Localizing e-commerce features to improve conversion rates

January 30th, 2012

Your brand is a hit in your home country and your website is starting to draw sales from across the pond, proving there is an interest in your product range. You add on shipping costs for your new market and display the price of your products with the local currency text identifier (USD/GBP). Traffic is increasing off the back of the SEO you’ve implemented and you’ve launched a PPC campaign, but conversion rates remain stubbornly low.

Here are 10 basic steps, and one golden rule, to optimize the conversion rates of your new territory traffic. (more…)

Performance Marketing is Trendy for Online Fashion Retailers

January 25th, 2012

A research study conducted by the Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG) reported that the online fashion retail industry demonstrated exponential growth – an astonishing 2,000% – from 2001 to 2011. Additionally, Forrester published statistics indicating that US online retail sales grew 12.6% in 2010 to reach $176.2 billion, with the ecommerce market expected to reach $278.9 billion in 2015. As more consumers shop online, performance marketing is becoming an increasingly attractive channel for fashion advertisers, where a broad range of online partnership opportunities exist, each providing clear and measureable results.

Global affiliate network, buy.at has seen a steady increase in the number of fashion retailers integrating affiliate campaigns into their online marketing strategies, with an aim to increase brand awareness, acquire new customers, and generate additional revenue. These include well-known global brands such as Accessorize, Lindsay Phillips, and T.M. Lewin. There are several factors that continue to drive double-digit growth for clothing retailers, including the emergence of new online shopping models such as flash sales and group-buying websites, both of which have displayed rapid growth and continue to drive consumer interest. (more…)

ASW 2012 Recap

January 13th, 2012

This week saw another successful Affiliate Summit conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. Beginning on January 8th, Caesars Palace played host to the 19th summit where for the first time, more than 5000 digital marketing professionals gathered together for a jam-packed three days of informative industry presentations, extensive networking, and of course, the infamous summit parties with old friends within the industry.

Affiliates, agencies, vendors, advertisers, and networks of all shapes and sizes were in attendance, hoping to forge new business relationships within the performance marketing channel. Several of our advertisers spent time at the buy.at booth –meeting and mingling with existing partners and potential prospects.

Here’s a list of the advertisers who joined us:

Samir El-Alami (Badoo)
Erica Barry (VA Mortgage)
Greg Hoffman (SubscriptionAgent.com)
John Lobrutto (TripAlertz)
Alicia Iveson, Ketan Thanki & Elizabeth Chung (British Airways)
Jen Ward (myOptumHealth Store)
Heather Blackburn (Girly Checks)
Jeannette Saliba (BargainStation.com)

We also hosted another fun and engaging ‘Twitter-a-Winner’ contest for all publishers, with a range of fantastic prizes from several brands including CafePress, Designers Guild, Ghirardelli, Girly Checks, Veer, Whittard of Chelsea, Goldstar, TripAlertz, Value Pet Supplies and the grand prize of a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 from BargainStation.com.

The definitive highlight of the show was on Tuesday the 10th when our very own Head of Publishers, Kim Salvino was awarded the prestigious Pinnacle Award for Affiliate Manager of the Year. After being nominated for three consecutive years, Kim finally took home the well-deserved trophy and we couldn’t be more excited and proud. We’ll be doing a detailed interview with Kim on the blog next week so make sure to check it out.

Thank you to everyone who made an effort to speak with us at the conference and to all of the buy.at team for another exceptional affiliate summit. Looking forward to ASE 2012 in New York.

Photos from ASW2012 can be seen here.

Lisa Chaikin
PR Manager – UK & US