Down Your High Street open all hours with Awin Access
Overview
Dan and Amanda of Down Your High Street had a goal; to create an online marketplace for independent high-street retailers to showcase and sell their products. In 2014, this idea developed into a consumer platform that made it seamless for busy shop owners to update their products and profile, driven by a team that care about the High Street.
In 2020, the business now supports 530 stores selling 57,000 products. As an SME, the business tested PPC, paid social and direct marketing. The next stage was to launch an affiliate programme showcasing products to a wider audience as well as building brand awareness and driving sales.
The challenge for any SME is to find an affiliate solution that can deliver sales cost-effectively. As one of the first businesses to launch with Awin’s SME solution, Awin Access, Down Your High Street succeeded in increasing both reach and diversification of their sales base.
What was the role of digital in the media mix?
An obvious barrier for the small businesses Down Your High Street promotes is they are reliant on customers experiencing, in person, their unique products - but they are often localised with limited, immediate physical reach. For retailers selling true in-store experiences, this presents a challenge which has been exacerbated by Coronavirus. Despite their significant presence, most UK shop owners also avoid selling on the major reseller platforms, giving Down Your High Street a distinct and authentic launchpad for boutique British brands.
Down Your High Street wanted to expand its reach beyond the existing direct response channels. It also needed a performance-based solution that had a low barrier to entry while offering automation for a busy company. Awin Access extends the benefits of affiliate marketing to start-ups and emerging businesses, offering a powerful plug-and-play solution to help it succeed. For Down Your High Street the combination of low fees and no long-term contractual commitment after an initial three-month period, also convinced the team that it was the right proposition for a brand exploring the potential of a new marketing channel.
After the programme was technically integrated and ready to go, the first stage for the team was to recruit affiliates to promote the range of products offered by retailers featured on the platform.
Using the Awin Access self-serve platform, they immediately started recruiting affiliates. A combination of cashback portals, Google’s shopping comparison services, voucher sites and content partners soon started tracking clicks, impressions and sales. The user interface was also important in helping them to communicate directly with their publisher partners.
Key statistics
What results did you attain? What was the biggest achievement?
As the programme took off, Down Your High Street started investing more time and effort in optimising the programme. Resource for the programme is divided up across the week with time broadly split into the following three areas: recruitment, engagement and optimisation.
2020 has seen the programme take off and now the affiliate channel accounts for more sales than any other paid media channel, with 26% of all online sales driven by Down Your High Street’s publisher partners.
With the experience gained this year, the business is clear about the key attributes that are important for affiliate success:
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Be open to new opportunities and flexible with commissions
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Constantly seek new opportunities using publisher discovery tools and the Awin Access user interface
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Frequently engage with publishers to ensure they are promoting the latest products and goods available
The Down Your High Street programme accounts for 26% of the business’ total monthly sales and is their highest converting channel, achieving an average of just under 3% click to purchase.
In a sentence…
Down Your High Street open all hours with Awin Access
