Affiliate revenue in CJ’s global network of publishers and advertisers is up 16% year-on-year, with an average 4% increase in the number of orders, according to CJ Affiliate's 2017 Holiday Intelligence Report.
Across the global CJ Affiliate network, the winter holiday period in 2016 followed many of the same rules we’ve come to expect: Black Friday and Cyber Monday dominated, and early to mid-December was the next most lucrative sales period.
Benchmarking affiliate revenue
The CJ Affiliate 2017 Holiday Intelligence Report draws upon the 2016 holiday retail sales in CJ Affiliate’s global network to highlight the trends that will have the greatest impact on holiday 2017 sales in the US, UK, Germany, and France.
Advertisers saw their greatest growth in affiliate revenue driven by search and ad network publishers, followed by email and incentive publishers. Revenue from coupon sites increased by 7% and orders were down 13% year-on-year. Clicks from ad networks increased 53% year-on-year, followed by 31% growth in clicks from content publishers.
The US and German markets led in terms of revenue growth (partly due to overall strong growth in basket value in the US), while the UK and German markets together experienced the strongest year-on-year growth in orders—12% and 218%, respectively. CJ Affiliate’s revenue growth in the US was +5 points higher than the ecommerce growth released by Adobe Digital Insights.
Regional affiliate marketing trends
This year, the UK’s growing adoption of Black Friday and Cyber Monday brought shopping demand on these days near parity with the US. Cyber Monday growth in orders reached 76%. In addition, UK retailers jumped on the holiday season a bit earlier and stronger than other markets, resulting in a stronger start to sales.
Growth in the publisher network managed by CJ’s team in Germany resulted in strong holiday season sales in the department stores, malls, and women’s categories. Sales from shoppers in the Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria increased 53% year-on-year. Black Friday promotions drove sales to their highest levels of the holiday season in this market.
In France, different to all other markets, Cyber Monday and the following week were the peak periods for holiday shopping, as shown in the graph below.
In the US, shoppers had their mind on other matters during the first week of November. Total orders during the days leading up to and directly after the election were down 9% year-on-year. Election Day (November 8th) saw the greatest decline with orders down 24% year-on-year. Sales began to rebound on the weekend following the election.
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