The Beauty of a Bundle

E-Commerce Ecosystem iAmLife.com is breathing new life into the model of Ecom platforms.

The terrific thing about doing business on the Internet is that there’s so much.

The frustrating thing about doing business on the Internet is that there’s so much.

Coalescing share, social, sell and store, the new platform iAmLife is aiming to simplify the latter.

Founded in 2018 with a full launch this summer, the San Diego-based company is breathing new life into the model of Ecom platforms. By providing account-holders a no-cost option to combine all of one’s social accounts into a single space, iAmLife (iamlife.com) furthers the concept with its “Power Post” feature, which promotes and messages to one’s various social networks from a single space.

Moreover, iAmLife provides a unique e-commerce ecosystem for social selling, enabling with ease the opportunity for content creators and influencers of all sizes to monetize their following by becoming an authorized dealer of products connected with other site stores.

“We’ve taken things that people understand – social media, e-commerce, and influencer marketing – and bundled that all into one platform,” explains Nikki Ostrem, COO of iAmLife. “It takes concepts that people are familiar with in their day-to-day, and now putting them all in one spot; it’s a big concept, but it’s really just taking things people do on a daily basis and facilitating them all in one place.”

Ostrem is a veteran expert of several successful early-stage and start-up tech companies, yet this fresh venture has clicked her entrepreneurial spirit.

“In its simplest form, it’s designed for influencers or sellers to be able to connect with brands and manufacturers — whether to sell, promote or monetize what they’re doing,” Ostrem says.

Account holders sign-up gratis and can create a store within minutes.

Users need not relinquish their hard-farmed social accounts to join; rather, an iAmLife account only aims to augment the number of followers, while concurrently providing a platform for opportunities anew.

Along with account space to store and share content, the site furthers the online ante by matching influencers with like-minded accounts and the chance to translate passions into profits via its “Store Friending” feature.

“The platform is social in nature, so this could be called ‘social selling,'” Ostrem says. “And the beauty of this is that everything can be done in one spot; the influencer posts out to followers, and the follower no longer needs to visit five different places to see a video or be sent to an alternate website.”

A secure third-party – Stripe — conducts sales transactions, and iAmLife’s distributed payment gateway transacts a point-of-sale payment for both seller and brand in a direct-sale model that sees sellers enjoy instant gratification. By-and-large, myriad commission-based models find sellers forced to wait-out monthly compensation.

At its core, iAmLife isn’t narrowly aimed at, say, the seven-figure follower Instagram influencer seeking a five-figure bounty for a post or picture; rather, it’s a macro platform crafted for the growing business down the street aiming to augment its online reach. Or, as Ostrem more plainly states: “It’s a great side-hustle.”

Exampling an iAmLife user, Ostrem illustrates the scenario of a neighborhood yoga instructor.

“Say it’s a passionate yogi who teaches classes and he or she is active on social media with say five or ten thousand followers on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn,” Ostrem explains. “And people follow the yogi because he or she shared videos on popular poses, techniques and diet.”

The yogi’s iAmLife account presents the platform to stretch Warrior II from pose to profits.

“Now, say the yogi finds iAmLife, and sees the yoga mat she uses as a product; what the site does it match her with this brand of mat and give her the opportunity and platform to make a seller’s fee on a brand that she endorses. She becomes a vendor and the mat will automatically populate in her store via our mirroring function. Now the yogi can promote and sell this mat that she genuinely believes in.”

Combining shares into sales and extending relationships into revenues, iAmLife’s fresh platform is taking the din out of Internet e-commerce and posting power to the people.

“I love that this platform gives people opportunity to grow their own business, to have control of that in an economy with more side jobs and contracting work,” Ostrem concludes. “It puts the power in the hands of everyday people and enables them to get ahead with more control of their financial future.”

Judd Spicer, Senior Writer, California Business Journal

Judd Spicer is a Business Feature writer, Host of the Spicer Speaking Podcast and Co-Host at The Press Box Radio Show for ESPN. He is a graduate of the University of Minnesota.