Everyone's a winner - web affiliate marketing comes to UK

e-commerce sites can increase traffic and sales with TradeDoubler

London, UK - Europe's leader in web-based affiliate marketing comes to the UK with the launch of TradeDoubler (www.tradedoubler.co.uk) a new service for e-business of all sizes offering dramatically increased traffic and sales via a network of smaller "virtual affiliate" web sites.

A massive success story in Sweden since its launch three months ago with more than 15,000 high quality affiliates drawn from individuals and industries of all types and sizes, TradeDoubler makes it easy for any on-line business to recruit an army of "virtual salespeople".

Through TradeDoubler, e-commerce sites can increase their traffic, leads and sales significantly. Affiliates operating their own web sites are linked to other TradeDoubler e-commerce sites, which are paying a commission to the affiliates based on the number of visitors linked from the affiliate to the e-commerce site.

Already proven in the USA to be a significantly more effective driver of quality traffic than online banner advertising, the affiliate concept is being exploited with spectacular success by companies like Amazon.com, whose 200,000 affiliates are credited with bringing many of its 6.2 million customers to its site (Source: Business 2.0, April 1999).

"Over the last three years there has been an explosion in personal web sites and niche portals and it is estimated that a new site is being added to the web every second", says TradeDoubler co-founder Felix Hagnö: "Many of these sites contain high quality content and generate visitors in the thousands each day. Now UK e-commerce sites too can start to harness the potential of these web sites, attracting far higher levels of traffic through TradeDoubler's one-stop affiliate programme management service."

Signing up to TradeDoubler is totally free for e-merchants as well as for affiliates, and there are no membership costs. TradeDoubler generates revenues from a volume-based commission on clicks, leads and sales generated through its affiliate network. TradeDoubler handles all program administration, reconciliation of payments made in different currencies, security, maintenance and affiliate management. "Since payment is purely success-based, the risk for any organisation joining TradeDoubler is minimized", adds Hagnö. It takes just two hours to make almost any existing e-commerce site TradeDoubler-ready by installing a small software package and adding a few HTML links.

Since its European launch three months ago, the Swedish e-commerce community has been quick to recognise the benefits of TradeDoubler. TradeDoubler targets high-end customers and has already signed 35 large companies in fields as diverse as telecoms and sport, that will use TradeDoubler's affiliate network to drive quality traffic and generate hard sales leads.

"Affiliate programmes have been proven over the last twelve months to be the most effective way of increasing traffic to a site", says Hagnö. "With TradeDoubler everybody wins: for an e-commerce site it's a great way to establish relations with potential customers who have already shown an interest in related content through visiting an affiliate's site."

"And for affiliates it's the perfect way to offer visitors extra value through information and useful links to bigger e-commerce sites," notes Hagnö. "With TradeDoubler, UK businesses of all sizes at last have the chance to find out for themselves why affiliate marketing is revolutionising the traditional web-based marketing model."

TradeDoubler: How does it work?

In an affiliate network there are four parties. An e-commerce site wants to increase traffic, leads and sales by establishing an affiliate network. The affiliate, who will normally be a smaller niche web site, or a "vortal" (vertical portal) earns a referral-based commission. The third party is TradeDoubler, which operates and manages the network, administers commissions and tracks traffic, leads and sales. The fourth party is the customer who visits the affiliate web site and becomes exposed to commercial messages in what they regard as a trustworthy environment. Via sophisticated links on the affiliate web site, traffic, leads and sales are generated to the e-commerce site that is offering the affiliate programme.

NOTES TO EDITORS

1. 
   Founded in Sweden by Felix Hagnö and Martin Lorentzon in August 1999, TradeDoubler is the first and leading supplier of web-based affiliate marketing programmes in Europe.
2. TradeDoubler is owned by the founders, the management team and Magnus Emilson, co-founder of successful Swedish web agency Mind. The company is now entering its second round of financing and has received strong attention from international investors.
3. TradeDoubler's business mission is to offer affiliate programmes to commercial sites. The affiliate programmes will enable commercial sites to use virtual affiliates as a means to increase their traffic and revenue. TradeDoubler is responsible for the tracking of consumers/buys and for all administration and payments. Affiliates are triggered to be an affiliate by the commission.
4. During the year 2000 TradeDoubler will be launched in the largest Internet countries in Europe.
5.  According to the market research company Jupiter Communications, 11% of all e-commerce on the Internet in the US in 1998 was accomplished through affiliate programmes.
6. Calculations made by the EU show that 25,000 new e-commerce sites will be established in the next four years.
7. Today, banners and sponsor programs dominate the market for advertisement on the Internet. A market survey compiled by Forrester Research shows that affiliate programs are regarded as more than 50 percent more effective than banners. Jakob Nielsen at Useit also believes that affiliate programs are one of the most effective means of marketing on the Internet.
8. TradeDoubler is a trusted third party that offers a platform and infrastructure for starting and running affiliate networks. TradeDoubler takes care of all administrative work and handles the billing process for all parties - including deducting taxes and the payment to thousands of individuals. TradeDoubler measures generated clicks, leads, and sales through a patented tracking technology.
9. TradeDoubler's service is built upon a solid platform and a proprietary tracking method (pending patent), which identifies 'clicks', 'leads', and 'sales'. The service is adapted to function with several languages, handle dynamic content through XML, and be compatible with WAP.
10. TradeDoubler's service is hosted by IBM in Copenhagen for best performance and scalability.