Differentiate yourself against your competition

Zak Stambor wrote a great article at InternetRetailer.com (http://www NULL.internetretailer NULL.com/2010/06/10/keep-it-simple) about online office supply retailer Shoplet.com and their amazing feat of increasing sales by triple digits in our current economic climate.

“Even last year, in one of the worst economic environments in the past 50 years, it grew an Internet Retailer-estimated 33%, to an estimated $100 million in online sales, helping it secure the No. 134 spot among North American retailers in online sales, according to the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide.”

That growth is impressive, especially when you compare it to the big box office supply retailers with established brands, offline presence and marketing machine behind them.  How did they do it?

“Key to that success were three simple principles, Tony Ellison, Shoplet CEO, said today at the Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition during a featured address:

• Differentiate from the competition.
• Focus on a niche market.
• Earn customer loyalty.“

Ah, differentiation.  Many companies focus on carving out their niche and their branding overall, but so many forget to allow, or force, this to bleed through to their affiliate program.  Are your affiliate’s differentiating you from the competition?  Have you provided them with the education, information, collateral, training and guidelines to allow them to do that?  If you are seeing great success by firmly differentiating yourselves like Shoplet.com has (and we’ll be watching them closely as we launch our client OfficeFrog.com soon), are you sure you are doing everything necessary to carry that through to your partners so that not only can you see added benefit (new customers, sales, etc.), but your affiliates are better able to take advantage of your position in the marketplace too?

You see, this comprehensive affiliate management strategy isn’t all that difficult to complete, it’s just takes resources, time and consistency.  If you need any help with that, call us at 1-800-208-6215 x 101 or chat With JEBCommerce Now! (http://chat NULL.livechime NULL.com/65T2V65S/jebcommerce)