Popular brands are also showing interest to explore new inventory types including instant messaging apps like Telegram and WhatsApp as an opportunity to reach out to a wider audience base.
Admitad Affiliate India, a global affiliate network, revealed its half-yearly report, which marked a drastic increase in the online presence of traditionally offline brands, along with significant growth in several other sectors. With more offline brands opting for and adapting to affiliate marketing, the company has delivered GMV worth INR 407 Crore in the first half of 2021. Popular brands are also showing interest to explore new inventory types including instant messaging apps like Telegram and WhatsApp as an opportunity to reach out to a wider audience base.
Neha Kulwal, Country Manager, Admitad Affiliate India, said “The first half of 2021 has been a roller coaster ride. We have seen popular brands opting for affiliate marketing and happily accepting and adapting to the new norms and moving with the flow. The brands are being creative and applying different useful methods to widen their audience reach in order to attract more users. With more and more people preferring online buying, brands are exploring every possible avenue to reach out to their customers and leveraging all it takes to ensure brand loyalty and long term association with them”.
Some of the key highlights from the first half of 2021:
● As per Admitad Affiliate’s analysis- The e-commerce sector saw a turnaround in the first half of 2021 with the highest growth percentage of 75% in the GMV than in H1 2020. Major online categories like the apparel and electronic category managed to keep the upper hand with growth rates of 208% and 308% respectively in the first half of 2021 compared to 2020. Along with the two, the FnB category also experienced a surge in the numbers of orders in the first half as compared to 2020 with a rise of 261%. The personal & health care category is just right behind them with a rise of 166% in the first half of 2021. These facts and trends are highly optimistic and they show that the e-commerce sector in India will only get bigger.
● With no signs of schools or universities reopening this year, students have opted and have started adjusting to the online classes and courses, increasing the demand for the education platforms and thus the online education category has reported 2X growth in the number of users in the first half of 2021 as compared to previous year. With people spending most of their leisure time at home and streaming online,the OTT platforms category has also seen a surge of 1.5X growth in user registrations making it an in-demand category. With the growth in the usage of mobile devices with people being online for most of the daily hours, security concerns started rising. As a result, the software programs category including antivirus and hosting apps made a significant jump in demand in the market with 1.5X growth.
● By implementing various digital and affiliate strategies, fintech clients are not only looking to grow their revenues but also providing better customer experience and gaining a larger audience base. People were seen investing in insurance which ultimately led to the sector seeing a surge of 2.2X, with many users choosing life insurance and health insurance products. Furthermore, people also showed interest in credit cards and investments simultaneously thus growing the categories by more than 3X.
● As expected coupons and cashback platforms continued to be the largest contributor within the affiliate market.The first half of 2021 witnessed a rise of coupons and cashback with 63% & 190% respectively, and has helped bring in a larger number of customers to retailers. To reach targeted customers in a better way, these platforms utilise messenger apps like telegram and social networks which add to the overall output of publishers. Loyalty platforms and bank partners continued to gather momentum as did forums with both having witnessed near around 150% growth during the first half of 2021.
Overall, the businesses have been picking up pace and are expected to continue with the flow. The affiliate channel is shifting rapidly and surely has played a major role in the digitizing and uplifting of the different online sectors in the first half of 2021 and is expected to play a significant role in the upcoming months.
Source: Business World
