How Affiliates and Social Media are Changing Customer Journeys

In the world of e-commerce research is available to the consumer about every product. As a result, companies have sought assistance in driving traffic, building a brand and creating demand. The success of the affiliate model among the ecommerce business models shows the success of the monetisation of this side of the customer journey.

The affiliate model has sprung up in fashion blogs especially as influencers guide users to e-commerce sites for a fee. Two favourites promoting the affiliate model in fashion are ShopStyle and RewardStyle. These options provide credit for sites driving traffic and act as intermediaries between influencers and e-retailers. They also channel funds to influencers.

What’s new in the affiliate space is the move into online communities such as Instagram and Twitter. These communities provide opportunities to gain a greater understanding of their customers by enabling profiles to be linked directly to purchases. The evolution of affiliate links from communities (and associated profiles) will likely become a standard input in the Customer Journey as this trend develops further. Companies will be able to better categorise customers based on their personal profiles and the platforms they come from.

(Note: digital culture is changing the way retailers need to operate – Building the Digital Experience)

It is worth noting that one of the world’s largest retailers has the world’s largest affiliate programme: Amazon. Two other large affiliate programmes for general retail are eBay and LinkShare – each platform has well-defined processes and well-designed user interfaces.

For more on ecommerce, we’ve outlined the website business models of the major players in the digital sandbox.

Website business model	Description	Examples
Brokerage	Facilitate transactions; usually charges a fee or commission for each transaction it enables.	Orbitz, CarsDirect, Priceline, eBay, PayPal, Amazon
Advertising	Web advertising; an extension of the traditional media broadcast model	Yahoo!, Monster, NYTimes, Google
Infomediary	Data about consumers, products and consumption patterns; for targeted campaigns	DoubleClick, Nielson, Edmunds
Merchant*	Wholesalers and retailers of goods and services	Amazon, Debenhams, Ocado, Apple iTunes
Manufacturer	Manufacturer “direct model”; using the web to vertically integrate	Dell, Ford
Affiliate* Model	Offers financial incentives (revenue %) to affiliated partner sites	ShopStyle or RewardStyle and associated blogs
Community*	Users build time and emotion attachment; sale of products/services or voluntary contributions	Instagram, Wikipedia, Flickr
Subscription	Users are charged a periodic fee; freemium often used	Netflix, the Economist, Amazon Prime
Utility	On-demand/ pay as you go	Internet service providers