In a reflection of the challenging economic climate facing consumers, Petco Animal Supplies Inc. is finding that its affiliate program is driving a higher proportion of revenue versus other online marketing channels than it used to, with 20% of the sales and traffic at Petco.com now coming in through affiliates, affiliate and partnership marketing manager Stacey Georgoulis tells Internet Retailer.
“Affiliates are a higher percentage of our sales than in past years,” Georgoulis says. “This is most likely due to the current state of the economy, which has resulted in a high consumer interest in discounts, coupons, rewards and points programs, all of which are big drivers in our affiliate marketing initiatives.”
Though Petco’s affiliate program consists of about 1,500 publisher sites, its top-producing affiliates, about 2% of the total, account for about 85% of all affiliate revenue, Georgoulis says.
What top-producing affiliates prefer as a reward is a higher share of revenue generated from clicks on affiliate sites, she adds. “It’s essentially ‘the gift that keeps on giving’ versus a one-time lump sum bonus as the end of the month for reaching a certain tier of sales,” she says.
Petco also keeps those affiliates focused on Petco’s business with offers and exclusive promotions or coupons that are not widely available. At minimum, Petco changes its affiliate promotions monthly, and frequently alerts its affiliate publishers to new offers mid-month, according to Georgoulis.
“Relationship-building and management is a key part to keeping our top affiliates loyal to Petco. We make sure to have very regular communication with all of our top affiliates so that they stay abreast of what’s going on at Petco and understand how it can benefit the success of their program,” she says.
Petco is No. 184 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide to Retail Web Sites.
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