Fashion Companies Fighting Over Affiliates? SimilarWeb & Admitad Affiliate Report

2020 key takeaways

Traffic across the top 500 global fashion and apparel eCommerce sites grew by 33% between Q1 2021 and Q1 2020. Australia has seen almost twice the growth — 64%. Most of these impressions have been brought by social media (Youtube, Facebook) and coupon websites. Paid traffic remains one of the most important channels, as well as display advertising and affiliate marketing.

The InsideAdTech Report further details these findings.

More than fashion

In 2021, we expect to see further growth in influencer and social media traffic as well as sales across multiple industries, not just clothes and shoes. 2020 meant that we had to take a pause, so there is a lot of catching up to do. The affiliate will play an important part, so we expect to see more publishers prefer percentage-based rewards. Multiple streaming platforms are starting to implement affiliate tools for their streamers in order to increase their revenue and discover new audiences.

As of the advertisers, we believe even more industries will start turning to performance marketing, since even cars and apartments can now be bought online. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SME’s) will seek their growth too, and find it with affiliate networks that develop businesses of any scale.

Frequent mistakes and recommendations

There are many pitfalls for newcomers to performance marketing, but the most common among them is expecting immediate results. Even if your affiliate provider is kind enough to provide you with a responsible account manager, it still takes time to promote your programme among publishers, to adjust the reward rates, etc. These things take time, so the key to success is understanding that you’re playing a long, long game — an insight any business has to grow up to.

The powers are slowly shifting though: as more SME’s are ready to handle campaigns on their own, they will also be able to take advantage of the channel. Yet another problem they will have to face is that promo campaigns require preparation — and take more effort than they realise.

Other tips? Choose your affiliate network wisely, set clear goals to your personal manager, and test new features as soon as the opportunity arises.

Discovering brands and publishers

Admitad Affiliate has been a customer of SimilarWeb for over five years. It’s a tool we use daily for publisher recruitment and advertisers onboarding. You can see both outgoing and incoming traffic, and zoom in to assess any brand’s performance. Youtube traffic? Social media ads? In clever hands, SimilarWeb helps to conjure up extremely tempting business offers.

However, onboarding new clients is never a sure way to retain them. This requires educating them, providing them with tools and expertise. As long as SimilarWeb provides information about specific markets, Admitad Affiliate’s Academy provides you with a better understanding of how to manage traffic sources, and any other affiliate-related channels.

Our blog can provide you with more information on how to get extra value from your affiliate channel. We’re always willing to share our insights and open discussions.Want to know more and get extra value from your affiliate channel?