CHICAGO, IL -- 07/18/12 -- As marketing and e-commerce leaders continue to look for effective, cost-efficient ways to spread the word about their products and services, affiliate marketing, a performance-based strategy rewarding organizations and individuals for directing users to retailers' online and physical storefronts, has surfaced as a viable consumer engagement tool. According to a survey conducted by EPiServer, an innovator in multichannel digital marketing and e-commerce software, 47 percent of respondents selected Amazon as the coolest mobile or social affiliate program they have seen to date followed by eBay at 20 percent, and Shopkick and Wrapp each with five percent. When it comes to leveraging the partner relationships businesses require to thrive in today's socially-enabled e-commerce landscape, Amazon surpasses eBay, Shopkick and Wrapp in popularity among industry leaders.
Despite the buzz surrounding mobile and social as the next frontiers in e-commerce, when asked in what platform they anticipate making the greatest investment in the next three to five years, 59 percent of respondents chose their website, 35 percent selected a mobile application and 22 percent chose social networks.
"While e-commerce leaders appear to be making a greater investment in mobile and social platforms as a means for engaging with consumers and starting them on their way down the conversion funnel, the survey's results demonstrate that e-commerce leaders continue to look to their website as a principal platform for completing the sale and achieving ROI," said Bob Egner, Vice President of Product Management and Global Marketing at EPiServer. "Our survey results show Amazon as the clear choice for mobile commerce and Facebook in social."
Egner continued, "Consumer confidence plays a critical role in strengthening the social and mobile commerce pipeline, but developing a contextual social and mobile commerce strategy to extend the reach of sales and delivery of services to new customers and retain brand loyalty with existing ones is important as well."
EPiServer conducted a survey of CEOs, Vice Presidents, Directors and e-commerce Managers at more than 94 organizations including retailers, manufacturers, wholesalers, catalogers, web-only merchants and local retailers.
About EPiServer
EPiServer connects ecommerce and digital marketing to help business create unique customer experiences which generates business results. EPiServer's platform combines content, e-commerce and multi-channel marketing capabilities to work full-circle for businesses online, from intelligent optimization, lead-generation through to conversion and repeat business.
Sitting at the centre of the digital marketing ecosystem, EPiServer empowers online and IT professionals to create superior customer experience for more than 20,000 websites worldwide. Built on .net, and supported by a pioneering partner network of over 630 partners in over 30 countries, EPiServers platform gives customers the ability to deliver the right content to the right person in the right format at a time that suits them. This approach means customers can maximize their investment in digital marketing and increase ROI. The company was founded in 1994 and has offices in the United States, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, The Netherlands, South Africa, Australia, Spain, UAE and the United Kingdom. EPiServer is controlled by the IK2007 Fund. IK Investment Partners is a European private equity firm with Nordic roots, managing €5.7 billion in fund commitments.