Invented in the USA, cashback is a very interesting business lever.
Firstly, because it can be part of your affiliation strategy (performance marketing). But also because by offering Internet users the chance to earn money by indulging themselves, cashback encourages purchase.
Find out more about this solution and how to optimize it.
What exactly is cashback?
First and foremost, it’s essential to identify whether this type of
type of affiliate
matches your target market and study your
marketing persona
. Cashback is a solution for e-commerce sites. Unlike other tools used in the prospecting phase (shopping guides or banner ads, for example), cashback is triggered after the purchase phase.
The principle is simple: the Internet user registers on a cashback site. He then discovers a list of partner sites. When you use the cashback site to make a purchase on one of our partner sites, a cookie will be created. Once the purchase has been made, the cashback site will offer the surfer the reimbursement of part of the purchase price (usually between 0.5 and 8% of the purchase price).
It’s a win-win situation for everyone involved: the customer gets a discount on the product purchased, the website gets a new sale, and the cashback site benefits from a pre-negotiated retro-commission.
Popularized in the 1970s in the USA (but then only available to holders of certain bank cards), cashback first appeared on the Internet in the 1990s. In France, it wasn’t until 2010 that cashback became widespread.
It’s worth noting: given the good results observed in e-commerce, cashback is now gaining ground in the physical retail sector thanks in part to the ROPO (Research Online, Purchase Offline) principle.
What you need to know about cashback
Various studies on the subject tend to show that cashback delivers particularly interesting results. These include:
- Greater traffic generation;
- The ability to attract new prospects and retain old customers;
- The advantage of year-round promotions;
- Substantial growth in sales.
According to a study by the Syndicat National du Marketing à la Performance (SNMP) in 2019:
- Cashback sites have generated steadily rising sales since 2016 (+147% in 3 years);
- Cashback has a conversion rate of over 5% (88% of respondents);
- The average cashback basket is 10% to 20% higher (38% of respondents);
- The frequency of purchases is 2x higher thanks to cashback (39% of respondents);
- 71% of e-tailers use cashback to acquire customers and build loyalty (48% in 2016);
- 96% of e-tailers recommend cashback;
- 63% of cashback site members discover new sites thanks to this lever;
- 55% even consider cashback to be a decisive criterion for making a purchase;
- For 75% of the members of these sites, cashback is a real sign of confidence;
Finally, it appears that the typical cashbacketeer is between 35 and 49 years of age (men and women) and lives in the Paris region.
Cashback and affiliation: the keys to improving your ROI
If you want to use cashback to boost your visibility and sales, you’ll need to register with the most reputable sites (there are a number of them) and manage your cashback campaigns
In addition, you’ll need to think about the right commission amount to be sure, in the end, to be profitable (taking into account both your margin and delivery costs, among other things). As a result, you can use cashback for certain call products only and then use a cross-selling action to encourage your new customer to buy related products.
Also worth noting: advertisers who use cashback today mention the possibility of more personalized offers and extending the scheme to physical stores. These could be interesting ways of improving your cashback campaigns, and therefore their profitability.
If you don’t have the time, or if you want to make the most of your chances, you can ask for help from a affiliation platform (such as Casaneo) to help you set up an affiliation strategy focused on cashback and
ROI.
Want to know more about affiliation and cashback? Our
affiliation experts
are available to answer your questions and help you discover this booming performance solution.
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