Marketing plans come and go, but affiliate marketing stays hot
Retailers’ online marketing programs have come and gone as once hot ideas fade into ineffectiveness. But affiliate marketing just stays hot, attendees at the Annual Catalog Conference heard this week.
80% of the customers attracted through affiliate marketing programs are new to The Company Store, Pete Bather, vice president of marketing of Hanover Direct, which owns The Company Store, told attendees Monday. “Affiliate marketing customers are highly incremental to our business,” he said.
And while The Company Store ends up paying a commission to the affiliate partner on sales to customers who are already on the file, the cost is acceptable, Bather said. “20% ad costs are OK with me,” he said. Under affiliate agreements, sites that host a link to a retailer’s site receive a commission when a consumer clicks through the link and makes a purchase. The Company Store pays commissions of 7-10%, Bather said.
Online retailers have embraced affiliate marketing programs broadly because they are so effective. In fact, Amazon is enhancing its affiliate program by offering cross-sell and upsell opportunities on the Amazon page where shoppers form affiliate programs land and paying commissions on the additional sales as a way to entice more sites to create affiliate relationships, Jeffrey Bezos, Amazon CEO, told the Catalog Conference. Amazon maintains 740,000 affiliate relationships, Bezos said.
The Company Store uses LinkShare Corp. to arrange affiliate relationships. Internally, The Company Store requires only a one-fourth time position to manage the programs.
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