In a recent blog post, we unveiled our global study about retail partnerships, which was aimed at understanding the degree to which partnership is an important and growing segment of performance marketing for retailers, and what portion of sales and investment from business leaders it is driving. That post shared the methodology, sample details, and high-level results of the study. In this post, we will dig deeper into data on retail partnership strategy, looking at the key priorities for retailers when it comes to partnerships and the types of partner relationships that are driving business goals.
Partnerships Are Driving More Sales than Last Year
More than half of respondents say partnerships are driving more sales this year than last year. Just 1% say partnership sales have declined for their businesses.
Stronger Partner Relationships is a Priority
The top retail brand leader priorities include finding more partners (29%) and strengthening relationships with existing partners (24%,) two key growth strategies for the channel.
Retailers See Incremental Potential of Partnerships
Partnerships are viewed as a key potential growth channel for retailers. A massive 71% of respondents see additional sales potential in the channel, and 26% see massive incremental potential.
Partnering Smartly is the Key
Many leading retail brands are prioritizing large partners versus forging agreements with thousands of potential partners. The most common number of partners for a retailer is 50-99 (34%). 62% of retail brands report having less than 100 total partners. Just 2% of retailers surveyed partner with more than 1,000 businesses.
Emerging Partner Classes are Driving Value for Retailers
Many retail brands report significant revenue coming from “emerging” partnership channels like influencers (17%), and brand-to-brand partnerships (13%). While “traditional” affiliate-style partners drive more sales than other channels (42% for traditional partners like loyalty communities and 11% long-tail publishers),
To download a free copy of our partner and affiliate marketing research in PDF, click here.
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