Case Study: American Apparel achieves shoppable Instagram and increased fan engagement with Curalate

American Apparel - Customer Case Study

American Apparel, a fashion retailer with a highly engaged social following (about 1.6 million Instagram followers and hundreds of thousands of user posts under #AmericanApparel and #AASelfie), needed a way to turn that organic content into commerce while safely scaling social contests and moderating user-generated content across dozens of regional accounts. The challenges included making Instagram photos shoppable, managing content rights and moderation for campaigns like #aaHalloween, and streamlining contest workflows so the brand could continue encouraging fan participation.

The company partnered with Curalate to launch Fanreel, which aggregates hashtagged photos, makes each image actionable (click-to-view and buy products shown), and provides moderation and rights-management tools. The result: thousands of contest entries (e.g., 4,000+ for a bodysuit campaign), faster campaign execution, increased fan engagement, easier store-level content submission across 50 regional accounts, and a steady supply of shoppable user- and store-generated imagery that fuels marketing and ecommerce.

American Apparel

Katrina Reynolds

Digital Marketing Manager