Affiliate Partners Key to E-Customer Acquisition

Los Angeles Times columnist offers advice for `incentivizing’ partners

BY 2002, 25% of all Internet sales will be the result of affiliate partnerships, author and Los Angeles Times columnist Jaclyn Easton told a crowd at the 17th Annual Catalog Conference & Exhibition.

She said partnerships bring in customers who spend more, and are rapidly gaining strength as a key acquisition strategy, costing $1.67 per customer compared to $30 for a banner ad. Amazon.com leads the pack with 400,000 affiliate partners. Barnes & Noble follows with 200,000.

Easton recommended “incentivizing” partners with a 20% commission to encourage them to place button or banner links in the most desirable places on their sites. “The more you give, the more you get,” she said. Online resources for affiliate partnerships include refer-it.com and cj.com.

Other strategies she offered to drive traffic and increase sales were:

– Always have a few items on sale. Items marked with a sale price are 1.8 times more likely to be sold.

– Make the best use of the “thank you for your order” page by providing links to other products or affiliate sites with incentives such as discounts or special offers.

– Consider a site-wide policy of “buy another at xx% off.”

– Issue e-mail “alerts” such as blow-out sales or free shipping offers – no more than once per quarter to achieve maximum response.

– Respond to e-mail immediately.

– Sell more by organizing products several ways such as by category, situation or psychographics.

Easton is the author of StrikingItRich.com, which profiles 23 successful Web sites.