Marketing teams are being reshaped by fluid shopping behavior, tighter budgets, and the collapse of the traditional funnel. In this conversation, Courtney Siegel, VP of Marketing, North America at Skeepers, explains why UGC is still underused, how measurement must catch up, and what capabilities retail marketers need going into 2026.
As retail marketing teams navigate shrinking budgets, fragmenting channels, and rising acquisition costs, many are rethinking how they’re structured, and where they place their bets. In this Q&A, Courtney Siegel, VP of Marketing, North America at Skeepers, breaks down why traditional team silos are giving way to more fluid setups built around social commerce and UGC. Siegel shares practical insights on proving ROI across increasingly blurred channels, scaling authentic content, and future-proofing marketing teams heading into 2026.
Courtney Siegel: It’s a really interesting time to be in marketing. We’re in the middle of a shift. For the last few years, marketing teams have been organized around different touchpoints or retail channels, different points of sale. You might have a retail team, an Amazon team, a social team. Now, all of those teams need to interact. There is much more crossover and fluidity.
If we zoom in on influencer marketing for a second, there used to be clear lines between paid, affiliate, and organic, and those groups often operated separately. Those lines are getting blurred in the real world, and marketing teams have to adjust.
We’re also seeing new teams and roles created all the time. I am seeing teams focused solely on TikTok Shop, solely on social commerce. This feels like the next wave. First came social media teams, then influencer marketing teams, and now social commerce teams are emerging.
Courtney Siegel: It’s a couple of things. It’s definitely driven by customers and how they’re shopping, where they’re shopping. Budgets always play a role too. With smaller budgets and teams needing to do more with less, teams are sharing resources and becoming more condensed. But buyer behavior is probably the main driver.
And I think that’s a good thing. Brands should be following buyers and shoppers and understanding that behavior. Budgets are certainly playing a part, but the customer shift is the biggest factor.
Courtney Siegel: Some brands are still thinking about the customer journey in a linear way. They think there is discovery and awareness and then conversion. Or they treat UGC, retail, reviews, and social media as separate tactics. In reality, it’s one interconnected journey and these signals go together. There is a lot more fluidity.
Someone can watch a TikTok video and then go to Amazon to buy. Or go to Sephora and then look up reviews on a brand’s DTC site. Or go on Instagram and watch creators’ “get ready with me” content to decide what foundation to buy.
So instead of focusing on direct attribution and trying to pinpoint what channel “caused” someone to buy, it’s about tapping into the voices that are already there and amplifying those stories. It’s about scaling content across every touchpoint and understanding there’s a halo effect from organic content.
Courtney Siegel: One thing that can be any brand’s superpower is UGC. A lot of brands still underutilize it. Skeepers constantly sees UGC outperform brand-created content across email, paid channels, and social. And you need so much content to fuel the algorithm, support social commerce through platforms like TikTok Shop, and drive awareness. A great way to flood social is with authentic voices.
What’s often missed is that UGC is underutilized, and brands underestimate how interconnected everything is. Instagram content now shows up in Google search. Reviews are feeding LLMs. UGC influences discovery well beyond social.
Brands that invest in a library of reusable UGC can power retail channels too. You can use it for your Amazon storefront, test what resonates, and scale what works. It’s like A-B testing amplified. You see what organic content is working, then put paid media behind it.
TikTok is also interesting because follower count is not as important. It’s about engagement, which means small creators can reach millions. Once you see what performs organically, you can amplify it to extend the impact.
Courtney Siegel: Today, you can really lean into that strategy. You can look at the backend of Instagram and TikTok and see what creators or customers are already saying about your brand and products.
And the way ads work now, you can put money behind that content and it still looks organic. You’re boosting it and extending reach. You already know it performed organically, so it’s proven. If you have the licensing rights, you give creators value, and you get approval, you should definitely double down on creative that already resonates.
Courtney Siegel: In the world of AI, trust and authenticity matter more than ever. People do not like to be fooled. We’ve seen backlash when companies use AI to produce content and are not forthcoming, and it backfires.
AI is a tool, not a solution. It can help scale and automate processes, and maybe support things like writing more effective briefs, but it should not replace human interaction.
Content creation is expensive, and you need so much content across channels to succeed. That’s why licensed UGC is so important. You can reuse it across channels, see what works, and build an evergreen library. At Skeepers, we focus on influencer gifting because it’s an effective, cost-efficient, ROI-driven way to build a library of UGC that performs better than brand-created content.
Courtney Siegel: It can be overwhelming. There are lean teams managing everything manually in Excel, and that’s a nightmare. It’s hard to build relationships with one-off or manual outreach.
It’s about scale and making it easy to re-engage creators again and again. For example, a hair brand Skeepers works with revisits creators they already partnered with whenever they launch a new product within an existing line. Those creators understand the brand, the product, and the results they need to show. They become the best brand advocates, the content is better, and ROI is higher. At Skeepers, the demand for maintaining creator relationships is high, so we’ve developed capabilities in-house to make it easier and more sustainable to nurture those relationships and work with the same creators repeatedly.
Courtney Siegel: Sometimes you need to zoom out in order to zoom in. Brands often work in silos. Instead of stepping back to see the full picture, they focus on attribution and how one channel is performing. But that’s not how people buy, so attribution needs to catch up to human behavior.
An Amazon team might see a lift in branded search or conversions without realizing the influencer team ran a TikTok gifting campaign that sparked it. The Amazon team gets the credit while the influencer team focuses on impressions or earned media value, not the downstream impact. The real challenge is alignment. Teams need to talk to each other and connect signals across channels. There are tools helping. Skeepers partners with Traackr to understand share of voice and how micro and nano creators drive steady awareness between moments of virality or paid collaborations. Skeepers also partners with Fospha to help brands understand halo effects and how organic content attributes across the funnel.
Attribution used to be paid versus organic. Now brands have to account for social, retail, retail media, marketplaces, and creator activity, and it all works together.
Courtney Siegel: Paid, affiliate, and organic lines are blurred and closer than ever. Skeepers has Amazon storefronts, TikTok Shop, and is going to have Sephora storefronts. Every creator, every customer is now a point of sale.
At the same time, what works best is content that doesn’t feel salesy. It’s a welcome break from traditional ads and returns social to entertainment. Authentic voices stand out.
Funnels are collapsing, so content has to drive discovery and purchase at the same time. Reusing and amplifying the UGC brands invest in collecting is critical for proving ROI.
A lot of teams chase virality, but it’s unpredictable. It’s about building stable awareness between those moments, keeping a clear strategy and roadmap, then layering in trends and high-performing content as they emerge. When virality happens, you can capitalize.
Courtney Siegel: Content. Creating it, developing creator relationships, reusing it. That’s what matters most. The funnel has collapsed, channels are multiplying, and you need libraries of content to stay competitive.
Some industry benchmarks suggest brands may need 200 to 400 videos per SKU per month to maximize GMV on TikTok Shop alone. That’s just one channel. Think about how much content you need to power everything else. Scalable content collection and creation is not a nice-to-have, it’s essential. Brands need to invest in foundations that allow them to source, refresh, and reuse content from creators, and also encourage customers to create content. This spans social, reviews, retail, and paid.
When done well, it fuels commerce and strengthens social brand awareness, social SEO, GEO, and how people search through LLMs. The brands that win in 2026 will be the ones building this content engine.
Courtney Siegel: You can’t do everything and you can’t be everywhere. That’s where teams get stuck. Channels are multiplying, budgets are tighter, and we’re told to do more with less.
The opportunity is getting creative and recognizing overlap between teams. Skeepers works with a denim brand where the influencer lead overheard the paid team struggling. They spent a lot on a studio shoot and the ads weren’t performing. She said she had a fully licensed library of UGC from an influencer campaign and offered it to the paid team. They were hesitant, but tried it, and the content overperformed original expectations.
Teams sharing resources may be key to overcoming budget constraints. There’s also a shift in what KPIs matter. Metrics like share of voice and competitive visibility are increasingly important across social, SEO, and GEO. Amplifying what is already performing organically is an efficient way to drive returns.
And invest in community. Creator and customer communities are moving beyond points and perks. It’s not just points per dollar spent. It’s participation and connectivity. That builds loyalty, strengthens advocacy, and fuels sustainable growth.
Courtney Siegel: Brands think they always need to work with new people and new voices, and that matters. But it’s also extremely important to nurture relationships you already have with customers and creators who are already driving loyalty and advocacy.
Brands have more trust from people who talk about them time and time again. Audiences trust brands more when they hear about them repeatedly through those voices. Nurturing and retaining those relationships is about loyalty and community, and it’s really effective.
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