E-Commerce Trends
Web Commerce Today, Issue 5, December 15, 1997
The "Associates" approach pioneered by Amazon.com Books is likely to become a dominant model on the Web. Viaweb Stores now includes built-in capability to track sales totals by the link from which they came, an idea sure to be copied by the next round of store software upgrades. Essentially, the model is to sign up "associates" and pay them a percentage of sales generated by their link or banner on their site. Whereas the physical model is many retailers and few wholesalers, we'll be seeing many smaller associate link sites and a few online retailers. Great potential for the future! Build this into your online retail strategy and insist that your store software vendor incorporate the capability!
- Whit Andrews, "'Affiliate' Programs Grow As Stores Pay for Referrals," Web Week, November 17, 1997. Revenue-sharing deals that increase the exposure of Internet retailers and promise precious income for smaller sites are poised to become ubiquitous, unleashing a potential bidding war for small-site real estate.
- Keith Pieper, "Affiliate Networks: The more the internet changes business, the more business stays the same," ClickZ, November 22, 1997. Pay for purchase will not replace pay for view, he says. They are different and complementary approaches. He concludes: "You need to decide whether you are in the business of creating commerce (selling, distributing) or the means for commerce (content, affinities, channels)."
- ViaWeb Store 4.0 now offers a Link Tracker feature which allows merchants to set up an Amazon-like associates program. It keeps track of sales resulting from specific links from associates. Viaweb makes suggestions on how to set up an associates program.
- Alan Alper, "Money Talks," Emmerce, December 1, 1997. ViaWeb 4.0 software monitors clickthroughs to revenue associates.
- Nelson Wang, "Talk City Sees Value in Turning Chatters into Buyers," Web Week, December 15, 1997. Talk City has made its first foray into e-commerce through link partnerships with FAO Schwarz, iPrint, and CyberShop, making it the latest site to acknowledge that advertising revenues alone are not enough to sustain a business.
