A4uexpo london retail insights_2010

a4uexpo London 12/10/2010

Affiliate Marketing Insights : Retail

About us

Gill Makepeace – [email protected]

• Gill has managed Debenhams affiliate activity for the past 18 months. She has worked in retail for the last 7 years previously managing online content creation for Debenhams and Sainsbury’s

Paul Brown – [email protected]

• Paul has managed some of affilinet’s largest accounts for the past 2 and a half years, specialising in retail & finance. Prior to affilinet he managed affiliate activity at Alliance & Leicester

Online retail within the EU’s largest nations is set to grow at a compound annual rate of 11% over the next five years, reaching a total value of €114 billion by 20141

1 Forrester Research, March 2010

Today’s Session1. Cross Channel Planning

2. Mobile Commerce

3. Marketing to men

4. Social Hype

5. If it ain’t broke...

Retail Insight

Cross Channel Planning (CCP)

• CCP is a basic marketing principle but you would be surprised how often implementation falls down

• 68% of UK marketers deliver multichannel marketing messages based on customer segments, but only 35% actually know which channels their customers prefer.1

• Recognising that certain channels deliver “push” i.e. TV whist others assist in consumer “pull” is another key consideration. Ideally you need both types of coverage to influence consumers within the buying process – a through-the-line approach

1ExactTarget, October 2009

A successful transaction!

TV

Direct Mail

Review on a Blog

Online CashbackThe combination of direct mail and TV can boost customer response by 143%. When combined with digital marketing, that figure jumps to 175%.1

1ITV and the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), February 2010

When asked how they shop, 63% said they research across multiple websites before completing their purchase online.1

1eCommera, via Econsultancy blog, August 2010

Debenhams Q4 2009: Phase 1• In the run up to Christmas Debenhams delivered a

series of co-ordinated campaigns across all channels to drive acquisition and a premium brand message.

Debenhams Q4 2009: Phase 1• As the Debenhams program matures across both

networks it operates on. So the number of content sites has increased. The below affiliate article supports the premium message “pushed” by the TV advert

CaseStudy

Debenhams Q4 2009: Phase 2• Next up came the Debenhams Christmas

Spectacular activity designed to drive site traffic and footfall immediately before the Christmas period

CaseStudyCaseStudy

Debenhams Q4 2009: Phase 2• Having run tests during the H2 2009 Debenhams

worked with a closed group of email affiliates to deliver short term campaign-style activity for the Debenhams Christmas Spectacular

CaseStudyCaseStudy

Debenhams Q4 2009: Phase 3• The final key message of 2009 was driven by the

Debenhams Biggest Ever Sale cross channel campaign. The first time the word ‘sale’ was used in Q4

Communicated via:

• Telephone calls• Emails• Twitter• affiliates4U forum• Instant Messenger

CaseStudy

Debenhams Q4 2009: Phase 3• The Debenhams Biggest Ever Sale activity was

supported across all affiliate types, with key volume delivered by voucher & reward affiliates via negotiated homepage slots and newsletter placements.The outcome

Q4 revenue grew105.5% year on yearacross affilinet &Affiliate Window

CaseStudy

Any questions or thoughts on Cross Channel Planning from the room?

Mobile internet retail sales are set to double in the next 3 years. By 2013 mobile internet sales could reach as much as £275 million, up from £123 million currently1

1Source: Verdict & Ovum, 2010]

Which of the following mobile commerce solutions do you offer?1

An application / Mobile specific website which is fully transactional with credit, debit and alternative (e.g. Google) payments

• 8% said they operate at the moment• 33% expected to start within 12 months• 24% expected to start in 1 – 2 years• 35% expect it to take longer than 2 years / they may never launch

1IAB / AIME/ IMRG mobile commerce research –retailer and brand owners

8 of the top 20 brands have apps

You can run them from a data feed in parallel with a normal site

Can seen as a bit old fashioned

Only 4 of the UK’s top 20 websites are mobile optimised

Potentially more difficult to implement in the short term

Perhaps more future proof – considering HTML 5

Which is the best approach?

How will people purchase via mobile?

• It may depend if a consumer is purchasing something they have bought before from the same retailer – in this case an iPhone App may be sufficient

• Or whether they are at the early stage of purchasing a complicated product they have never owned before. They may want to read reviews, run a price comparison and then buy. Whilst some may consult their social connection via Blackberry IM or something similar many are likely to hit Google

The stats certainly back the idea of growth

Search was the fastest growing mobile ad format – up 41% to a new high of £20.2 million and a market share of 54% (50% in 2008).

IAB/PwC, via AOP Digital Landscape Report, June 2010

Google’s mobile search patent

What does this mean for affiliates?

• With only 2.1% of UK‘s adult population currently shopping via a smart phone, and the potential growth is enormous.1

• Google has not yet implemented all the functionality mentioned in the patent, but some publishers have already started to implement concepts such as hyper-local content, i.e. Kingsroad.co.uk which could perform in the mobile SERPS

• For free applications, only about 20 percent of users return to use the app the first day after they download it, and then it quickly drops off from there. By 30 days out, less than 5 percent are using the app.2

1Verdict & Ovum, 20102Techcrunch.com, 2009

Will affiliate network tracking work in a mobile environment?

In theory it is possible to support standard affiliate network tracking, as most mobile browsers accept cookies

It is possible for mobile optimised sites to utilise network conversion tracking

In theory it is possible for apps to utilise network conversion tracking but the implementation and de-duplication we take for granted is not so easy particularly due to Apples previous restrictions on transfer of data to 3rd parties.

Debenhams has gone mobile

An app was chosen as a route to market

Features include• Full stock list, high quality images +

product variations and reviews• Wish list and gift list functions integrated

with contacts• Bar code scanner• Store locator

Any questions or thoughts on Mobile Commerce?

MTMMTMMarketing to MenMarketing to Men

Its changing...

...a bit

According to research agency Fresh Minds Ads likeCompareTheMarket’s ‘CompareTheMeerkat’ areNow connecting better with todays men

If you are here for meerkats,

I offer great welcome to you!

Aleksandr Orlov

The Male market is more complex than some thought

1. The Beer Swilling Little Big Man

2. The Extended Adolescent Cinderella Man

3. The Impulsive Single Man

4. The Health Conscious Marathon Man

5. The Friend and Family Focused Anchor Man

6. The Engaged and Rounded Man for All Seasons

This year Bauer Media started a research project called 4D Men

Men vs. Women

19% of men believe the recession will have a significant impact on them compared with 28% of women1

1GfK, 2010

Male Fashion Content Site

Male Fashion Content Site

Debenhams is very keen to focus on this area – but unfortunatelyThere aren’t too many CPA publishers serving the male market!

Any questions or thoughts on Marketing to men, any new sites we should be aware of?

Has your marketing

kept up?...

The world has gone social

Beyond FacebookConnect

Social Content &RelationshipManagement (SCRM)

Maximising reach

Maximising reach

• 27 million + UK users

• 60%+ are active an a daily basis • Average time on site is 5hours + each month

• Facebook accounts for 1 in 6 UK page views (55 billion) and is the 2nd most visited website in the UK.

• In July 2010 it accounted for 7.14% of all UK Internet visits.

• TBG’s One Media Manager enables affiliates to easily access and optimise this huge amount of inventory

10,000 ad variants in3mins

Geo-target& schedule

Beyond ‘Connect’

72% of people believe that recommendations from friends or family are the single most important

factor in the choice of website to buy from1

1eCommera, via Econsultancy blog, August 2010

Beyond ‘Connect’

• Pages outside of Facebook can now

become part of the social graph

(ecosystem) thanks to the Open Graph

Protocol.

• ‘Liked’ pages will appear within Facebook as likes and interests, they may also show up in other places around the platform such as searches

• Its not just one way traffic though; as the word open implies, data can flow into Facebook, but also out of it.

Beyond ‘Connect’

• When you’re signed on to Facebook, websites using The Graph API will potentially be able to display information, goods and services tailored specifically to your interests — without requiring you to sign in at that website or provide it with any information.

The onsite optimisation could potentially compete with solutions such as Maxymiser and be used by affiliates and merchants .

Social Content & Relationship Management

• So when you’ve built up a strong base of followers via Facebook or twitter how do you make the most of them?

• Things you might want to think about are:– Management of feature rich content– The ability to generate leads– Easy to manage conversations – delivering user engagement– Analytics

• Tools such as The Vitrue Publisher are designed to deliver this functionality and they can do so across both Facebook and Twitter, proving in essence a social campaign management panel

Social Content & Relationship Management

• Individual and segmented messages can be tailored to all “Open Graph” connections

• Schedule posts in advance

• Set target phrases to be flagged for response or deletion

• Integrate 3rd party analytics

• Add feature rich applications such as vouchers, polls, videos, and quizzes

The placement of applications on the Facebook Wall yields 110 times more engagement than those housed in a Tab

Any questions or thoughts on developments of Social Media?

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If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it...

• In a recent study1 respondents were asked what would deter them from shopping with a particular etailer, and the most common answer was poor images and product descriptions (42%).

• 40% of consumers would abandon a website if it takes more than 3 seconds to load. 2

• Nearly 40% said a frustrating online experience would make them less likely to shop at that retailer‘s high street store.3

1. eCommera, via Econsultancy blog, August 20102 .Get Elastic, November 20093. Allurent via Marketing Charts, Feb 2008

Why do people abandon their transactions?

Why do affiliates drop merchants?1

I found a better / different merchant

They changed their commission structure

Conversion rate and EPC were poor

Too many transactions declined

Too many products out of stock

1Econsultancy.com Affiliate Census 2009

77% of adults who have conducted a transaction online in the past year say they have experienced problems .1

1IMRG via InternetRetailerOctober 2009

What has Debenhams Done?

• Involving affiliates with planned site improvements

• Specified online specific stock – some merchants still don’t have this

• Enhanced reporting and analytics in order to optimise the affiliate channel

• Planned increase in the range of programs e.g. weddings, cardholder, Ireland, international

Any questions or thoughts on usability and accessibility?