Amazon vs. Walmart: Affiliate Marketing Lessons to Learn

1. Amazon vs. Walmart: Affiliate Marketing Lessons to Learn Geno Prussakov CEO, AM Navigator (affiliate management agency) www.amnavigator.com Founder, Affiliate Management Days (conference) www.amdays.com 888-588-8866 | Washington, DC geno@amnavigator.com | @ePrussakov . and

2. Comparing the Giants (or Mind-Blowing Facts)

3. MONTHLY VISITORS: 80 MILLION PEOPLE

4. Mall of America

5. Disneyland

6. MONTHLY VISITORS: 80 MILLION PEOPLE could fill: 24 Malls of America and 60 Disneylands Source: PCMag, “Infographic: Just How Big Is Amazon.com?”

7. WAREHOUSES: 70 MILLION SQ FEET

8. Madison Sq Garden

9. WAREHOUSES: 70 MILLION SQ FEET that’s more than: 700 Madison Square Gardens and could hold more water than 10,000 Olympic Pools Source: Business Insider, “10 Mind-Blowing Facts About Amazon.com”

10. PROJECTED 2015 REVENUE: $100 BILLION that's $190,132 per minute and $15,844 every 5 sec Source: Morgan Stanley’s Scott Devitt as quoted at ZDNet

11. 49 MIN OUTAGE (JAN 2013): $3.2 mln+ LOST

12. AFFILIATE PROGRAM Source: NAJobBank.com, 2008 job posting

13. AFFILIATE PROGRAM

14. AFFILIATE PROGRAM Amazon.com Associates: The web's most popular and successful Affiliate Program Page Title Says It All:

15. Source: Deloitte.com

16. Out of all retailers, Wal-Mart has the greatest capacity to compete with Amazon online. Geno’s opinion

18. Interesting Facts (2014) o Amazon owns every fourth dollar spent online in the U.S. (and every third in Q4); o For the first time in a decade, Wal-Mart's web sales grew faster than Amazon's (30% vs 20%); o Yet, in 2015 Amazon is on track for $100 billion in revenue, predicted to eclipse Wal-Mart.

19. How Do They Run Their Affiliate Programs? …and what we can learn from it

20. 1. Program Support Websites

21. Source: AffiliateBenchmarks 2013 Global Advertiser Research Report Top Recruitment Methods (adv)

22. Source: AffStat 2014 Report by Affiliate Summit Top Recruitment Methods (aff)

25. 2. Performance Incentives

26. It Does Pile Up… Source: Darren Rowse, The Ultimate Guide to Making Money with the Amazon Affiliate Program, ProBlogger.net, 4/24/2013

27. 3. Low Payment Threshold If you select payment by direct deposit, we will directly deposit the advertising fees you earn into the bank account you designate, but may accrue and withhold advertising fees until the total amount due to you is at least $10. Amazon.com Associates Program Operating Agreement

28. 4. Variety of Links Text links   Banners   Product links (feed)   Advanced creatives  widgets  flex links Video    Thousands of linking options  Convenient categorization (by product lines and types of promotions)  Intuitive interface

29. Deep-Linking Capability

30. Deep-Linking Capability

32. Key Elements: o Resources (to educate) o Incentives (to motivate) o Tools (to equip) o Support 5. Ease of Integration

33. 6. Communication Channel

35. Affiliate Manager’s Responsibilities

38. Source: 2010 Affiliate Summit AffStat Report Affiliate-Preferred Newsletter Frequency 6. Communication Channel

39. Most Desired Affiliate Types per AffiliateBenchmarks 2013 Global Advertiser Research Report 7. Empowering Bloggers

40. Source: Technorati Media 2013 Digital Influence Report 7. Empowering Bloggers

41. 7. Empowering Bloggers

42. Application Programming Interface – a set of functions and procedures that allow the creation of applications which access the features or data of an operating system, application, or other service. Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English 8. Equipping Developers via APIs

43. 8. Equipping Developers

44. 9. Attracting Mobile App and Game Developers

45. 9. Attracting Mobile App and Game Developers

46. 9. Attracting Mobile App and Game Developers As a mobile app developer, I’m very interested in Amazon’s In-app-purchasing (IAP) and Mobile Associate (MAP) program. Most affiliate programs seem to focus on desktop experiences... On mobile, most browsing time is spent inside apps, and most users will try to avoid clicking on something that will interrupt the in-app experience by opening up a window in the mobile browser since it ‘breaks the flow’ of navigation (even if it’s a web-view within the app). An API such as Amazon’s IAP/MAP allows a purchase to happen within the same context where it was originated and allows mobile developers to create purchasing experiences that are more pleasant for people using apps to get ideas on what to buy.

47. Loyalty Affiliates o Amazon.com: 17.6% o Walmart.com: 13.5% Affiliates Using Diverse Methods: o Amazon.com: Q1 – 5.6%, Q2 – 4.1%, Q3 – 6.09%, Q4 – 10.85% o Walmart.com: consistent 2.3-2.9% range throughout all quarters Source: AM Navigator 2009 Affiliate Survey 10. Heavy Focus on CRO

48. 11. Fairness to “Closers” If the customer clicks an add-to-cart link built with the Enhanced Product Links tool, the Amazon cookie is now set to 90 days (instead of 24 hrs for most other inbound links). And unless the customer removes the product from their cart, affiliate commission is secure for 90 days. Sometimes, a customer needs an extra day to checkout. So not using direct the add-to-cart links (vs. a more broad landing page) can hurt the affiliate.

49. 12. Exclusive Contracts

50. You may NOT: • employ, use or place any web browser add-ons, toolbars or pop-ups on your website; • employ the use of any type of software download or technology which attempts to intercept or redirect traffic or Referral Fees to or from any website; • install spyware on another person’s computer; cause spyware to be installed on another person’s computer, or use a context based triggering mechanism to display an advertisement that partially or wholly covers or obscures paid advertising other content on a website in a way that interferes with a person’s ability to view that website; 13. Stance on Affiliate Adware Source: https://affiliates.walmart.com/#!/terms

51. 14. Policies on TM-Centric URLs Unsuitable sites include those that: (g) include any trademark of Amazon or its affiliates, or a variant or misspelling of a trademark of Amazon or its affiliates, in any domain name, subdomain name, or in any username, group name, or other identifier on any social networking site Amazon.com Associates Program Operating Agreement You may NOT: • use the Trademarks, or any variation or misspelling thereof, in metatags, hidden text or source code, in your domain name or any other part of your URL Walmart.com Operating Agreement for Affiliate Network

52. Source: Darren Rowse, The Ultimate Guide to Making Money with the Amazon Affiliate Program, ProBlogger.net, 4/24/2013 15. Holiday Marketing

53. 15. Holiday Marketing

57. To Recap…

58. Lessons to Learn 1. Maintain program support website 2. Motivate with performance incentives 3. Set low/reachable payment thresholds 4. Provide a wide variety of linking options 5. Make integration/activation easy 6. Support constant & consistent communication 7. Empower bloggers & content producers 8. Equip web developers and savvy affiliates 9. Attract mobile app and game developers 10. Focus on conversion rate optimization 11. Fairly compensate the real "closers" 12. Encourage exclusive relationships 13. Disallow affiliate adware 14. Prohibit TM-centric domains 15. Leverage holiday marketing

59. In Conclusion…