Optimizing with Your Merchant Partner

Jake Bailey, Affiliate Program Director, Overstock.com

Presentation Overview

- Overstock.com Optimization Strategies

- Other Great Merchant Examples

- Principles to Live by

- Specific Optimization Suggestions for Affiliates

- Future Content trends

Strategies Tested by Overstock

1) Started with Large Bucket of Affiliates2) Began to Segment by Affiliate Type

a. Loyaltyb. Searchc. Coupon/Deald. Nichee. CSE

3) Each Affiliate Type has a customer base with unique tendencies/characteristics

What is important to Loyalty Customers?

Upromise.com original landing pages - "before segmentation began"

Beginning in Q1 2006, Upromise members landed on

What is important to Loyalty Customers?

With integrated promotions

What is important to Loyalty Customers?

With promotions and customer segmentations fully Optimized

19% Lift in Conversion!

What is important to Loyalty Customers?

Another loyalty example with Mypoints.com

What is important to Coupon/Deal customers?

• DealNews link Without coupon

• DealNews link With coupon

• Overstock Merchandiser Link with coupon• http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/statform?

id=NKa3hZyYoHA&offerid=52439&bnid=921&subid=0&CID=107003&OSSKU=10297351

• Overstock Add-to-Cart Link with coupon• http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/statform?

id=NKa3hZyYoHA&offerid=57189&bnid=1208&fp=F&cid=107007&OSSKU=10398313

• What happens when the customer returns to the merchant site?

What is important to Niche customers?

Content is still King ………All you have to do is ask

YourProductRatings.com

Other Merchants that Optimize well with their Affiliates

1) Nordstrom's- Advanced notice of upcoming promotions

2) Lands End- Great Seasonal co-branded Landing Pages

3) Sierra Trading Post- Fantastic tools for Affiliates

4) Amazon- Solid Link-building Functionality and

personalization capabilities

Other Issues/Points Important to Affiliates

Karen Hoxmeier - MyBargainBuddy.com - "Great customer service makes a huge difference"- "Flexibility for merchandising products and landing customers on specific pages"

Mary Beth Padiam – Upromise.com - "Marriage of Interest" knowing the customers demographics- "Responsiveness of a merchant. Ability to communicate quickly and willingness to look into relationship to see what's selling."

Lisa Nevard - Linkshare Corp- "GuthyRenker does a great job pushing out content to Affiliates so the Affiliates don't have to do the work."

Colleen Sullivan - MyPoints.com - “What helps me is when a merchant is fast with creative turn-around"

10 Principles to Live by

1) Be willing to fail, learn, and then try again2) If it doesn't work out, make sure you understand why3) Communication with your merchant is key4) There's no Silver Bullet5) It has to be a dual partnership6) Your Merchant partner must have good customer service7) You must both understand the nature/characteristics of your

traffic8) One step at a time9) Don’t blast out marketing opportunities via BCC emails. Call10) Test, Test, and Re-Test

Affiliate-Specific Optimization Suggestions

1) Ask for Sales details from your merchant partnera. Metrics you might want to Consider

1. What specific product categories are you selling?2. Does the Pay structure match the nature of traffic?

2) Call your merchant regularly – You should know them just as much as they’re expected to know you

3) Ask your merchant about what marketing campaigns have been successful for their in-house marketing team. Free consulting is always the best

4) Ask your merchant partner for Advice when planning changes to your site

Affiliate-Specific Optimization Suggestions Cont’d

5) Ask for prizes for your customers

6) If you drive significant traffic, don't be afraid to ask for a direct link for SEO purposes

7) PR Releases are a fantastic way to boost traffic. This is still very unutilized, even by very large Affiliates

Future Content trends to prepare for- Distribution of customer product reviews

- Especially important for C&E customers- Mobile marketplace

- 94% of Japanese mobile customers accessed the Internet via phone vs. 34% in the US- Personalization for the consumer

- smart banners vs dumb banners- Video personalization

Questions

- Please wait till after Q&A to address individual questions/issues that are unrelated to this presentation in order to make this beneficial for all attendees

jbailey@overstock.com