Affiliate marketing

Many people associate affiliate marketing with the selling of diet pills, teeth whiteners, and other controversial products. Although this darker side to performance-based marketing still exists, affiliate programs have moved to the mainstream, with major retailers and publishers now using them to drive sales of all sorts of products, from electronics to apparel. 

In a new report from BI Intelligence, we examine the changing face of affiliate marketing and take a close look at the key players. We also outline growth opportunities for affiliate marketing and how we see this industry developing.

 

Here are some of the key takeaways:

• Mainstream media publishers are helping legitimize affiliate marketing. In an effort to balance editorial integrity and revenue needs, publishers are taking a more native approach to affiliate marketing by embedding product links within organic content. 
• Overall, publishers still generate the bulk of their revenue from advertising, but affiliate marketing is growing faster, per our sources. Approximately 15% of the digital media industry's revenue now comes from affiliate marketing.

BI Intelligence

• The investment that media companies are putting behind e-commerce drivers is good news for retailers, because publishers play an important role in the purchase funnel. 
• Affiliate marketing now drives as many e-commerce orders in the US as email. Both channels currently account for 16% of US e-commerce orders, according to marketing firm Custora. This makes affiliate marketing one of the four largest sources of e-commerce orders, outperforming social commerce and display advertising.
• Even consumers who already have demonstrated purchase intent commonly visit multiple nonretail websites before completing a purchase on an e-commerce website or in a store. Nearly three-quarters (74%) of US shoppers say they visit two to three nonretail websites before completing a purchase, and 16% say they visit more than four websites, according to Rakuten and Forrester data. 

Mağaza içi internet kullanımı perakende sektörüne etkisi

Nearly eight out of ten shoppers turn to their devices to assist them when shopping in physical retail stores, according to a Holiday shopping survey of 3,000 US consumers by Deloitte, charted for us by Statista. 

What do they do on their phones? Roughly 55 percent of shoppers use their phones inside a store to compare prices. This so-called "showrooming" by shoppers has caused panic among some retailers worried that in-store smartphone use is bad for business.

But it appears that smartphones are also helping retailers. The number one reason for using smartphones was to look up store locations, according to the survey. And 45% of consumers use their phones to get product information and to get or use coupons. For retailers, the invasion of smartphones in stores means both risk and opportunity.

Facebook un e-ticaretteki payı artıyor

Facebook is the top social commerce platform, driving more than two-thirds of mobile e-commerce traffic and boosting social media's quickly growing share of e-commerce web traffic. 

Facebook accounts for 50% of total social referrals and 64% of total social revenue. The site’s social commerce initiatives, including a recent focus on its Messenger app, largely reflect social media's increasingly important role for online retailers.

In a report from BI Intelligence we analyze social media's impact on online retail — whether that's driving direct sales with the use of embedded "Buy" buttons on social media posts, or referring traffic to retailers' websites and apps. We measure the impact social media has on e-commerce by looking at metrics such as conversion rates, average order value, and revenue generated by shares, likes, and tweets. We also outline the latest commerce efforts by leading social networks. 

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Here are some of the key points from the report: 

• Social is driving much bigger increases in retail traffic than any other online channel. Social media increased its share of e-commerce referrals nearly 200% between the first quarters of 2014 and 2015. 
• For retailers to maintain these social gains, they will need to pay special attention to mobile, where social engagement with retail content is still limited. Social media users are 35% less likely to share a brand's or retailer's social post on mobile than they are on desktop computers.
• Pinterest is a major social commerce player despite a relatively small user base. The pinning platform drives 16% of social commerce. New buy and action buttons on retailer posts should make Pinterest an even stronger referral and revenue engine for brands.
• Twitter is losing its influence for mass-market merchants, but it could still have a role to play among sporting and events marketers, especially for location-based promotions. Recently, NFL and NBA teams have used Twitter to sell game tickets and merchandise. 
• Instagram doesn't drive significant sales activity for retailers but high-end companies have been leveraging the platform for branding purposes. New Buy buttons on paid posts, as well as increased targeting capabilities, could make the app a more important direct-response driver.

Scan and Buy

The future of online retail lies with the 'buy now' button as users come to expect instant gratification, a development that could also fuel growth in scannable advertising.

"Scan-to-buy is the next frontier in the retail market," according to Larry Logan, chief marketing officer of Digimarc, a digital watermarking technology provider.

Consumers, he said, would see items they wanted on Facebook or Pinterest and would then expect to be able to simply scan the image, hit 'buy' and have it delivered.

"In the very near future, consumers will care less about 'who' delivers their purchases," he added. "This will disintermediate many of today's online shopping services," he told Luxury Daily.

His remarks came as retailer Target has teamed up with Shazam, the app better known for identifying songs, to create scannable print ads in the September issue of Vogue which will make items instantly available via Shazam's 'shop now' button.

The thinking is that readers who have already downloaded the Shazam app are more likely to engage with such ads since they won't have to download yet more apps or take several steps to complete a purchase.

The growth of social media sites such as Pinterest and Instagram has highlighted the power of the picture – L2, the New York think tank, last year described Instagram as the world's most powerful social media platform as it was growing faster than Facebook had done at the same stage in its development while registering 15 times the engagement and double the engaged user base.

And one image-recognition app has more ambitious plans. Earlier this year Blippar announced plans for a "visual browser".

"The new version of Blippar will bring a new world of interaction to search that removes the cultural perceptions from objects," said CEO and founder Ambarish Mitra.

"The old Blippar was about monetizing brands; the new Blippar will be more about satisfying people's curiosity about anything around them," he added.

Mağaza içi Wifi bazlı reklam mobil reklam modeli:Wisitor

Yerli girişim “Wisitor” mekanların wi-Fi ağlarını pazarlama aracına dönüştürüyor

Uludağ Teknoloji Geliştirme Bölgesi’nde faaliyet gösteren Behrud Teknoloji, Wisitor ismindeki ürünleriyle mekanların wi-fi ağlarını müşterileri için kullanabilecekleri gelişmiş bir pazarlama aracına dönüştürüyor. Yazılım – donanım bütünleşik olarak geliştirilen proje ile işletmeler Wisitor’un sağladığı fonksiyonlarla müşterilerini daha yakından tanıma imkanına da sahip oluyorlar. İşletmeler Wisitor’u aldıktan sonra modemlerine wi-link’i bağlayarak ürünü hemen kullanmaya başlayabiliyorlar.

Behrud Teknoloji ürünün satın alan mekana, müşterilerinin wi-fi ağına bağlanmak için hangi sosyal ağı istediğini soruyor. Müşteriler mekanın wi-fi ağına Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare veya LinkedIn hesaplarıyla bağlanıyorlar. Bundan sonra da mekan sahipleri kendilerine sunulan özel panel sayesinde müşterileriyle ilgili detaylı istatistiklere ulaşabiliyorlar. Tabii ki burada tutulan müşteri bilgileri yasaların ve müşterilerin izin verdiği bilgilerden oluşuyor. Wi-fi ağına sosyal ağ hesaplarıyla bağlanmak istemeyen kullanıcılar ek seçenek olarak Wisitor hesabı oluşturarak ağa bu şekilde de bağlanabiliyorlar.

Kaynak:BPN İstanbul

On My Way: Herkes Amazon ürünlerini müşteriye taşıyarak para kazanabilecek

E-ticaret siteleri arasında aynı gün adrese teslim ve diğer katma değerli servisler küresel ve yerel anlamda rekabet için oldukça önemli alanlar haline geldi. Müşterilere ürünlerini en hızlı şekilde ulaştırma konusunda sürekli çözümler geliştiren Amazon, kendi bünyesinde geliştirdiği yeni mobil uygulamayla ürün kargolanmasını ilginç bir kulvara taşıyor. WSJ’nin aktardığı bilgilere göre şirket geliştirdiği “On My Way” isimli mobil uygulamayla, kişilerin Amazon paketlerini belirtilen adreslere götürerek para kazanmasına olanak sağlayacak.

“On My Way” projesiyle ilgili ilk sızan bilgiler arasında, paketleri adreslere götürecek kişilerin bu alanda profesyonel olması veya mevcut olarak bir kargo, taşıma şirketinde çalışması ve deneyim sahibi olması beklenmiyor. Uygulamaya dahil olmak isteyenler Amazon’un ABD’de şehirlere yayılmış depolarından kendisine yakın olan bir tanesinden ürün seçerek asıl müşterinin adresine teslim ediyor ve Amazon’dan bunun için belirli bir ücret alıyor.

Postmates kategorisine dahil edebileceğimiz bu mobil uygulamayla Amazon’un asıl hedefi yine müşterilerine ürünlerini olabildiğince hızlı ve rahat bir şekilde kargolamak. Şirketin bu uygulamayı ne zaman yayınlayacağı ve ne gibi prosedürler uygulayacağı ise henüz belli değil. Ancak eğer uygulama ve servis devreye alınırsa, günlük ekstra para kazanmak isteyen üniversite öğrencileri gibi kişilerin ilgisiyle karşılaşabilir.

Amazon, kargoların taşınmasıyla ilgili olarak Uber servisiyle de Kasım 2014’ten bu yana deneme yaptığı biliniyor. Bunun yanında şirket gelecekte drone‘lar ile paket teslimatı teknolojini konusunda da yine çalışmalar yapıyor.

http://webrazzi.com/2015/06/17/on-my-way-amazon-nakliyat/

L'Oreal USA Moves to Make All Types of Ads 'Shoppable'

L'Oreal USA has reached a deal with Powa Technologies that could allow the beauty giant to essentially tag any of its advertising, promotions or in-store materials to allow for instant e-commmerce purchases of the featured products.

L'Oreal said in a statement that the PowaTag technology can "transform any consumer touch point, from print and TV advertising to e-commerce, retail stores and social media into a platform for mobile transactions, promotions and more on person's smartphone."

PowaTag provides 2-D barcodes that consumers can scan with an app to order products quickly.

The company declined to get into precise details on exactly how and when the technology will be deployed. But L'Oreal appears to be the first of the giant beauty players to try adding a direct-response sales elements to all of its advertising, online and off.

"L'Oreal has led the beauty industry for more than 100 years because of our unrelenting drive to innovate for our customers," said Marie Gulin-Merle, chief marketing officer of L'Oreal USA, in the statement. The partnership is meant to merge the online and offline worlds of its customers and make mobile shopping easier, she said.

Like other beauty players, L'Oreal has placed an increasing focus on e-commerce in recent years for its prestige and mass brands alike, as well as starting e-commerce-only brands such as Em by Michelle Phan.E-commerce has been one of the fastest-growing channels for the business, alongside such retailers as Sephora and Ulta, but analyst estimates still peg it at between low single-digit to low double-digit percentages of industry sales.


Source: Adage

Subscription Boxes

The explosion of subscription-box sales in the US has opened up what is effectively a new marketing channel for brands in certain markets

Beauty brands, for example, have noted the success of ventures such as Birchbox and Glossybox, which deliver beautifully packaged boxes of curated product samples every month to subscribers.

The idea behind these was to "leverage the subscription model to be part of the product discovery process," according to Birchbox founder Hayley Barna. She had observed that more women were buying cosmetics online and missing out on the experience of browsing at a beauty counter.

Now beauty brands are looking to supply the likes of Birchbox and its many imitators with premium samples or full-size products, in the hope of gaining wider traction, whether through online reviews or pictures posted on sites like Instagram.

The subscription box idea is relatively new. Birchbox was established in 2010 and one industry observer suggests the market has been growing at 200% a year since 2011. Amir Elaguizy, founder of Cratejoy, a platform that helps entrepreneurs to set up subscription businesses, estimates there are now around 10,000 subscriptions on the market.

He explained to Fast Company that these covered a huge range of businesses, many with rather more modest aspirations than an outfit like Birchbox. He related how one operator on Cratejoy simply sells granola for $20 to 50 subscribers, which covers her payments for rent, car and student loan.

"It allows people who could not otherwise run a business the opportunity to do so," he said. "That's the real story when it comes to subscriptions; it's all not about the Birchboxes of the world."

Barna believes, however, that subscription-based companies are "the future of product discovery and shopping online".

And within her own product area, the psychology of buyers is a potent factor, as Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst at market research group NPD, outlined.

"This business is about the art of giving to yourself," he said. "Millennial consumers, in particular, love the idea of self-indulgence, and subscription companies really understand this."

Source: WARC