Affinia upgraded its flagship Affinity
Storefront service, adding an improved compensation model, easy generation of
performance-enhancing contextual Commerce Links, and a storefront directory
designed to boost traffic to sites using the service.
“To enhance the Affinia service, we first identified the secrets of the most
successful affiliates, then turned them into easy-to-use features,” said Kris
Hagerman,
founder and chief executive officer of Affinia.
The compensation model was changed from per-click referral fees to
commissions on sale of products. Now, rather than getting paid 10 or 15 cents
for sending a referral to a merchant, Affinia storefront owners can earn up
to 25 percent of the purchase price for sales they drive, the company said.
Making this possible is a “plug-and-play” affiliate management system that
gives site owners an easy way to manage all of their merchant affiliate
relationships. The new system combines the affinity merchandising
capabilities Affinia has pioneered with new
consolidated tracking, reporting, and payment of sales commission features.
Another upgrade is a new feature that automates the generation of “Commerce
Links.” These product placements can be contextualized by any site owner,
using a cut-and-paste methodology. Unique attributes of the Commerce Links
system include multiple merchandising options (four styles of placement per
product) a dynamic update of the placements to maintain accuracy, and an
e-mail alert system for stale links, the company said.
As a service to sites using its affinity storefront service, Affinia
created Gurutree, a topical shopping directory
that showcases many of the 65,000 storefronts created with the Affinia
service. Shoppers can browse Gurutree to find affinity storefronts on topics
as diverse and vertically focused as African American literature, Elvis
Presley, or the U.S. Civil War.
For owners of vertical content sites, the
directory represents a new way to gain visibility and acquire traffic, the
company said.