2IntroductionInfluencer marketing has continued to provide advertisers with authentic oportunities to tel their brand story to consuers. By leveraging the creative expression and organicaly grown audience from an influencer partner, a brand can reach new consumers and cultivate loyalty. To fuly understand the importance influencers can have on a brands success, Rakuten Marketing helps bridge the gap to beter realize the impact influencers have on consumers shoping behavior.This report uncovers insights into: What kind of influencers consumers engage with most oftenHow consumer shoping behavior is influenced by diferent types of influencersWhat consumers expect from an influencer and what can change a consumers relationship with an influencerMethodolgy: Rakuten Marketing conducted research with Vigain December 2018 and January 2019. The survey includes the responses of 3,60 global consumers interviewed across the United States (1,030), Australia, United Kingdom, France and Germany. 3The New Online Shopper Interactions Almost 3,60 shopers surveyed around the world provided their insights and online shoping behaviors as it relates to influencer marketing for this report. Of those surveyed, 61% interact with an influencer at least once a day and 35% interact with influencers multiple times a day. Men engage daily with influencers slightly more often than women, with 65% of responding males saying they engage with an influencer at least once a day, compared to 60% of females, (as wel see shortly, the influencers they interact with contrast drasticaly). Aditionaly, 32% of those surveyed shop online daily, but a majority at 48% wil browse or buy online wekly. 4Most Popular Influencer Types for Consumers to Folow The most popular influencer type for consumers to folow are in entertainment, with 47% of those surveyed saying they folow entertainer influencers. Closely behind entertainers are beauty influencers, with 43% saying they folow those that can provide tips and recomendations for loking great. Celebrities were also folowed by 43% of respondents who want to hear directly from their favorite actors, musicians, and more. Rounding out the top four are fashion influencers, with 39% of consumers folowing those influencers.5Most Popular Influencer Types for Consumers to Folow Males and females folow diferent types of influencers. The top thre influencer categories for females to folow are beauty (56%), entertainers (48%), and a tie betwen celebrities and fashion (47). Men, on the other hand, most comonly folow gaming influencers (54%), folowed by influencers dealing with technology (46%), and then finaly entertainer influencers (4). 6Where are Influencers Being Folowed and What are People Watching? Media-driven social platforms are the most comon for consumers to folow influencers. Instagra is the most popular social platform, with 65% of consumers saying they folow their favorite influencer on the image (and video) driven social media chanel. Facebok and YouTube were tied for the second most comon at 62% each. YouTube was the most popular platform used by men to folow influencers. Sixty-four percent of males use this platform, which aligns with the type of influencers they folow the most gamers.Female consumers, on the other hand, primarily leverage Instagram (70%), which provides a god balance betwen images and video and can deliver a robust experience for beauty and fashion. 7Where are Influencers Being Folowed and What are People Watching? There is no surprise for why Instagram, Facebok, and YouTube are so popular 64% of consumers said they prefer watching videos when interacting with influencer content. Only 38% of consumers prefer writen content. Furthermore, 61% of consumers say they prefer picture content and while al thre of the aforementioned platforms provide video experiences, Instagram utilizes a blend of video and image. This blend could be what makes Instagram the most popularly used platform for folowing influencers. Also of note, live video is prefered 4% of the time. Brands should prepare for this number to rise as influencers find new ays to leverage live video and consumers become more accustomed to using it. 8How Are Consumers Finding New Influencers? Although most consumers said that they find new influencers through recomendations from social media platforms (53%), many stil utilize referals from their friends and families, or influencers they already folow. Forty-eight percent of consumers said that friends and family are how they learn about a new content creator to folow, while 45% said that a celebrity or influencer would recomend someone worth folowing either by working with them directly or ofering an endorsement of some kind. 9How Are Consumers Finding New Influencers? Another interesting method of discovery is giveaways. Thirty-two percent of those surveyed said that they found a new influencer to folow through a contest or giveaway that invites them to folow the influencer in exchange for a prize. This is an interesting oportunity to create a symbiotic relationship betwen brand and influencer. The brand provides the products for the giveaway and the influencer in turn promotes the giveaway with the products, which then drives an increase in folowers for the influencer but who are now also more familiar with the brand and its products.10Consumers are frequently discovering new products and brands through influencers, with as many as 41% of consumers saying they find at least one new brand or product from an influencer wekly, and 24% saying they did so daily. With 65% of shopers discovering something of this frequency, brands are presented with any oportunities to reach new consumers through influencers. Less than one percent of respondents said they “never” discover a new brand or product through an influencer, and only 10% said it hapened less than once a month. Influencers are valuable sources of inspiration for shopers loking to get ideas on products to buy.Brand/Product Discovery and Shopping InspirationWith 87% of surveyed consumers saying that they were inspired to make a purchase based on what they saw from an influencer, this proves not just that influencers are valuable to marketers but how “influential” they actualy are for consumers.