CartThe use of affiliates by UK ecommerce websites - The Facts
Overview
In a recent survey of 110 UK ecommerce websites undertaken by SafeBuy in conjunction with Site-Report.com Limited, only 19% of the sites used affiliates as a means of marketing their websites.
Of those websites, the average satisfaction rating was 4 out of 10!
AffiliateWindow was used by 38% of the sites; Affiliate Future was used by 15% of the sites and 4% used Tradedoubler. 23% of the sites had their own internal affiliate scheme.
45% of the sites provided a product data feed to the affiliate networks. Of those, 66% of the sites had more than 200 products in their feed. 33% generated the feed by hand and 55% had the feed automatically generated from their product database.
2/3rds of the merchants that use affiliates attribute less than 5% of their revenue from affiliates even though 40% of merchants have commission rates between 10 and 25%.
Detailed participant report
1 : Which affiliate network(s) do you use?
| Answer | Bar | Count | Percentage | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Not applicable |  |
1 | 3.85% |
| 2 | Affiliate Window | |
10 | 38.46% |
| 3 | Affiliate Future | |
4 | 15.38% |
| 4 | Tradedoubler | |
1 | 3.85% |
| 5 | DGM UK | |
0.00% | |
| 6 | In-house | |
6 | 23.08% |
| 7 | Other | |
4 | 15.38% |
2 : Do you provide a product feed to any of the affiliate networks?
| Answer | Bar | Count | Percentage | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yes | |
9 | 45.00% |
| 2 | No | |
11 | 55.00% |
| 20 | 100% |
3 : If you provide a product feed, how many products does it contain?
| Answer | Bar | Count | Percentage | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Not applicable | |
7 | 41.18% |
| 2 | 1 to 20 | |
1 | 5.88% |
| 3 | 21 to 50 | |
0.00% | |
| 4 | 51 - 100 | |
0.00% | |
| 5 | 101 - 200 | |
2 | 11.76% |
| 6 | 200+ | |
7 | 41.18% |
| 17 | 100% |
4 : How is your product feed generated?
| Answer | Bar | Count | Percentage | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Not applicable | |
7 | 41.18% |
| 2 | By hand | |
3 | 17.65% |
| 3 | Automatically from database | |
6 | 35.29% |
| 4 | By affiliate network | |
0.00% | |
| 5 | By 3rd party | |
0.00% | |
| 6 | Other | |
1 | 5.88% |
| 17 | 100% |
5 : What percentage of your revenue is attributable to affiliates?
| Answer | Bar | Count | Percentage | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Not applicable | |
1 | 4.76% |
| 2 | Less than 5% | |
14 | 66.67% |
| 3 | 5% to 20% | |
5 | 23.81% |
| 4 | 20% to 40% | |
1 | 4.76% |
| 5 | 40 - 60% | |
0.00% | |
| 6 | 60% or more | |
0.00% | |
| 21 | 100% |
6 : What is your average commission rate?
| Answer | Bar | Count | Percentage | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Not applicable | |
2 | 9.52% |
| 2 | Less than 3% | |
1 | 4.76% |
| 3 | 3% - 5% | |
4 | 19.05% |
| 4 | 6% - 10% | |
6 | 28.57% |
| 5 | 10% - 25% | |
8 | 38.10% |
| 6 | 25% or more | |
0.00% | |
| 21 | 100% |
7 : Do you pay a monthly management fee?
| Answer | Bar | Count | Percentage | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | No | |
7 | 33.33% |
| 2 | Yes - monthly | |
14 | 66.67% |
| 3 | Yes - yearly | |
0.00% | |
| 21 | 100% |
8 : How would you rate using affiliates to market your site?
| Answer | Bar | Count | Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | |
3 | 15.00% |
| 2 | |
1 | 5.00% |
| 3 | |
6 | 30.00% |
| 4 | |
1 | 5.00% |
| 5 | |
4 | 20.00% |
| 6 | |
1 | 5.00% |
| 7 | |
1 | 5.00% |
| 8 | |
2 | 10.00% |
| 9 | |
0.00% | |
| 10 | |
1 | 5.00% |
| Participation rate | 20 | ||
| Average Score (highlighted above) | 4.30 |
