Retailers bet on creators as U.S. spend heads to $13.7B by 2027

For retail operators, creator partnerships are becoming an engine for customer acquisition and loyalty. Kohl's is paying creators a commission on every sale, Target launched two separate creator programs, and Gap is turning employees into advocates. With U.S. influencer spend projected to reach $13.7 billion by 2027 and nearly half of brands reporting 3x+ ROI, retailers are treating creators as a core revenue channel rather than a marketing expense.

Brands and retailers are reporting stronger-than-expected returns from creator partnerships, a theme that dominated a Shoptalk Fall session in Nashville in October 2026. The session, featuring executives from Favorite Daughter, SharkNinja, and Bob's Discount Furniture, showcased how a once-experimental marketing channel has matured into a measurable, revenue-driving strategy. CreatorIQ's seventh annual global State of Creator Marketing report provides the data backbone: nearly half of brands now earn 3x or greater ROI from creators, and creator budgets have increased 33% year over year. U.S. brands are projected to spend $13.7 billion on influencer marketing by 2027, according to eMarketer.

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brands are projected to spend $13.7 billion on influencer marketing by 2027, according to eMarketer.

This expansion goes well beyond one-off sponsored posts. In 2026 alone, Aerie launched a creator program for its most avid fans, Gap Inc. began an employee creator program, Ugg started working with art students on creative content and product description pages, Target debuted two separate programs—Club Target and Target Ambassadors—and Kohl's began giving creators a commission on every sale in addition to free products. The variety of these programs signals a fundamental shift: retailers are moving from renting audience access to building durable content partnerships that align with commerce. Creator programs are now spread across loyalty, employee advocacy, product merchandising, and affiliate-style commission structures.

Favorite Daughter, the women's clothing brand founded by sisters Erin and Sara Foster, offers a case study in this evolution. The brand hired Laura Galvan as a dedicated social-media head and she has become a public face, starring in multiple videos a week. In one Instagram post, she shows off "five work shirts you can wear to the office that are 1,000,000% worth the money." Jennifer Stender Hawkins, EVP of Favorite Daughter and its partner Centric Brands, said making Galvan public-facing was not originally the plan: "The intent really wasn't for [Galvan] to be public-facing." Yet the brand is now seeing creator-led content power its growth, demonstrating that an internal creator can provide the authenticity and consistency that external influencers sometimes lack.