Instagram Nikola Čechová – @shopaholicnicol: From YouTube to Her Own Brand and What to Learn From It

Nikola Čechová, known as Shopaholic Nicol, is a Czech creator from the first generation of YouTubers who later moved mainly to Instagram and founded the fashion brand Lacl. On Instagram, she combines personal content, commercial collaborations, and the presentation of her own products. Emerging creators can take from her approach mainly the way she keeps her audience through platform changes and connects their profile with their own business.

Who is Nikola Čechová, also known as Shopaholic Nicol?

Nikola Čechová is a Czech content creator, presenter and entrepreneur who performs under the nickname Shopaholic Nicol. According to interview for CzechCrunch from October 2024 belongs to the first generation of YouTubers who started creating Czech online content around 2011.

According to the same source, her public career has several stages:

• YouTube: she started as a YouTuber, and her hobby gradually became a job.
• Television: she hosted on the Óčko channel and later in the show Snídaně s Novou.
• Reality show: she took part in the competition Survivor.
• Instagram: today, this is her main platform.
• Business: she founded the fashion brand Lacl in approximately 2021.

This article covers only what can be verified from public sources about her work. We do not comment on her private life.

Why did she move from YouTube to Instagram?

In her own words in an interview for CzechCrunch, on YouTube she was “somewhat burned out”, because her hobby had become work she had been doing for a long time. She then “moved over permanently” to Instagram, because creating content there entertained her more.

Her television work also played a part in the transition. When she began presenting on Nova, she hid some older YouTube videos, because part of the television audience, who did not know her from the internet, received them negatively.

For creators, this is a useful lesson: a platform is not a lifelong commitment. Your audience may follow you elsewhere, provided you remain recognisable and give people a reason to follow you in a new format.

How does Shopaholic Nicol use Instagram?

According to CzechCrunch, Instagram is her main channel, where in October 2024 she had a profile with three quarters of a million followers. Besides commercial collaborations, she also uses it to present her own clothing brand.

Her audience grows with her

In the interview she describes that her followers “grow” with her, and therefore can still identify with her. With the change of life stage, according to her, new followers have found their way to her, including mothers with children, but at the same time she does not make exclusively content about motherhood. According to her, the audience has thus split into two camps.

Her own brand, Lacl

According to CzechCrunch, she founded the Lacl brand more as a hobby and is gradually expanding it. She has her clothing sewn in several Czech workshops and collaborates with designers. Official brand website she states that the pieces are sewn locally in Moravia from materials supplied by European manufacturers, and refers to the brand's separate Instagram account @laclcz.

The creator's personal profile and the brand's profile are therefore separate. The personal account attracts attention and tells a story, while the brand account serves the products.

How can you verify that you are following the genuine profile?

On Instagram, well-known people often have fan accounts and imitations. Before you follow @shopaholicnicol or any other profile, verify it.

1. Check the exact username, including any dots and underscores.
2. Compare the content with her public activities, for example with links to the Lacl brand.
3. If the profile links to an official website or other networks, make sure the links lead back to the same account.
4. Do not respond to messages asking for your password, a payment or SMS codes. Report such accounts directly in the app.

What can you learn from her approach for your own profile?

The following principles are general approaches inspired by the creator's publicly described journey, not an analysis of her internal data. Verify their effect in your own statistics.

Principle	How to use it on a small profile	How to tell that it is working
Choose a platform you enjoy	focus on a format you can keep creating over the long term	consistency without burnout, stable reach
Grow together with your audience	openly show how your topics are changing	comments and saves on new types of posts
Your profile as the shop window of your own brand	behind the scenes of production, selection of materials, preparation of the collection	clicks on the link and visits to the brand's profile
Separation of personal account and brand account	a personal story on one, products on the other	new followers of the brand account from the personal profile

Label collaborations clearly

According to Instagram's help on branded content (as of November 2026) Meta's rules require the “Paid partnership” label whenever you publish branded content. This also includes a post featuring a product you have received from a company for free or on loan. Promoting your own products is not branded content under the same help page, because it does not involve a business partner.

Platform rules, however, are not the same as the law. What applies in the Czech Republic to labelling advertising is summarised in the article labelling advertising by influencers. This is not legal advice; please verify your specific case with an expert.

Connect content with sales

If you want to sell your own products on Instagram, the guide how to sell on Instagram in the Czech Republic. What works is best determined from the data; you will find the instructions in the article how to read statistics on Instagram.

When paid promotion makes sense and when it does not?

Meta's Community Standards apply its Transparency Center for Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Threads and, in the section on spam, prohibit the sale, purchase or exchange of interactions, for example likes, shares, views and follows (as of November 2026). Instagram already announced in 2018 that removing inauthentic likes, follows and comments obtained through third-party apps. Restriction of reach or of the account therefore cannot be ruled out when purchasing, as also stated by terms of service, clause 3.3. Purchased interactions do not replace content, do not guarantee audience interest, reach or sales, and may worsen the ratio of reactions to followers.

A package may help as initial social proof for a new profile, for example a emerging brand account that already has quality content, or as support for a specific campaign alongside your own work on posts. It makes no sense if content is still missing, if you want to meet verification or monetisation requirements, if the account already has a warning or restriction, or if you expect genuine reactions and orders. If you decide on it, you will find the service description on the page followers on Instagram and current prices in price list.