not just a product. For example, pair a product with items that help a creator picture the content, like a tea brand gifting a teapot and cups alongside its tea.
What is the Add To Cart podcast? Add To Cart is an Australian ecommerce podcast hosted by Nathan Bush, featuring founders, marketers and operators from Australian online brands. #gifted featured in episode 658 on influencer gifting.
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