While many retail categories either shrink or find it difficult to grow, the beauty and skincare vertical continues to buck the trend. According to Retail Dive, The Beauty and Skincare category is growing its marketshare, soon to be second biggest channel behind only supermarkets!
we have generated over $500M in revenue through the affiliate channel for some of the beauty brands you love
Having the right expertise in this competitive category is vital for growth and JEBCommerce has just that. Since our founding in 2004 we have generated over $500M in revenue through the affiliate channel for a number of the beauty brands you love.
Many of the affiliate programs we’ve managed had been on autopilot prior to our active management while others were completely new. In each case our systematized approach to launching, growing, and optimizing affiliate programs resulted in rapid growth, healthy new customer acquisition, and lower CPA’s than other digital channels. Our clients experienced high ROI, broad partner participation, efficient recruitment, innovative strategies, and continued growth on average for 5-9 years.
Who have we worked with? More than 16 brands in this category.
Over 1100 producing affiliates in the Beauty and Skincare segment
In order to have a vibrant, growing, and sustainable affiliate program, you need the relationships with the right affiliates. JEBCommerce has that with over 1100 affiliates producing for our clients in this category.
Diversification is also key to a successful long term program and that is available with the partners JEBCommerce has relationships with.
All our beauty programs grew by first leveraging the super affiliates, branching out to secondary partners, and then working with category specific publishers and influencers. This allowed us to demonstrate a positive ROI for the affiliates, negotiate better deals, and increase revenue while reducing costs.
Grew Programs Quickly
Seeing results quickly is important for any new initiative, affiliate programs are no exception. The JEBCommerce Affiliate Management System is designed to move programs from zero to success as quickly as possible.
A couple of examples from this category:
Client 1
Starting Point – $0 sales
Year 1 – $582,647
Year 2 – $1,098,908
Year 3 – $3,372,260
Client 2
Starting Point – $0 sales
Year 1 – $206,000
Year 2 – $2,710,000
Year 3 – $3,300,000
Grew mature programs even after managing for more than 5 years
Many of our clients retain JEBCommerce to run, manage, and optimize their affiliate programs for many years. In fact, our average retention period for clients in the beauty and skincare category is over 5 years.
But growing a program after it reaches maturity takes focused effort. It’s necessary to stay on top of industry trends, new or emerging publishers, new and potentially risky regulations, and a commitment to strengthen the relationships built with publishers. Focused effort and execution of the JEBCommerce Affiliate Management System allow our clients to see growth after a few years. For example:
- Client A: 14.5% growth in Year 6
- Client A: 13% growth in year 8
- Client B: 24% growth in year 5
- Client C: 20% growth in year 5
There is no autopilot in this channel. In order to realize that type of growth and beyond you need a dedicated team continually improving performance.
Reduced Cost Per Sale While Growing Program
The client forecasted an actual down year ... but instead saw the program grow with a lower CPA
Growing top line performance is vital, but if you aren’t watching how that filters down to the bottom line you may be wasting a lot of your budget on costly programs and partnerships. Our team has been able to grow programs, increase ROI, and reduce CPAs at once.
One of our well known and long-term clients was experiencing a few flat years of growth due to change in promotional strategy and product development. They needed a year with growth but more importantly, lower costs so they could invest in new products and additional channels.
The team at JEBCommerce executed a program wide analysis and evaluation of each partnership, a competitive analysis, and a review of all paid placements and increased exposure agreements with affiliates. We were able to provide a new program-wide commission structure that reduced commissions overall for all partners but provided us with the ability to redirect that budget to better performing placements and partnerships. It was this renewed focus on the partnerships and real estate that really drove a bulk of new revenue, and allowed us to shift our distribution of budget and reduce costs, yet still retain growth. At the end of that year the client saw a 31% reduction in cost of the program, a 46% increase in ROI with a 1% growth YoY and a huge increase over their forecast of 46%. They forecasted an actual down year because of the shift in strategy but instead saw the program grow with a lower CPA. A win-win for sure!
Beat competing network performance
Another client in this category is an international lifestyle brand that celebrates feeling well and living joyously through their large line of skincare products. Endorsed by doctors, celebrities, and most importantly their customers, this skincare brand wants to inspire their customers to live a better life by being better to themselves.
The Problem
This beauty brand had seen great success in their online marketing channels. But they knew they needed to add a new channel to their overall strategy to hit their 2009 and 2010 goals and wanted to launch an affiliate program to help raise brand awareness and drive more incremental revenue.
With little knowledge of affiliate, they came to JEBCommerce seeking help. They decided to have us manage one program while a large network managed the second. Our client was looking to see which management option (agency vs. network) could recruit more publishers, drive more sales, and add more to the bottom line performance.
The Fix
At the end of the 15-month test, JEBCommerce drove 4X more revenue than the network managed program.
Our client needed a robust affiliate strategy that included a comprehensive competitive analysis, publisher recruitment, affiliate promotion and incentive cadence, creative, and affiliate tools. Our team was able to do an in-depth analysis of their competitors and their affiliate programs to ensure that we launched the program with the most competitive commission rates.
JEBCommerce’s Publisher Development department was able to reach out to beauty bloggers and influencers not already on the network and recruit them into the program. Our proactive team was able to quickly establish a promotional cadence and push out newsletters and offers to our top affiliate partners.
Agency management offers much more flexible and robust management due to low client-to-staff ratio and the ability to build relationships outside of the network.
At the end of the 15-month test, JEBCommerce drove 4X more revenue than the network managed program. The difference in top-line revenue driven by our team was dramatic each and every month of the test.
These results are directly correlated with having a consistent 3+ person team managing the account, as well as supplemental support from our Publisher Development and Creative departments. Agency management offers much more flexible and robust management due to low client-to-staff ratio and the ability to build relationships outside of the network.
The client closed the network-run program and JEBCommerce continued to grow their affiliate channel each and every year.
Program growth continued beyond 5 years despite multiple team changes
When managing a program for more than 5 years, there is potential for change in the teams on either side of the partnership. Each transition can be stressful, exposing the channel to dips in performance and other problems. These issues often lead to losses in sales and valued affiliate partners.
JEBCommerce uses a systematized approach to client account management which allows any of our teams to quickly take over from another member or team with no reduction in service to clients or affiliates. We utilize over 80 different processes to manage accounts and, during periods of transition, have a detailed system for introducing our new team, your new team, and any other new players to the account, its history, the obstacles and goals, and all past, present, and future projects. This approach ensures our clients see no decline in sales, service, or progress towards goals. Its effectiveness in navigating the challenges of transition have been proven out in the numbers as our long term clients continue to see growth each and every year.
The beauty and skincare category continues to grow and you need an agency team that can quickly become a part of your organization, to help you reach your goals. JEBCommerce has that track record and we would love to help you achieve your goals in the years to come.