Affiliate marketing is the in-thing in Indian ecommerce today. An affiliate is one who prompts customers to a specific website to shop. Take CouponDunia, the site offers discount coupons and directs sellers to shopping sites. Recently, Canadian loyalty analytics company AIMIA has introduced Nectar, an affiliate program for ecommerce company. This is a step away from the company’s earlier venture in Indian retail, when it attempted to build a loyalty program for conventional retailers.
Loyalty is a long way to go in India where everyone is looking for the best deal and the cheapest prices.
Ecommerce companies have recognised the importance of affiliates, and have admitted that it has a greater impact than paid advertising. Anything from 12 to 20% of ecom business is attributed to traffic from affiliates.
Affiliate marketing is basically lead generation. Coupon sites like CashKaro and CouponDunia attract customers with the free coupons and cashback offers. They generally have an understanding with ecommerce companies. The latter pay the affiliates on the basis of traffic generated and sales.
There are different types. Blogs, product review sites, product discovery all function as affiliates, says Swati Bhargava, co-founder of CashKaro. She has no doubt about the fact that it is a lucrative deal,
“the fact that cashback business is a billion-dollar market in the US and China, combined with the fact that Indians love to save money, means there is a lot of potential for cashback sites in India.”
Leading investment companies have put their money in affiliate companies. Industrialist Ratan Tata has also privately invested in CashKaro. Kalaari Capital has also invested in the company. In 2014, Times Internet bought a majority share in CouponDunia. This is good news, say the industry players.
“We can expect more external parties entering the sector and more such deals happening in the future.”
The light is definitely shining bright!
Editor team is specialized in introducing the marketplace content targeting the Indian online sellers. They plan and coordinate to bring the appealing content for the small businesses on how to partner with the e-commerce sites like Amazon and Flipkart and strategies for improving their online business.
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