There's no contention of the fact that the internet laid the foundation for many economic opportunities. From social networks to the e-commerce industry, the network provided income opportunities for many entrepreneurs.
On the other hand, selling over the internet has not been easy. Given the rise of incessant frauds that caused loss of funds on the buyers' part, it becomes an issue for a business to make sales using electronic commerce (e-commerce).
However, there is a way to go about it. Influencer marketing is the real deal of the moment and both influencers and businesses are raking in millions of US Dollars (USD). Consider a scenario where a friend convinces you to make purchases from a particular online store. You’ll be confident to do so because your friend (the influencer) probably bought a product from the same store or has confidence in its services.
Underlying Problems that kick against Influencer Marketing/Social Selling
It’s a fact that businesses now patronize notable personalities that made their mark on social media. Although this can be rewarding for both parties, some issues still kick against the growth of the industry.
First, only popular artistes dominate the industry. This reduces the chances of upcoming influencers because they may it hard “to play in the big league” of these individuals. Second, getting across to influencers can be a herculean task, because there is no direct connection that links business to any influencer of its choice.
On the influencer’s part, he lacks requisite data about the business he helped to grow. In addition, social media is literally his workplace, which implies that the closure signals the end of his income.
Blockchain to the Rescue
For some time, people have literally been gaping at the blockchain technology without realizing its underlying potentials. Now, Gemstra, a blockchain-based project, is coming through to decentralize social selling. In light of that, current challenges that are holding down the industry tend to receive the sledgehammer of the blockchain technology.
ASTRA – Connecting Social Sellers
If you have a business and want to hire the best hands at influence marketing, you can take advantage of the ASTRA Infrastructure to achieve that. ASTRA is an API/Protocol layer that creates the needed connection between influencers and businesses that need their services.
In addition, the Module integrated into the protocol is a reward mechanism that incentivizes participants. It’s worth mentioning that sellers (businesses) can take advantage of the Module to reward sellers (influencers) and customers (end-users) for efforts at generating leads and making a purchase, respectively, more about ASTRA can be found in the Gemstra Whitepaper.
BOUTIQUE – Gemstra’s Real-World Use Case
This project (Gemstra) has proven that it’s not a newbie to social selling. In a bid to understand the metrics/perceptions of businesses to influencer marketing/social selling, it created a real-world use case – BOUTIQUE.
Launched in July 2017, BOUTIQUE became the first influencer commerce platform. Working on Proof-of-Concept, it allowed influencers to choose businesses they will like to promote. Within a space of nine (9) months, after gaining the attention and subsequent use by 3000 influencers and 8 brands, BOUTIQUE generated massive sales for businesses. That is the reason why Gemstra sought to reinvent the model and position it for better prospects on the Distributed Ledger Technology – the blockchain, find out more about The Boutique here.
Decentralization knocks at the door
Based on its premise on the blockchain technology, Gemstra chooses to solve existing problems in Influencers & Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs). While it decentralizes the system to reduce overt control by some parties, it moves a step further to integrate a wallet-to-wallet payment structure. This specifies that influencers, brands (businesses they represent) and buyers/customer can make transactions over the Gemstra network without intermediaries. Furthermore, influencers now have the opportunity to get relevant data about referred buyers/customers for future reference.
Allocation of Tokens
Token Specifications
Token Ticker: GEMS
Platform: Ethereum
Token Type: Utility
Hard Cap: 80, 000 ETH
Exchange Rate: 1 GEMS = 0.0001 ETH
Accepted Currencies: BTC, Fiat, ETH
The Team
The Gemstra team is comprised of different individuals from different locations and different sets of skills who came together to ensure that the Gemstra dream becomes a reality and from what I have seen so far of their activities, I know that if anybody could pull off this feat, it would be the amazing minds behind Gemstra, below are what they look like.
Wrapping Up
If you take a look at the Gemstra whatepaper, you would easily see that considering the prospects of blockchain technology, there’s no point questioning the prospects of this project. With a real-world use case (BOUTIQUE) as a testimonial of its functionalities, Gemstra goes to show that the goldmine in influencer/social selling can be exploited to the benefit of many. Going forward, expected participants who have flair for the blockchain technology can hitch a ride to massive sales (for businesses) and steady income ( for influencers).
WEBSITE | WHITEPAPER | TELEGRAM | TWITTER | ANNOUNCEMENT THREAD
My Bounty0x Username: Endyking