Something changed quietly this week. And if you're running a brand with an influencer program, you need to know about it.

Talent agencies are now training their creators to act like retailers. Setting up storefronts. Managing product bundles. Prepping for Prime Day like it's the Super Bowl. And using sales data to negotiate bigger brand deals.

That last part matters most for you.

Lexi Rosenstein has 150,000 TikTok followers. Not huge by traditional influencer standards. But she has sold more than 500,000 products through TikTok Shop. Her average monthly GMV? $300,000 to $600,000.

She is not an exception. She is the blueprint agencies are now copying across their entire rosters.

Underscore Talent manages 100 to 200 creators. 80% of them now have an Amazon storefront. The agency hired someone from LTK specifically to manage the affiliate side of their business. If a creator does not have a storefront, Underscore tells them to get one. Without it, in their words, the creator is "unqualified for certain brand deals."

Read that again.

Creators without a proven sales track record are being passed over. Follower count alone does not move the needle anymore. Conversion data does.

It is Prime Day week. Here is what Underscore Talent's team is doing for their clients right now:

Prime Day has become one of the biggest revenue events of the year for creators in beauty, fashion, and lifestyle. Not for brands. For creators.

One dermatologist on their roster converted so well during Prime Day that Underscore locked in a 12-month deal with a K-beauty brand. A year-long contract. Because they could show the data.

"We were able to get that longer deal because we were able to show analytics from his previous Amazon days," the agency's co-head of beauty said.

Michelle York built her following on TikTok starting in 2020. Nothing happened for years.

Then she started selling through TikTok Shop in 2023. One video, no makeup on, hair in a towel, talking about a Tarte bundle. It took off. She became one of Tarte's top-performing affiliates on the platform. Tarte was the third-largest brand on TikTok Shop in 2025, doing over $80 million in sales. York had fewer than 200,000 followers when this happened.

Brands that would have never worked with her based on reach alone came calling. Because she could prove she moved product.

That is the new leverage. And agencies are using it to renegotiate everything.

"If they come in with a lowball offer, we can show some of this data, and then, poof, we have a better offer," said Underscore's Amanda Marzolf.

The creator market just got more sophisticated. Here is how to stay ahead of it.

Ask for sell-through data before you negotiate. If a creator has a storefront and cannot show you conversion data, that tells you something. If they can, use it as your anchor in the deal, not their follower count.

Build your own affiliate data fast. Brands that gave creators affiliate codes and tracked sell-through over the last 12 months now have a negotiating advantage. They know which creators actually convert. Brands that only tracked impressions and reach do not.

Structure deals around commerce events. Prime Day, Black Friday, and major sale windows are where creators are generating their biggest numbers. If your deal does not include tentpole event activations, you are leaving the highest-converting moments on the table.

Pay attention to who owns the bundle. Lexi Rosenstein is telling brands how to package their products. She creates bundles based on her read of what customers want and presents that to the brand. At some point, she is doing your merchandising job. Decide if that is an asset to your partnership or a risk to your brand positioning.

The creators who are winning right now are not just promoting. They are operating. Agencies are training them to think like merchants. The brands that adapt their partnership structures around this shift will get the best creators and the best data.

The brands that do not will keep paying for awareness and wondering why the ROI never shows up.