Expand Your Reach in Diverse Markets with ShopBack

Founded in Singapore in 2014, ShopBack is Asia-Pacific’s leading shopping, rewards, and payment platform.

After ten years in the affiliate channel, Shopback has grown across 12 global markets, including their very first European market, Germany, and their newest region, New Zealand.

We caught up with Hazel Then, Regional Head of Commercial at ShopBack, to learn more about consumer behavior in the APAC region and their advice to publishers looking to break into the affiliate channel.

Hazel Then, Regional Head of Commercial, ShopBack

CJ: Tell us a little about ShopBack.

ShopBack is an affiliate business that aims to provide our users with the world's most rewarding way to shop. Our platform offers enticing cashback rewards spanning a diverse array of categories and brands, serving as a powerful incentive for customers to make their purchases through our platform. 

Through strategic marketing initiatives and promotions that are tuned to align with consumer preferences, market trends, and economic shifts, customers are guaranteed to be given many opportunities to shop while getting rewarded through our attractive cashback incentives. 

At ShopBack, our goal is to empower users to shop and save smarter, especially in the current economic landscape. By encouraging online purchases through our platform, we aim to not only make shopping a gratifying experience but also provide significant savings through our appealing cashback rewards.

CJ: How does affiliate marketing play a role in your revenue stream/business model?

Affiliate marketing is the underlying structure of our business model. Through our affiliate marketing program on ShopBack, we partner with over 15,000 merchants across different categories on our platform to provide our consumers with a wide range of brands to choose from. 

We act as an intermediary between consumers and merchants, facilitating a mutually beneficial relationship. Affiliate Marketing allows us to connect consumers with valuable offers and incentives while helping merchants reach a wider audience. This affiliate-driven business model is essential to the success of our cashback platform, creating a dynamic ecosystem that benefits all stakeholders involved.

CJ: Why should advertisers partner with ShopBack?

ShopBack drives sales for merchants by leveraging our extensive user base and cashback incentives. 

As a trusted platform with a large community of engaged shoppers, we provide merchants access to a broader audience, increasing their customer acquisition potential. 

By offering attractive cashback rewards, ShopBack incentivizes customers to make purchases through the platform, leading to higher conversion rates and incremental sales for our merchants.

Through strategic marketing promotions and campaigns, ShopBack ensures that merchants receive increased visibility, attracting more customers and driving sales growth.

CJ: As a regional player in the APAC market how do you view the audience behavior/segment in this region?

ShopBack is present in over 12 countries. What works for one market may not work for another, despite being in the same region. 

The region has experienced significant growth in ecommerce. Consumers have increasingly turned to online platforms for shopping and this shift has created opportunities for ShopBack to tap into the growing digital consumer base. 

Mobile usage is widespread in this region, and many consumers access the internet primarily through smartphones. With ShopBack being mobile-first and having a large user base in app, we optimize our strategies for mobile platforms, ensuring responsive websites and mobile-friendly content that will suit our users. 

The region is also particularly culturally diverse, with a multitude of languages and cultural nuances. This highlights the importance for us to tailor our business to resonate with local audiences, considering cultural sensitivities and language preferences. With the vast differences, it’s also important that we focus on acquiring brands, both locally and regionally, across a multitude of categories so that we can provide options for all our consumers across the region. 

CJ: ShopBack was founded in 2014. How have you seen affiliate marketing change over the past ten years?

Affiliate marketing has become more competitive. With the rise of ecommerce and online shopping, more affiliates have entered the space, making it challenging for individual websites to stand out. With increased competition, providing a positive user experience is crucial for us apart from providing attractive deals and rewards. Personalization is an important aspect for us when it comes to affiliate marketing, allowing us to provide a more personalized user experience for all our customers based on their user behavior, preferences, and purchase history. 

Additionally, to remain competitive, ShopBack is focused on diversifying our offers on our platform. We have since branched out of affiliate marketing to financial services as well. ShopBack now offers financial services in Australia, Singapore, and Malaysia via ShopBack Pay, where we now have the capability to drive sales in-store and online with enhanced checkout convenience and security. With affiliate marketing and our financial services vertical, we can provide multiple touchpoints to our consumers, where there are repeated opportunities for them to spend and earn rewards.

CJ: How does ShopBack help clients overcome challenges and maintain online performance?

We provide a win-win partnership for our clients because ShopBack can attract more users and increase engagement. Our clients gain access to a larger customer base with ShopBack’s 42M database, boost customer acquisitions, and increase sales through ShopBack's promotional efforts. We provide our clients with a platform to showcase their presence in the online world through campaigns centered around their business goals and objectives. This increased exposure helps our clients to improve their brand awareness and visibility online. 

We run numerous campaigns each month that come with attractive cashback incentives to encourage repeat purchases and foster customer loyalty such as Travel Thursdays, Fashion Week, PayDay, and our largest campaign of the year, ShopFest. Merchants can benefit from the long-term value of customers who continue to shop through ShopBack, contributing to sustained online performance. 

Lastly, we operate on a performance-based model, where merchants only pay for actual sales or conversions that have been redirected to them via our platform. This helps optimize marketing budgets and ensure a return on investment (ROI) for the merchants that work with us. This means we’re a cost-effective marketing channel for merchants as we provide an option where marketing expenses are tied to actual sales or conversions driven to merchants.

CJ: Tell us a bit more about your relationship with CJ. How do our teams support ShopBack?

CJ supports us in our understanding of merchant goals, focuses, budget, and performance. The network helps us to know where we stand amongst all advertisers and how we can drive more performance to merchants to stay on top. CJ also provides us with the help to mediate and solve operations, and finance issues with the merchants, if any.

CJ: Do you have any advice for new publishers trying to break into the affiliate industry?

Affiliate marketing is dynamic, with trends and best practices that are constantly evolving. Stay informed about industry changes, new technologies, and emerging opportunities. 

Know your target audience's needs, preferences, and pain points. Tailor your content to address their specific challenges and provide solutions by experimenting with different strategies so that you know what works best and can optimize your approach accordingly.

CJ: What is the next big challenge for ShopBack?

Economic fluctuations, recessions, or other global events can impact consumer spending habits and the way businesses are run. As such, ShopBack adjusts strategies based on changes in the economic environment, ensuring that we can cater to both our members and our merchants. 

Advances in technology and increased competition are also challenges that we face. As such, ShopBack emphasizes staying updated and relevant while building trust with both our members and merchants.

CJ: Finally, how do you see the future of affiliate marketing for the APAC region?

Affiliate marketing has been a steadily growing industry, driven by the increasing digitization of businesses and the expanding ecommerce landscape where brands are trying to shift from offline to online and vice versa. 

We believe that the affiliate industry will continue to grow and remain popular, especially with rapid advances in technology and mobile and social media dominance in the region.

Thanks, Hazel!

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Ready to drive sales? Whether you’re a small start-up or a large enterprise, we’re here to help you achieve win-win outcomes. Get started at business.shopback.com.