Twitter adds Curalate to official partner program

Center City’s Curalate, the maker of a visual marketing platform for brands, was tapped by Twitter for the social network’s Official Partner program.

The addition of CEO Apu Gupta’s company to the six-company lineup lets brands using Twitter to market their products generate “storefronts.” The storefronts are meant to help users purchase items more quickly. The concept is similar to what Curalate has done over at your other fav app: Instagram.

“The compelling thing here is that we’re the first to do this on Twitter,” said Curalate Manager for Strategic Partnerships Max Hjelm. “All others help brands create awesome content but we’re the only ones helping them connect it back to commerce.”

Early results show the Curalate/Twitter activation reducing “bounce rates” (aka, when you leave a site after viewing just one page) by 53 percent, and a 200 percent spike in “average order value.” Curalate has sold this functionality to brands like beauty retailer Sephora and fashion designer Fossil.

Let’s break down what all this actually means. Fossil, for example, shows users an aesthetically pleasing look, like this:

Hey, @elsabowmann! You're our #FossilStyle pick of the week. We love the #VintageVibes with our Ryder Satchel and Neely Hybrid Smartwatch. 😍 https://t.co/6aIK5MD8z2 pic.twitter.com/7Vwht1PREO

— Fossil (@Fossil) March 14, 2018

Tap the link and you’ll find a “storefront” of sorts that lets users buy the featured Ryder Satchel bag ($248) and Neely Hybrid Smartwatch ($155) or explore other similar looks.

(It’s unclear at the moment if that sweet VW bus is also for sale. We actually emailed Fossil about that but no response yet.)

Twitter joins a shortlist of Curalate partners that includes pretty much all the big names on your phone. In 2016, Google ran a beta test of “visual shopping” powered by Curalate’s tech. Instagram had already partnered with Curalate in 2014, and Facebook also tapped the firm for its own marketing partner program in 2016.

“Curalate is known for pioneering shopping on Instagram but we’re still creating opportunities to create value,” said Hjelm. ” We’ve strived to partner with the best companies across martech and adtech over the past several years.”

Hjelm declined to disclose the company’s current headcount, which was recently hit by a round of layoffs across the company’s Philadelphia, Seattle and New York offices.

The layoffs, per CEO Gupta, was “a reflection of a changing composition in the kind of skills that are going to be required” to serve a client base that had shown more growth among smaller clients that require less of a hands-on approach.

“I can say that things are awesome here at Curalate,” Hjelm told Technical.ly.

But a former employee told Technical.ly that attrition at the Center City firm has continued since the 14 layoffs were first made public by Technical.ly in February, when Gupta said the staff count was at 110, down from 150 the year before.

Most notable departure in the recent wave? Former head of strategy and operations Luke Butler, a former City of Philadelphia staffer under Mayor Michael Nutter, departed soon after the layoff round. Butler has since joined Comcast’s LIFT Labs initiative as senior director.