Affiliate Network - Associate Programs Management Reporting
By ecomTRAX Utilizing Business Competitive Intelligence
by Maurice Bretzfield
Affiliate Networks, sometimes called Associate Programs, are syndicated selling networks that extend brand, attract new customers and create a substantial portion of an e-commerce merchant's total sales. Affiliate Networks (sometimes known as Associate Programs) have grown in importance and are today essential elements of an online merchant's overall marketing strategy. It is widely understood today that a properly developed and managed Affiliate Network should produce a sizeable percentage of an e-commerce merchants total business.
This enormous growth has created a profound and fundamental need in the Affiliate Network community specifically, and in the e-commerce sector generally, for Business Competitive Intelligence®.
The explosive growth of e-commerce and World Wide Web retailing has changed the nature of the game completely. Now, online retailers in all market sectors are able to adjust prices, promote their product and respond to the competition, the company's own immediate needs, "just-in-time" product delivery advantages and consumer demand, virtually instantaneously.
Never before has competition been fiercer - never before has the need for more and better competitive information been greater.
Competing effectively for key placement on leading affiliate sites is a challenge all of its own. As well, the constant measurement and assessment of factors that influence overall Affiliate Network performance is a vitally necessary requirement for online retailing success. It is essential that this crucial information be detailed, accurate and timely.
It is well understood that Affiliate Network managers face stiff competition and are constantly challenged in their attempt to improve the performance of their Affiliate Network. The task of managing these far-flung Affiliate Networks requires agility unimaginable even a short time ago - the kind of agility that can only come when Affiliate Network managers and executives are armed for the battle with the right information.
It is a requirement that Affiliate Network managers and executives know where their links (and those of their competitors) appear on affiliate sites and to know and understand the relationship that exists between all of the challengers in a market sector and their affiliates.
It is equally as important that Affiliate Network managers have detailed and timely information regarding the performance of their individual affiliates and to be able to quickly respond to changes in that performance.
Information about "what is working" is also most important so that Affiliate Network managers can duplicate success and maximize performance across broad ranges of affiliates.
The Internet Age has changed the way all companies must compete in general. It is no longer wise or safe to assume that you know what the competition is doing. In today's environment facts, not assumptions are essential for success - and maybe even survival.
Because price deflation and increasing competition in value-add (free shipping, etc.) offered to consumers afflict most market sectors and merchandise categories, the need for business competitive intelligence has never been greater. In today's hyper-competitive e-commerce environment it is simply essential that all companies, their managers and their executives arm themselves with the information necessary to compete effectively.
Accordingly, the use of BCI has grown rapidly and for several important reasons:
- In an evermore competitive world it is vital that companies know at all times their competitive position in their marketplace;
- New information sources are helping companies to compete more effectively;
- Due to the rapid proliferation of the Internet and specifically the World Wide Web companies of all kinds are finding that BCI is available to them to a degree that has never before been possible;
- Companies like ecomTRAX® are now able to make available in-depth information in a timely and cost-effective manner making the information available to most competitors in a given market sector;
- Companies are rapidly realizing that BCI utilized by their competitors can be used against them in sometimes devastating ways. Some companies have had to find out the hard way that operating without BCI, when their competitor has it, places them in a dangerous and competitively untenable position;
- As price "deflation" hits more and more market segments competition increases making BCI even more necessary than ever before;
- The pace of change in business is increasing in most market sectors, especially in information technology, communications, and e-commerce. BCI is a vital way that companies can learn and thus adapt to the changes and inevitable surprises in their market sector;
- Consumers have become increasingly more sophisticated and knowledgeable in their use of the World Wide Web to compare prices and value-added offers when determining who to purchase from;
- Changes occur continuously in the nature and variety of the products and services that companies must offer to continue to stay competitive. Accordingly it is vital that companies in all market sectors know what their competition is doing - all of the time.
- The " commiditization " of most products means that "brand" has become less important to the consumer (and continues to do so) as issues of price, delivery and delivery cost become increasingly more important. What's more, the rate of this change in consumer behavior itself is increasing.
Through the use of ecomTRAX® Business Competitive Intelligence®, product managers, Affiliate Network managers as well as those involved with product development and new business development can gain a competitive advantage by knowing what products their competitors are offering, at what price and with what value-add (including offers of free-shipping, discounts and other allowances and premiums).
In the highly competitive Affiliate Network marketing space Affiliate Network managers require information regarding link location (both yours and your competitors), top affiliates and their performance, the diversification of the network so as to ascertain how affiliates are generating their business, and many other factors that create top performing Affiliate Networks.
ecomTRAX® Business Competitive Intelligence® enables our clients to keep track of their competitors pricing changes so they can respond immediately. This involves tracking the prices of hundreds or even thousands (actually, as many as the client wants) of products across numerous (again, as many as the client needs) competitors. As a result, our clients are easily able to immediately respond to competitive threats. ecomTRAX® clients easily know when their competitors are promoting, what they are promoting and how they are promoting it so that they can immediately respond to that competitive challenge as well.
Christopher Columbus, of course, changed the world radically. Everyone knows that prior to Columbus the earth was thought to be flat and it was believed that Columbus would literally sail right off the edge of the planet. When he didn't, and he returned, he had changed the world profoundly and forever.
The World Wide Web is today fomenting a similar magnitude of change in the way business is conducted. This change is greater than any since the Industrial Revolution. In many areas, the full extent of this change, and the opportunities and threats that it poses, is only just starting to become clear.
What is clear is that the old adage that a retailer could compete either on price, location or quality and that if you could out compete in two of those areas that company would be a huge success, is no longer true. Today, from the comfort of their own homes, an ever more savvy e-commerce consumer makes choices using an arsenal of available information that changes, profoundly and forever, how smart businesses must market to them.
Do you have the information that you require to be truly competitive? In a world in which changing a product price or offering a new promotion or value-add of any kind takes a matter of seconds we have gone to a new world where new types of information is required.
ecomTRAX® Business Competitive Intelligence® is the tool you need to manage a truly successful Affiliate Network.
Maurice Bretzfield, is the President and CEO of ecomTRAX® , EComWorks and Optimagicians each leaders in their respective online marketing segment. He is an online marketing expert who, since 1997, has built and managed Affiliate Networks for a prestigious group of clients including Sony Music, The Disney Store Online, Cooking.com, Home Shopping Networks' Improvements Catalog and many others. For further information about how you can benefit from ecomTRAX® Business Competitive Intelligence® , contact us today. Maurice_Bretzfield@GOMSource.com.