On the first day of the Amplify Summit, Lee-Ann sat down with some well-respected industry peers to discuss the word of the year: eCommerce. Specifically, consumers’ buying behaviours and how they affect how you market to and endear them. Lee-Ann is joined by Top Cashback Group Commercial Director, James Little, UK Director of Publisher Development, Jessica Wong, and Chief Revenue Officer of UpSellit, Jeremy Aaronson.
The question of the day is around the future of eCommerce. What is getting thrown out, what behaviours are likely to force change, and how will eCommerce brands have to adapt their platforms to keep users engaged going into 2023?
Integrating affiliates into different channels
Here at Affiverse, we’re definitely all on board with more affiliate marketing integrated into marketing campaigns, and shockingly, it wasn’t even our own founder Lee-Ann who brought up the idea.
Jessica Wong had a few ideas to share, but she initially said: “We’re actually going to start integrating affiliates into different channels. So, you would have heard that we [Publisher Development] are the channel of channels and we can see that brands need to use affiliates to amplify their existing channels. And probably hone in their search, influencer marketing, and really kind of like joining the dots to ensure that they’re maximizing the margins and the budget because the budget’s being squeezed especially now in Q1 of 2023.”
As Jessica demonstrated, there are a lot of areas of marketing in that affiliates can be beneficial. The idea of an affiliate simply being the showman for a product and then getting on with their day barely scratches the surface of uses for affiliates.
All customers are created equal
I have a dream, that businesses and tech brands in particular would appreciate the customers they have, rather than striving forever for new customers. It’s a well that is eventually going to dry up, as Netflix is famously discovering.
And I’m sure we’re all getting tired of the exact example Jeremy Little offers. Jeremy said: “It’s down to the offers themselves as well. There’s some legislation that’s starting to go through the government around eCommerce, and whether this will get signed off is another question but making sure that existing customers are getting the same offers as new customers. How many times do you call up your TV provider because they’re giving completely different offers to new customers from existing customers for months or years?… I think it’s time to move away from that.”
“For us, this is about customer experience and giving them good offers, then why give existing customers such a bad offering?”
Customers talk. And word of mouth is famously the best marketing tool, but if the word on the street is “I’m paying less than you”, you’ll just have people leaving for not being appreciated.
On-site personalisation
When asked what Upsellit was focusing on going into 2023, Jeremy Aaronson said: “Continue personalisation. It started a bit during Covid. How do we kind of ramp that up a bit – or “amplify” it, if you will? In terms of providing the user with what they’re looking for. So, starting to look ahead into the future and using the data properly in a way that will provide what they’re looking for whether that is increasing shopping cart value, adding products to the cart, etc. How do we take past experiences and do it in a way that is going to help.”
Lee-Ann went on to further emphasise that all of these small moves should also add up to a more natural experience for the user and that the shopping journey to checkout should be less disjointed and adapted for optimal experience.
If you are interested in more affiliate and social media marketing insights, take a look at our blog for all the latest news and advice. Or for a more personalised approach, book a free call with a member of our team.
Or, for the very best advice from industry peers, register to gain access to our Amplify Action Day. Taking place in January 2023 doesn’t mean you’ve missed it. Amplify aims to bring you the latest affiliate, performance, and partner marketing insights from across the globe and it’s all available to stream from our website.
