How to make the most of affiliate marketing during the sales

The decorations have come down and there’s the traditional flat feeling associated with January – the holidays are over and it’s back to work. Yet despite all of the post-Christmas gloom, the sales can provide some welcome retail therapy.

For many of us, the January sales no longer mean traipsing through shops, dragging screaming partners and children behind us and fighting angry customers for the last pair of shoes in your size. Nowadays it’s a much more civilised process as you can order your bargains from the comfort of your own home.

As the UK becomes a tech-savvy country full of bargain hunters, e-commerce is continuing to grow in popularity. Retailers are searching for new ways of appealing to customers and beating the competition.

According to research by PwC for the IAB, UK businesses spent £1 billion on affiliate marketing and lead generation activities in 2013. This generated £14 billion via online performance marketing channels, such as price comparison sites, vouchers, cashback, loyalty and product review websites.[1]

This shows that brands should be making the most of it, especially during the sales when people are searching online for the best deals. Despite as much as 10% of ecommerce revenue coming from online performance marketing, a recent survey shows that up to 25% of retailers are not using an affiliate programme.[2]

Stuart McClure, Founder at lovethesales.com, explains the importance of high-quality data for retailers running an affiliate programme during the busy sales season.

So how can retailers make the most of their affiliate programme during the post-Christmas sales season?

Affiliate marketing is continuously evolving and is even starting to define the way that we shop. One key advantage of affiliate marketing is the fact that affiliate sites are commission based – the site has to work hard to keep the audience engaged so that they purchase from the site.

When people are shopping for bargains they want to make sure they are getting the best deal, but they don’t have time to faff around. This means that it’s essential that all product information is correct.

It’s not just after Christmas that people are in sales mode – the bargain hunting often starts beforehand with some retailers having pre-Christmas sales to entice shoppers.

For any business selling products online, it’s essential that the consumer knows that what they see, is what they get. If product listings are inaccurate it not only damages the brand, but also the affiliate website. 

Size matters

People who are sales shopping are used to the limited stock, so they know that they need to search for specific product attributes. One of the most common is of course size – there’s no point finding an item and then realising it’s only available in size 6 and 16. If any products are missing the size attribute then consumers will not be able to filter products in this way, which can lead to missed sales.

Of course any of the retailer’s sales data is inaccurate then there’s no way to leverage the best possible sales. By using affiliate tools, consumers can search for products based on the size and price of items, choosing to search the whole product inventory, or just the stock that’s in the sale.

For example, if a consumer is looking for a pair of size 10 jeans, it makes their journey so much quicker and simpler if they can search exactly what they’re looking for, rather than risk being disappointed later on. If a purchase is easy they are more likely to return to the site at another time.

The same is true of other missing attributes such as image – people are often in a hurry when they’re shopping for sale items, so are only glancing at listings – having an image can really sell a product.

Our site runs on automated content listings from retailers’ data feeds and we turn that data into products that can be displayed online. However, we also want to promote our retailers and their deals in other ways, e.g. mentioning them in blog posts, emails etc. If we know that a retailer has poor quality data, then we cannot do this because we might end up promoting products that are out of stock or incorrectly described.

It doesn’t matter which brands we work with – small or large – if any of them have poor quality data then we don’t want to display their products on our website. It’s a shame, but in the past we’ve had to remove several retailers from the site because their data has been such bad quality. We can't risk giving our consumers a bad experience by displaying unavailable or mispriced products; this means consumers won't make their purchases and the retailers we work with will lose out on sales.

Top tips for the sales season:

Tips for affiliate promotions over the January (or any) sales period:

• High-quality product feeds
  Your product feeds must be comprehensive, accurate and consumable. They must also be regularly updated. During the sales, stock sells out very quickly and this should be reflected in a regularly updated product feed.
• Strong communication
  Sales season is always busy, so expect questions from affiliates and consumers. Make sure you’re prepared for this and have more people available to deal with queries.
• Remain consistent
  Even though it’s the sale season, it’s still important to make sure that the products you’re offering are suitable for your regular audience. You could however think about niche products that are appropriate for New Year (weight loss products, gym memberships, stop smoking etc.) to try to appeal to the post-Christmas audience.
• Update banners and widgets
  Make sure that advertising is no longer festive but reflects current themes or upcoming holidays, such as Chinese New Year or Valentine’s Day. It’s always worth creating specific banners and widgets to stand out on your site at certain times of year as it makes the site more appealing to consumers.

About lovethesales.com

LovetheSales.com is a new site dedicated to changing the way consumers do their sales shopping. They bring together every sale item from 100's of retailers and 1,000s of brands on one site, allowing people to browse everything quickly and easily. Never before has it been so easy to get yourself a bargain.