guru.club allows brands to receive authentic word-of-mouth advertising, valuable feedback from customers (first-party data), and user-generated content at scale with the only cost being inventory. For shoppers that qualify (the majority of Instagram users), guru.club gives amazing cashback rebates on products, at restaurants, nightclubs, fitness classes, beauty parlors and much more.

For Consumers:

Social media, most notably Instagram, has turned ordinary consumers into avid and voluntary content creators. Anyone with a modest social media presence now possesses value in the photos and videos that they choose to create and share, or in other words, just about everyone has “social currency”. In fact, approximately 52% of social media users post at least once a month about products they’ve purchased; creating enormous value for brands. Despite this universal trend, the only people currently cashing in are a small percentage of the population who describe themselves as “influencers”. Until guru.club, there has been no way for the ordinary, authentic consumer to benefit from sharing their favorite products or services. Customers expect great deals, strong relationships with brands, and to be part of that brands mission and culture.

For Brands:

There are very few options for digital marketers to get their brand in front of the masses. Google and Facebook, aka the duopoly, have dominated digital advertising for years. Paying these tech giants for advertising will almost always result in diminishing effects over time. With algorithms constantly changing and ad prices rising, companies are desperate for an alternative to the duopoly.

In today’s digital first world, brands need content at scale (with ownership rights), they need first party data, and most importantly, they need customers to tell their story for them.

Instead of paying money to ad agencies and tech giants, guru.club puts marketing dollars back in the pockets of real customers. It is a one of a kind, digital marketplace that rewards guru.club members for mentioning brands on social media.

How it Works

Customers, or gurus as they are called, purchase a product or on the marketplace at full retail price. When they post a story or a post on Instagram tagging the brand, guru.club automatically confirms the post has been left up for 24 hours and compensates them with a rebate from the brand that is deposited into their bank account. gurus can also earn extra store credit as a tip for a post or story that is exemplary.

For shoppers, this approach leads to a highly motivated group of customers who take pride in monetizing their social media presence while enjoying the status of working with brands. The cashback rebate is “found money” that simply didn’t exist before guru.club. The process is a game-like experience with gratifying rewards.

For brands, guru.club turns their marketing programs from a cost center to a profit center. After gaining all the benefits from their alliance with gurus, including brand awareness, customer input (first party data) and ownership of user generated content, brands can still make a profit from the transaction. Best of all, this entire system is conducted on a self-serve basis by the brand. Within minutes, brands can select which products to sell, set the rebates, and distribute tips at a level that they deem appropriate. The direct to consumer brands pay no introductory costs and are only charged a 15% fee by guru.club after a transaction occurs. For brick & mortar establishments such as restaurants and fitness centers, the service is free.

There is a natural pull on the consumer side and brand side of the marketplace with both sides experiencing significant economic advantages.

Consumers

It is projected by next year Instagram will have more than 120 million active monthly users in the U.S. alone. The team at guru.club believes that they can attract at least 1% of those users from among the majority who meet the guru membership criteria. If 1.2 million gurus are making, on average, a $50 purchase per month on DTC products (projected by 2021), the annual revenue for guru.club will be $108 million.

Brands

To grasp the enormity of the untapped market that is open for pursuit by guru.club, one needs only to look at the success of Shopify which serves 800,000 businesses in 175 countries. Those statistics are from their 2019 First Quarter Investor Report and a very large percentage of those businesses are prime prospects for the service that guru.club plans to offer. This is particularly the case given guru.club’s unique partnership with Shopify. The needs that Shopify fills for merchants in areas such as fulfillment, payments and shipping will be complemented by guru.club’s powerful marketing solution.

There are many companies that act as middlemen or brokers between brands and influencers. They facilitate the process by which brands compensate self-proclaimed “influencers” in return for brand awareness. These “influencers”, all too often, do not fit the image of the brand and are essentially a waste of money. It is well documented that this business model is fraught with problems including a lack of authenticity, fake followers, low engagement rates, fraud, and fabricated comments. This begs the question: why pay an influencer to endorse a product that they have never actually purchased? guru.club is not an influencer marketing company. It is a marketplace where customers become brand advocates. guru.club is the pioneer in this new advertising genre.

As the first mover in this space, guru.club has constructed a moat-like barrier to entry for competitors fortified by a powerful Shopify partnership and a growing network of independent brands and consumers.

guru.club receives a 15% commission on every direct to consumer item sold on the platform. This is a standard fee among marketplaces such as Amazon. guru.club foresees a number of additional revenue streams including a subscription model for brick & mortar businesses.

The cost of acquiring new users is $0. Brick & mortar businesses are acquiring users for us by passing out cards and putting stickers in windows. Similar to Yelp and Postmates, the more customers that use the app, the more benefits they get. Once these users earn cashback at restaurants, fitness classes, nightclub etc., they are likely to use that cashback towards products.

guru.club has developed a strong ground game that is targeting restaurants, fitness classes, and beauty parlors and more. Direct to consumer applications come in daily from business that find us on the Shopify app store and see our positive reviews.

In the first 60 days since soft launch, there have been over 400 businesses that have applied to use the platform. The top 50 have been accepted, and there are currently thousands of products for sale. There are currently thousands of gurus customers on the app, and that number is growing fast.

Guru.Club’s technology partner, Shopify, whose stock has soared 87% from a year ago, hosts 800,000 brands, many of whom will be perfect partners for guru.club. guru.club is currently one of only 22 sales channels on Shopify alongside companies such as Facebook, Google, Messenger, Amazon, Ebay, and Etsy.

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