Revolve is one of the fastest-growing and most successful fashion retailers. Launched in 2003, they partner with an influencer network that includes more than 4,500 global partners and has over 5 million followers on Instagram alone.
But new leaked campaign briefs from New York Fashion Week suggest that influencers aren’t getting much in compensation for their work with Revolve. Most of their influencers receive clothing credit rather than cash. While that’s a sweet deal to some degree, Revolve makes high demands and hasn’t yet adjusted to the fact that influencers aren’t just product endorsement vehicles – they’re businesses.
Business Insider spoke with several influencers (anonymously) about their requirements with Revolve campaigns and what they received in exchange. Here’s a brief summary:
- Influencer with fewer than 50k TikTok followers: required to post 4 TikTok videos and 2 Instagram stories (with 5 frames per video). In return they were offered $1K in clothing credit, no cash.
- Influencer with over 200k YouTube followers: required to post 1 Instagram Reel. 1 Instagram post, 2 Instagram Stories, 1 dedicated YouTube video and offered $1K in clothing credit, no cash.
- Influencer with over 100K TikTok followers: required to post 4 TikTok videos, 2 Instagram posts, 3 Instagram Stories, 1 Instagram Reel and offered $1K in clothing credit, no cash.
- Influencer with over 1 million TikTok followers was only required to post 1 TikTok video and was offered $2K in clothing credit, no cash.
While it’s a sweet deal for some – the last influencer, for instance – it’s less sweet for others who must put in more work. While they do get some backwards exposure by plugging for Revolve, clothing doesn’t pay the bills.
Influencers deserve adequate pay for their work, and Revolve will need to catch up as the industry evolves. Some who work with Revolve do receive cash compensation, but for the most part people are just given a crack at the Revolve closet – a boring prospect in a world full of tempting clothing partnerships.
