Affiliate Window has partnered with e-commerce platform Monotote, equipping its publishers with the ability to monetise their images and video by turning them into one-click shoppable products.
The move follows the relatively recent entry of affiliate startup Button into the market, which in a similar vein allows publishers to tie in their apps with commerce brands in order to drive direct sales.
Monotote works by tagging images with buy buttons that are linked to its “Universal Shopping Cart”, updated in real-time. Orders are processed on the affiliate’s site through the integrated plugin, however, the retailer remains the merchant of record and retains control of the customer experience.
According to its announcement yesterday (February 27), Affiliate Window is “confident” that the partnership will provide publishers on its network an innovative new option for monetising content on-site, with similar results previously only achievable by sharing images on social media.
Contextual commerce
Monotote’s CEO, Mike Van Geldop, commented that there is a “great opportunity” to catch “millions” of consumers at the point of inspiration when they are excited by content they’ve actively sought out to view.
Such techniques have been used by social networks such as Instagram, which launched shoppable tags last year allowing retailers to capitalise on consumers’ high interest on a product to drive sales through the app.
Affiliate Window’s head of publisher services, Paul Stewart, noted that while the idea of a universal cart has been around for some years, adoption has been slow until now due to “concerns around data security, customer ownership and overly complicated integrations”.
As well as potential revenue boosts, added advantages for publishers include a positive effect on audience engagement and loyalty; driving sales rather than clicks, publishers will gain better insight into customer behaviour before the final purchase, allowing them to optimise their content for conversions.
