Hummingbirds launches receipt-level attribution to track creators' in-store sales

September 2, 2026 · AdExchanger

Eighty-three percent of all retail dollars are still spent in person, says Hummingbirds CEO and co-founder Emily Steele, and that gap between online tracking and in-store sales drove the creator marketing platform to build a receipt-level attribution feature this summer. Creators on the platform share rebate offers for the products they recommend and earn affiliate commission on each purchase. Consumers scan their receipts and upload them to the Hummingbirds platform, then get cash back right away. Hummingbirds built its business around small-scale, local creators: Steele says, "You need local people to influence local people," pointing to her own neighbors, volleyball teammates and people she runs into at a local coffee shop or grocery store as her biggest influences.

Campaigns that reward creators only for online clicks and promo codes miss most of the purchase activity they influence, since the majority of retail spending happens in physical stores. Receipt-level attribution gives brands a way to credit creators for driving foot traffic, and it gives creators a financial reason to push followers into physical stores. Agencies planning influencer campaigns tied to retail sales gain a way to measure incremental lift beyond clicks and promo-code redemptions, closing a measurement gap that has kept in-store creator impact largely invisible.