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It seems like the only community not questioning Substack these days is fashion influencers, who are seemingly making more money than ever. At the same time, to hear some tell it, they’re relying less on Instagram to do so. The handful I’ve spoken to in recent weeks have migrated much of their affiliate-revenue efforts to the newsletter platform out of frustration with Instagram’s algorithm, which they say has a habit of unexpectedly shifting the kinds of content the app favors. (A source at Instagram said the company hasn’t recently made major changes to the algorithm, but that posters may have experienced decreased reach as more users have joined the platform.)
There’s also a perception among the fashion influencer crowd that Instagram hasn’t been able to make shopping as sticky as Substack. On Instagram, influencers have been dependent on LTK, a platform that pays creators to convert views into retail sales. On Substack, many reported a smoother process with the rival platform ShopMy. “The whole business model has changed in a year,” one creator told me. “It was all Instagram and LTK; now it’s all ShopMy and Substack.”
That’s probably a bit hyperbolic: Instagram is still a much larger force in the affiliate economy, and LTK is on track for $6 billion in retail sales this year—up 20 percent year over year—according to an executive at the company. (The same executive boasted that close to 400 creators draw seven-figure incomes from the platform.) But perception is meaningful, too, especially when it’s driven by market leaders who are… influencing other influencers. And ShopMy is putting up big numbers. The platform surpassed $1 billion in revenue this year and is now generating an average of $200 million a month—a 200 percent increase over 2024—according to a company insider. The overall affiliate marketplace is now valued at more than $17 billion, according to Business Research Insights.
Among the influencers in my Rolodex, many suggested that Substack is a better engagement driver than Instagram, given the stronger parasocial relationships that shoppers develop with a writer who appears in their inbox, rather than a video feed. Oftentimes, newsletter subscribers are already paying influencers for their shopping suggestions and are thus even more likely to follow their recommendations. The newsletter medium has other benefits, too: While video is more visual, there’s room for more context (why to buy something, how to style it…) in a newsletter. They also have the benefit of not disappearing into the ether after 24 hours.
Link in Bio
Meanwhile, on Instagram, trying to make an impulse purchase can often become an obstacle course. Fashion influencers have been complaining for years about navigating an increasingly Rube Goldberg-esque process to make sales on the platform—resorting to third-party workarounds like ManyChat, which requires followers to type words like “SHOP” on Reels and posts to receive a shopping link. Others fall back on the dreaded “link in bio.” Instagram still doesn’t allow shoppable links in captions, and each additional step in the process can be a drag on conversions.
Influencer Grace Atwood walked me through how the recent Black Friday-to-Cyber Monday shopping window played out for her. While many peers stuck with Instagram and LTK, hoping their Stories would make it to more than 5 percent of their Instagram followers, Atwood sent a single Substack to her nearly 60,000 subscribers for Black Friday, plus a Cyber Monday edition to bookend the holiday sales. (On Instagram, she said, her story views have fallen around 70 percent from their peak.) Thanks in part to that post-Thanksgiving send, Atwood’s November revenue was up more than 40 percent compared to last year.
ShopMy has become the preferred platform partner for many creators on Substack largely because brands like Khaite, Dôen, and Prada all work with it directly. Several of the top-performing ShopMy creators—including Marlien Rentmeester, Ilana Torbiner, Julia Berolzheimer, and Laurel Pantin—have Substacks, with Berolzheimer and Pantin in the top 10 fashion Substacks ranked by paid subscribers.
Of course, both Instagram and Substack influencers face the same age-old question of how to maintain the trust of their audience when their revenue model is so deeply intertwined with brands, making it hard to believe that anyone is truly a neutral arbiter of good taste. In that way, they’re no different from the fashion magazines that once promised editorial decisions wouldn’t be driven by the companies purchasing advertising. Publishers did their best to make sure a Balenciaga ad wasn’t placed directly opposite an editorial feature about Balenciaga, but everyone sorta knew the score. In this business, there are no disinterested parties.
Influencers face a similar conundrum when accepting affiliate commissions and paid partnerships. Some navigate this issue deftly, operating with transparency and bringing subscribers into their own process—the way a family member might pull you aside to explain an irksome detail about the seating at a cousin’s wedding. Particularly when serving a high-end fashion audience, a Substacker explaining that creators deserve to be paid is likely to find a sympathetic ear. In case you haven’t noticed, Line Sheet includes affiliate links, too.
