The holidays are well known for some of the year’s biggest sales and best deals. It’s when eCommerce companies (among others) turn up their digital marketing heat to gain leads and hit Q4 goals.
Want a way to hit those high notes?
Run an affiliate program and offer special deals to make your numbers soar through referral traffic.
Case in point, jcrew.com. The retailer did an excellent job of being agile, watching its affiliate partners closely in November, and making adjustments to its strategy come December to see success.
Let’s dive into exactly what the trendy brand did, and how you can replicate the same victory this holiday season with your own affiliate networks.
Online traffic > mall traffic
No one likes sitting in a traffic jam, especially Photo Editing Services during peak holiday shopping season. On the flip side, everyone loves watching those website visits shoot up.
Looking at jcrew.com’s marketing channels on Similarweb Competitive Analysis, we can see that the brand grew from 142,900 in November 2020 to 169,900 thousand in December 2020 in referral traffic, an 18.91% increase.
Similarweb Competitive Analysis of Marketing Channels looking at referral traffic for Jcrew.com from Nov and Dec 2020
This is a prime example of how when you want to get more, you have to do more.
Instead of just sitting around and hoping for more traffic, jcrew.com proactively adjusted its strategy to see results.
But where is all that traffic coming from?
Traffic doesn’t just appear out of nowhere.
On its mission to lift sales, jcrew.com worked with 137 referring websites in November and jumped to 153 in December. The 16 extra partners proved rewarding, ultimately lending a helping hand to the increase in traffic.
But the big factor here is: slickdeals.net.
Similarweb incoming affiliate traffic for Jcrew.com in Nov 2020
Similarweb incoming affiliate traffic for Jcrew.com in Dec 2020
The slickdeals.net difference
Jcrew.com saw solid numbers in November 2020 but lost out in November on slickdeals.net, one of the biggest players in the affiliate space.
The marketing team at jcrew.com must have recognized that the coupon and rebate giant wasn’t getting enough of its attention.
Ultimately, jcrew.com was getting outperformed by competitors in the affiliate arena, so it had no choice. The retailer adjusted its strategy to add more products, deals, and coupons to entice customers on slickdeals.net.
Similarweb incoming affiliate traffic, highlighting slickdeals.net, for Jcrew.com in Nov 2020
The shift was massive, going from under 5,000 in incoming traffic from slickdeals.net in November to over 14,000 in December, accounting for a 320.96% increase.